Arena Market: Luxembourg

It may be one of the smaller countries in Europe by population but Luxembourg is in a unique position geographically where it can draw in concertgoers from Germany, France, and Belgium (who all touch its borders) and nearby Netherlands.

This means the government-owned Rockhal, which opened in September 2005, has a distinctive and broad catchment area. Olivier Toth, Rockhal’s CEO, says half of all ticket sales for events come from outside of Luxembourg (mainly split between the neighbouring countries listed above).

“Sometimes the big names would [rather] play here in a small-size venue [than in] our big-capacity colleagues,” he says of the appeal for fans to travel to the venue.

This is amplified further by the fact that promoters from neighbouring territories will include Rockhal in their acts’ touring plans (and the venue will also book certain acts directly).

The venue itself is also unique, made up of the Rockhal Café (80), Rockhal Floor (200–250), the Club (1,500), and the main arena (2,700 fully seated, 4,500–4,700 seated/standing, 6,500 fully standing). It also has the option to host events outside with a capacity of 11,000, with acts such as The Killers and Imagine Dragons among those playing there in 2022.

“The range of capabilities of the venue is unique in Europe,” says Toth. “It is a very interesting market and a very eclectic market. And it’s a market where even promoters [in neighbouring countries] have recognised an interest to promote an additional show at Rockhal because it opens their reach to other customers and other fans than it would if just promoting in their country.”

Music is a big part of its business, but it also includes comedy (although if the comedians do their shows in French or German that will affect the size of the potential audience) and family shows. Les Misérables, for example, is booked in for a run of shows in October.

“There’s a cultural mission that comes with what we do, which is to serve different niches of audience and offer our audience the chance to discover new acts at a very early stage of their career.”

Toth says 2023 was a strong year for the venue, despite having fewer high-capacity shows in the main room than normal. More bookings at the Club helped boost numbers, but overall ticket sales were around 260,000 for the year, down by around 10% from the average. He does say, however, that 2024 will reverse that with more acts booked into the main arena, including Simple Minds, Mika, Body Count, Garbage, and Jason Derulo.

The multiple rooms allow Rockhal to have a more eclectic booking policy. “In the small room, quite often we … go after diversity in genres and serve niches,” says Toth. “There’s a cultural mission that comes with what we do, which is to serve different niches of audience and offer our audience the chance to discover new acts at a very early stage of their career.”

That carries over into the RockLab initiative to serve as an incubator for Luxembourgish acts.

As it approaches its 20th anniversary next year, Rockhal has been updating and renovating the different venues within it, including putting a U-shaped balcony in the Club and investing in new sound and lighting systems to ensure it can keep capitalising on its unique offering, both in terms of location and multitude of different rooms.