Country Profile: Australia

Australia’s concert and touring space heats up in the warmer southern months. And when it does, it’s a dynamic environment, one which, prior to the pandemic, was measured by Live Performance Australia (LPA) at more than 1bn dollars each year.

Major international tours are back. And, currently, stadiums are the platform for the leading British and American artists making their way to the land Down Under. Guns N’ Roses played open-air venues on the rockers’ tour of late 2022, followed by stadium jaunts by Ed Sheeran, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Harry Styles.

Another wave of superstars is heading for stadiums in the summer of 2023-24, including Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, Foo Fighters, and The Weeknd. Swift’s seven-show, two-city trek (Sydney and Melbourne) broke pre-sale records, according to Ticketek, part of Ticketmaster.

“It used to be we’d say everything’s arenas. And now it’s almost like everything’s stadiums,”

“It’s on fire,” says Paul Dainty, of the domestic touring scene. Dainty’s company, TEG Dainty, part of the TEG Group since 2016, produced the eight-date GN’R tour of Australia and NZ in November and December 2022. “It used to be we’d say everything’s arenas. And now it’s almost like everything’s stadiums,” he tells IQ. “From an industry perspective, it’s great that the market is so buoyant.”

Born in Britain, Dainty is one of the all-time great concert promoters in Australia and a pioneer of the touring circuit. He was feted with the Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), one of the country’s highest honours, in September 2023, as recognition for his “distinguished service,” specifically for orchestrating the 2020 Fire Fight Australia all-star concert in Sydney, which raised more than A$10m for bushfire relief.

Dainty’s company has organised stadium tours in recent years for the likes of Eminem, Queen + Adam Lambert, and Phil Collins. Though, as “the global scene gets more and more tied up by Live Nation,” he points out, securing the big talent is a constant challenge. More recently, Dainty’s inventory has included Ms. Lauryn Hill, Michael Bublé, Il Divo, and Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets.

The leading concert promoters in Australia include Live Nation; Frontier Touring, and TEG.

The leading concert promoters in Australia include Live Nation; Frontier Touring, part of the Mushroom Group, which has an ongoing strategic partnership with AEG Presents, forged in 2019; and TEG, parent of TEG Dainty, TEG Van Egmond, TEG Live, Handsome Tours, and more.

The legendary independent Mushroom Group – founded by Michael Gudinski in 1972 and run by the music supremo until his death in 2021 – has multiple divisions across international and domestic touring, booking agencies, artist/talent management, record labels, and more. On the live side, it includes Michael Chugg’s Chugg Entertainment, Frontier Touring, and the newly launched MG Live, headed by Gudinski’s son, Matt, Mushroom Group chairman and CEO. The new brand brings a number of companies under its umbrella, including Illusive Presents, Roundhouse Entertainment, Good Life, I OH YOU Touring, and Arena Touring, and will specialise in developing branded events and experiences, alongside domestic and international headline touring.

Gudinski says while Frontier will continue its partnership with AEG, MG Live consolidates Mushroom Group’s other live activities under one organisation, bringing all the knowledge from across the companies together “because together, we’re all stronger.”

“All the headline touring that MG Live does will be in partnership with Frontier Touring.”

“All the headline touring that MG Live does will be in partnership with Frontier Touring,” he explains. “But then MG Live has a host of other music and non-music events it operates, whether it be the winery events we do, the under-18 festivals, or the Australian and New Zealand boiler-room events. We’re also focused on MG Live developing a number of non-music focused brands and experiences.”

He says the company has had more tours over the last 12 months than ever before. “And the positive is that for all promoters they’re all selling really well. But there’s a lot of challenges, whether it be your constant rising costs or the challenge of exchange rates, especially the US dollar.

“But for the superstar high-level stadium and biggest arena dates, it doesn’t seem to have an impact. I think what’s affected is the stuff that falls in the middle, where if you don’t get the pricing right and you don’t launch it properly, then it can easily miss the mark.”

The company has promoted stadium shows with Elton John and Ed Sheeran and is set to welcome Taylor Swift in 2024.

The company has promoted stadium shows with Elton John and Ed Sheeran and is set to welcome Taylor Swift in 2024.

The aforementioned Chugg was recently appointed as a member of the inaugural Council of Music Australia. The legendary concert promoter will represent his industry on the Council, essentially the Board of Music Australia, established this year through the federal government’s National Cultural Policy with a remit to put more Australian contemporary music and performers on local and international stages.

“We’re not really seeing a downturn yet,” comments Liza Evely-Thompson, managing director of Feld Entertainment. “The media has been enjoying all the stories about interest rates and the economic doom and gloom. Fortunately, it’s not affecting us at the moment. The next year or two is looking really good.”

Despite this buoyancy, problems persist. Getting the show on the road in Australia has an array of costs and complexities, many due to the so-called “tyranny of distance.” And while Covid created some lasting sour notes, in some cases, that has led to resolution and better practices.

“Certainly, there was more of a collegial approach to mutual shared problems through Covid. And I think that’s probably continued,” explained Live Nation VP of touring Luke Hede, addressing the APAC venues industry at the 2023 VMA Congress. “The gloves are certainly off as far as competing for various acts [is concerned]; that’s obviously resumed. It does make sense sometimes to say we should be sharing production.” Business for the music giant in 2023, he enthuses, was looking “phenomenal.” And it “looks like it’s going to continue.”

“The gloves are certainly off as far as competing for various acts [is concerned]; that’s obviously resumed. It does make sense sometimes to say we should be sharing production.”

Reegan Stark, chief marketing and communications officer at Frontier Touring, adds, “We’re just seeing so much interest from artists to come here. Suddenly, particularly the big artists’appetites are huge to come and visit Australia. It’s exciting.”

And Filippo Palermo, co-founder and managing partner of independent promoter Untitled Group, echoes that enthusiasm: “There’s a healthy demand for international talent signified by strong ticket sales and heightened excitement among Australian audiences. Headliners, like Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado, and Zach Bryan, are achieving high sales. Debut tours, such as [dark pop/electronica songwriter, DJ, and producer] Romy’s, are also performing well, demonstrating that there’s a large appetite for international talent. Australians are particularly enthusiastic about artists who haven’t visited the country in a long time. What’s also noteworthy is the increased collaboration and dialogue between independent promoters, which has been important to us as an independent promoter to keep open dialogue with others in the industry in a market with late-buying trends and competitive artist offers.”

No-shows have a “significant impact” on venues and for the artist, explains Harley Evans, managing director of Moshtix, acquired in 2019 by Ticketmaster, Live Nation’s ticketing division. “With an industry standard of 8-10% no-show rate, which rose alarmingly post-Covid to +20%, the economic model to operate events gets very adversely tipped in the wrong direction,” Evans tells IQ. “At the end of ‘town’ in which Moshtix operates, the margins between success and failure are very slim for the key stakeholders.” One solution, he explains, is the rollout of Moshtix Resale, a new resale tool.

Australia’s live entertainment sector has faced “a critical shortage of skilled workers”.

Australia’s live entertainment sector has faced “a critical shortage of skilled workers,” Live Performance Australia CEO Evelyn Richardson says. “We have come out of the pandemic into an equally challenging environment of soaring production and touring costs, workforce shortages, and audiences undergoing cost-of-living pressures.”

Untitled’s Palermo says to overcome the increased production costs, the company is “constantly adjusting fee expectations to align with the current market dynamics. For some established artists, who could previously fill arenas, we’ve had to encourage them to consider smaller capacity shows if they’ve recently performed in Australia.”

Another challenge stems from the evolving expectations of fans. “The success of previous events like Fred Again.. on Laneway; Tyler, the Creator on Splendour; and Nelly Furtado on our festival Beyond The Valley, raised the bar last year, and music festivals and promoters are now under greater pressure to deliver headliners of that calibre. The availability of artists at this scale can vary from year to year, making it a bit of a balancing act.

“As a result, we are constantly working to strike a balance between meeting the expectations of our customers and maintaining the sustainability of our events.”

“We are constantly working to strike a balance between meeting the expectations of our customers and maintaining the sustainability of our events.”

Nonetheless, he says festivals and events with a strong brand equity and a track record of delivering bespoke experiences, like Untitled Group’s flagship camping festivals Beyond The Valley and Pitch Music & Arts, are seeing strong ticket sales.

Another creeping issue is the spike in public liability insurance for potentially hundreds of venue operators around the country. “There’s no end to this insurance nightmare,” a representative of a Melbourne-based venue reported in August, noting a venue owned in the city’s Central Business District, who in 2022 paid A$100,000, received a new quote from their policy provider for A$260,000.

“Many venues won’t know this is a problem until they go to renew their insurance and find that the insurer they’ve been with for years will no longer provide coverage,” Stephen Wade, chair of the Australian Live Music Business Council, has said. “They make it to the other side of Covid and then can’t get insured.”

“There’s still a lot of challenges that we’re facing, from a cost perspective primarily. But in terms of the market, going to the shows again with your friends: it’s huge, it’s enormous,” notes Tim McGregor, managing director of TEG Live. “There’s some patchiness. There’s doom and gloom from the economic side of things if you listen to the media. But it’s not playing out with people buying tickets to shows. It’s still very robust.”