Country Profile: Australia

Australia is a sophisticated concerts and touring market, a regular stop on any major global tour and one that, with the biggest acts, can shift close to – or more than – one million ticket sales for a single trek. Following a crushing two-plus years when cities and entire states were locked down, touring has returned as a national circuit, and it’s accelerating into the warmer southern months.

Some promoters say there’s too much inventory in the months ahead, an embarrassment of riches following a barren spell. No one is complaining. “It’s very solid,” and business appears to be returning “to some sort of level” similar to pre-pandemic times, notes Michael Chugg, the chairman of Chugg Entertainment, part of the Mushroom Group and a member of the leadership team for Frontier Touring.

Size, scale
“It’s only 25m people but it really punches above its weight when it comes to live performance,” comments AEG Live’s Adam Wilkes, who visited Australia in September 2022. The per-capita spend in Australia is among the highest in the world, he notes, adding that “it’s just so engrained in the culture to see live music and sport.” The live space is expected to fully recover by 2024,
according to the PwC report Listen, published in 2022.

“it’s just so engrained in the culture to see live music and sport.”

That’s thanks in part to the lifting of restrictions across the country,triggered by high rates of vaccinations, which saw 80% of all Australians get their first or second jab by early 2022. Australia’s concert promotion space is dominated by Live Nation, Frontier Touring (part of the Mushroom Group), and TEG, which includes TEG Dainty, TEG Live, and TEG Van Egmond.

Those market giants continue to evolve and build for busy times ahead. In September, Live Nation threw the doors open to its latest venue, the Hindley Street Music Hall in Adelaide, following an AU$6m renovation.

The 1,800-capacity complex promises to reconnect the South Australian capital with the east and west coasts. It’s the City of Churches’ “premier live music hub,” enthuses Roger Field, president of Live Nation Asia Pacific, and is set to be “an industry-leading venue across Australia.” Live Nation now owns and operates a portfolio of venues.

“We have the first full festival summer coming up without any Covid restrictions, so we think that’s going to breathe fresh life into the live market.”

“We are starting to see light at the end of the tunnel,” says Mark Vaughan, vice president – talent & artist development, Live Nation Australia. “We have the first full festival summer coming up without any Covid restrictions, so we think that’s going to breathe fresh life into the live market. Big arena and stadium shows are coming back, so the fans are finally starting to see their favourite artists hit our shores, which is exciting!

“We just had a huge Billie Eilish tour that we co-promoted with Frontier and was a massive success. We have Dua Lipa in the market now, Idles, Crowded House, and Kendrick Lamar coming back. Watching the recent Blink-182 sales was a real highlight, the demand was unprecedented, and what is even more staggering is that the shows are not until 2024!”

Following the 2021 death of legendary impresario Michael Gudinski, the company he founded, Mushroom Group, and its concerts arm, Frontier Touring, restructured its executive and leadership teams. Among the changes, Adam Wilkes, president and CEO, AEG Presents Asia Pacific, which acquired 50% in Frontier back in 2019, additionally assumes the post of Frontier
Touring chairman.

“Frontier is probably at its strongest point ever,”

Gudinski’s son, Matt Gudinski, is now chairman and CEO of Mushroom Group, which is entering its 50th year in business. “Frontier is probably at its strongest point ever,” he explains. Upcoming tours include the final trans-Tasman dates on Elton John’s farewell trek and Ed Sheeran’s Mathematics run, the follow-up to his Divide tour of 2018, which shifted more than 1m tickets – a record.

“I can’t even count how many approaches we’ve had over the years to buy our business or merge our business,” says Gudinski. “We’re very set on continuing on the path of Frontier and what our live vision is about.”

TEG, meanwhile, added the Laneway Festival to its portfolio of events in 2021, acquired the boutique tour and events promoter Handsome Tours in the same year, launched its European division in mid-2022, and will bring SXSW to Sydney from 15-22 October 2023, through a collaboration with the New South Wales government’s events and tourism arm Destination NSW.

“We are not fully out of the woods as regards the long tail of the pandemic and its effects,”

“We are not fully out of the woods as regards the long tail of the pandemic and its effects,” explains TEG CEO Geoff Jones, “but there is no denying that live entertainment is well and truly back, and we are hugely excited for the coming years ahead.”

Among the leading boutique and independent concert promoters operating in Australia are the Untitled Group, which runs Beyond The Valley, Pitch Music & Arts, Wildlands, Grapevine Gathering, For The Love, and Ability Fest; UNIFIED Music Group, which runs Unify Gathering, Gippsland, and Goulburn Valley Country Music Festival, and is led by Jaddan Comerford, an entrant in the Australian Financial Review’s 2022 Young Rich List; and Bluesfest Touring, which operates the annual Byron Bay Bluesfest, which is expected to expand into Melbourne in 2023.

“Things are good. Obviously, there’s still the interruptions,” says Comerford, noting irregular spikes in Covid-19 infections, “compared with what we’ve dealt with the last two years,
things are opening, and things are good.” Ticket sales across Untitled’s suite of shows and events are expected to top 500,000 this year, say reps for the company, against a typical, pre-Covid year when annual ticket sales topped 300,000.

“compared with what we’ve dealt with the last two years, things are opening, and things are good.”

Introducing acts
Labels have a strong interest in placing their emerging artists in support slots for more established artists in the territory. And booking an artist as support can give the promoter team
a foot in the door with the artist/manager/label at a very early stage of their career.

“This gives Live Nation a chance to show the level of expertise we can apply to a tour and set a standard of what an artist can expect if they are to continue a working relationship with us,” says Vaughan. “It’s not necessarily ‘innovative’ but as far as the best ways to break acts goes, bringing the artists into the market is a key pillar.

“Moving forward, there is a strong appetite from labels to work in conjunction with promoters to collaborate on promo trips for emerging international acts. By working closely with the labels, promoters support those artists by committing to a run of club shows leveraged off the back of the promo tour – promoter/label share the financial commitment, with the goal of establishing an audience for future touring opportunities.”

“Moving forward, there is a strong appetite from labels to work in conjunction with promoters to collaborate on promo trips for emerging international acts.”

Costs
The business of presenting live music in Australia is not without its troubles. Bushfires have plagued the summer festival season in recent years, and floods are a menace that keep promoters
on their toes.

The first day of the 2022 Splendour in the Grass festival was scrapped due to on-site flooding. Crowded House’s scheduled 13 November performance at Gateway Lakes, Wodonga, was cancelled due to severe flooding. The cost of insuring events is on the rise.

“The more outdoor shows that are going on around the country, the more cancellations that are going to happen with the weather we’ve got, and then everyone’s insurance premium
goes up across the board,” notes Mick Newton, director of Roundhouse Entertainment, a division of Mushroom Group, whose A Day on the Green celebrated its 500th show in 2022 with Crowded House.

“The more outdoor shows that are going on around the country, the more cancellations that are going to happen with the weather we’ve got, and then everyone’s insurance premium
goes up across the board,”

Australia’s indoor venues are also reporting a steep hike in the price of public liability insurance.
Promoters are also reporting difficulties getting enough hands on deck: security; food and beverage sellers; crew to load in and out. And a dearth of baggage handlers has led to disruption at airports in 2022, leading to delays and flight cancelations.

“We’re still seeing some no-shows at each event due to fans saying they have Covid symptoms or have tested positive,” notes TEG’s Jones. “It is just part of the current reality, which we expect will fade over time as vaccinations continue to rise and herd immunity grows.”

And Vaughan from Live Nation adds: “All of our suppliers are having the same issues we face in the live industry with staffing shortfalls that are affecting everyone from crew companies to travel agencies and hotels, so just getting in invoices at the end of a tour has its own set of complications. Most touring productions are aware of this and are understanding.”