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2023 saw a revival for the live entertainment market in Greece, with several global acts headlining stadium shows and major festivals across the country again.
“The market was booming this year,” says Giannis Moustakas, marketing director of GMI Live. “While last year was pretty good for us, everyone’s hungry to see the big names in 2023, and Greek promoters such as ourselves were more than up to providing customers with events featuring many talented artists.”
Moustakas’s GMI Live promoted another successful Sani Festival, its showpiece event that ran for over a month between July and August. While Moustakas acknowledges that most of the country’s live business is concentrated in the capital Athens, the Sani Festival is located in the picturesque northern region of the country, adding to its allure. “We had Bonnie Tyler & Chris Norman, UB40, and Tom Odell among others,” he says. “While Athens brought many huge artists this past summer, the Sani Festival’s location definitely brought more eyes to what we were doing.”
“While last year was pretty good for us, everyone’s hungry to see the big names in 2023, and Greek promoters such as ourselves were more than up to providing customers with events featuring many talented artists.”
However, the renewed vibrancy of the Greek market isn’t without its challenges. “We saw a more aggressive presence of ticket scalping, which presents a problem not just for concertgoers but also for promoters,” says Nikos Loris, CEO of prominent Greek promoter XLALALA Presents.
“We also noticed that there were way too many shows booked for such a short period of time, as Athens saw an event almost every summer night,” says Loris. “That meant a limited number of shows managed to break even, and because of the precarious nature of the Greek economy right now, fans were forced to make tough choices on who and what they wanted to buy tickets for,” adding that only 44.2% of them were willing or were able to pay for entertainment-related services.
“A limited number of shows managed to break even, and because of the precarious nature of the Greek economy right now, fans were forced to make tough choices on who and what they wanted to buy tickets for.”
Despite these concerns, XLALALA Presents also enjoyed a very productive summer, overseeing the “big comeback year” for the famed Rockwave Festival at Terra Vibe Park (45,000-capacity), which was headlined by Robbie Williams, The Black Keys, Mika, and Deep Purple. Another huge win for Loris’ company was Andrea Bocelli’s debut at Athens’ iconic Olympic Stadium. “As a promoter, I sensed it was time to bring Bocelli’s ground-breaking live performance to the masses, and I’m proud to have been part of a team that made it accessible for a wider audience to witness him.”
Other promoters of note include High Priority Promotions, who is set to welcome Paradise Lost, Coldplay, and Ville Valo to Greece over the next 12 months, and Fuzz Productions – who run Release Athens and the Greek edition of Europavox Festival, as well as two venues (Fuzz Club in Athens and Fix Factory of Sound in Thessaloniki).