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Country Profile: The Netherlands

The world’s leading promoters & the 55 top markets they operate in.
Click the interactive map below to explore the top 55 global markets.

The Netherlands is a small but mighty live market – entrepreneurial, ambitious, outward-looking, and situated in one of Europe’s better locations, routing comfortably with any regional tour of any scale.

Historically, Mojo Concerts pioneered the market, selling its first show in 1969, coming into Clear Channel in 1999 and, from there, becoming a consistently sturdy division of Live Nation to the present day. Mojo remains the conduit for the lion’s share of international tours – this year, an outrageously bumper one, it chalked up 17 stadium shows alone: four Coldplays, three Bruce Springsteens, three Harry Styles, two each for The Weeknd, Metallica, and Beyoncé, and one for Guns N’ Roses.

“This whole year has been an amazing year for us again,” Mojo senior promoter Kim Bloem told IQ in September. “Last year was already crazy because in nine months, we had more visitors than we normally had in a year. 2023 again is a record year, specifically for stadium shows.”

“Last year was already crazy because in nine months, we had more visitors than we normally had in a year. 2023 again is a record year, specifically for stadium shows.”

Mojo plays a strong festival hand, too, including Pinkpop, Lowlands, North Sea Jazz, Down the Rabbit Hole, and Rolling Loud. By any measure, it is by far the biggest player in the market. But in the modern era, the one-time ‘Mojopoly’ also makes space for a number of substantial independents, among them FKP Scorpio’s Friendly Fire, the independent Greenhouse Talent, and the Dutch talent-focused Agents After All, which last December became the latest acquisition of the All Things Live group.

And while Mojo’s rivals pick their battles, they are capable of big moves in their own right. This year, Greenhouse promoted Rammstein across two nights at Groningen’s Stadspark in July, selling 110,000 tickets. The same month, the promoter put three Taylor Swift shows on sale for summer next year at Amsterdam ArenA, 150,000 tickets in total, and sold the lot.

In the words of Greenhouse head promoter Wouter de Wilde: “That’s tremendous business to have as an independent promoter.”

“That’s tremendous business to have as an independent promoter.”

Friendly Fire was founded in 2009 and became part of FKP Scorpio three years later. Like its Dutch competitors, it runs the gamut from clubs to stadiums.

“This year, we have had Måneskin and George Ezra, Snoop Dogg, Cigarettes After Sex, Hans Zimmer,” promoter Lauri van Ommen told IQ in September. “It’s a great year for promoted shows, and we also had a great year for our festival, Best Kept Secret.”

Another longstanding indie, Double Vee Concerts, promotes, books, and co-promotes around 400 to 500 shows per year, from clubs up to the occasional arena.

“We mainly promote club shows, but we also work with many theatres in The Netherlands and service as many festivals as possible,” says Double Vee’s Jacco van Lanen.

Indeed, while The Netherlands is a festival hub and a guaranteed stop for every travelling production, it is also a very healthy talent factory in its own right, and like many of its smaller rivals, market leader Mojo has identified the domestic business as a significant growth area.

Double Vee’s new acts include a range of international and Dutch artists, and it operates on old-school indie principles. “We want to oversee the careers of the artists we represent in The Netherlands,” says Van Lanen. “We do our best to let the artists perform at the right stage at the right time in their career. In this way, we’ve built steady careers for many artists in the past, and we would like to keep doing that in the future.”

Indeed, while The Netherlands is a festival hub and a guaranteed stop for every travelling production, it is also a very healthy talent factory in its own right, and like many of its smaller rivals, market leader Mojo has identified the domestic business as a significant growth area.

“Mojo is really focusing on Dutch artists, and our domestic roster is still growing,” says Bloem. “We just appointed Arjo Klingens as manager of bookings for Dutch talent to get added value for the artists we represent – about 120 acts more or less. The audience is buying a lot of tickets for the domestic shows.”

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