Country Profile: Sweden

Sweden is a highly developed, highly prosperous market with a wealth of festivals and three busy touring cities in Stockholm, Malmö, and Gothenburg. And, like all the Nordic countries, it is a strong Live Nation territory, albeit with committed competition.

As well as taking a large chunk of the stadium and arena touring business – Iron Maiden, Rolling Stones, and Lady Gaga came through this year, alongside many others – the corporate owns Way Out West founder Luger and festivals including Summerburst, Sweden Rock and, since 2019, Lollapalooza Stockholm.

“It’s been an incredibly challenging year, but it’s been an amazing one in terms of the talent coming through Sweden,” says Lollapalooza Stockholm festival director and Live Nation
SVP touring international Anna Sjölund.

“It’s been an incredibly challenging year, but it’s been an amazing one in terms of the talent coming through Sweden,”

“Next year, we have four Coldplays, three Springsteens, we have Ozzy Osbourne, and a lot more announcements coming, so 2023 is looking like a very big stadium and arena year. Festivals had a great year in ’22, and we are obviously looking to repeat that and go even bigger next year,” she
adds.

“We had a record attendance at Way Out West, and Lollapalooza Stockholm had 70,000 attendees – it has such a fantastic site in the middle of the city and has so much potential to grow bigger and bigger.” Luger is one of the Nordics’ leading promoters, as well as acting as an agency and tour producer for Swedish artists.

The company promotes over 300 shows a year – Dungen, Belle & Sebastian, Loyle Carner, and Weyes Blood are on the calendar for the early part of 2023 – in addition to its festivals, Way Out West and Åre Sessions. Swedish collective Ladieslovehiphop (LLHH) is more of a cultural and creative movement than a promoter, but itpartnered with Live Nation Sweden and Luger this year on the 2022 Ladieslovehiphop Festival.

Swedish collective Ladieslovehiphop (LLHH) is more of a cultural and creative movement than a promoter

FKP, a key challenger to Live Nation in the Nordic markets and elsewhere, has had a full set of Scandinavian offices for around five years and grew its Swedish footprint significantly in 2019 when it absorbed Håkan Hellström promoter Woah Dad Live, led by ex-Luger execs Niklas Lundell and Joel Borg. Among FKP’s Swedish exploits in 2022 were ten Ullevi stadiums for Ed Sheeran, Rammstein (three), and Swedish stars Laleh (one) and Hellström (four), as well as shows for Gorillaz and others, a new festival, the Rosendal Garden Party, and an older one, Where’s The Music in Norrköping.

The Waterland-backed All Things Live was born in 2018 as a pan-Scandinavian operator built from Denmark’s ICO, Norway’s Friction, and Atomic Soul, and Sweden’s Blixten & Co and Maloney Concerts, and had scarcely formed when Covid struck. This year, All Things Live Sweden has run an exhaustive Swedish tour of smaller towns and cities by arena rockers Sabaton, as well as shows for Green Day, Swedish star Eva Dahlgren, and others, and the newly acquired Big Slap Festival in Malmö, which jumped from a 15,000-cap, one-day event to 50,000 over two with the addition of Justin Bieber and a move to Nyhamnen on the city’s waterfront.

But while there are clearly plenty of successes to be found, the bankruptcy in November of TADC, formerly Triffid and Danger Concerts, illustrates the treacherous nature of the market. “The last few days have been very tough both for us and other players in the concert industry,” said founder Edward Janson in a statement.

“The last few days have been very tough both for us and other players in the concert industry,”

“Due to lingering effects from the pandemic and sharply increased costs, in combination with reduced ticket sales, the situation has finally become unsustainable.” Initially a rock specialist, TADC had latterly diversified and opened offices in Oslo and Copenhagen, putting shows on sale this year that included Manowar, Uriah Heep, WASP, 50 Cent, and The Beach Boys, as well as its Gefle Metal Festival and Atlas Rock events.

Based in Alnarp, near Malmö, veteran Julius Production marked its 50th anniversary this year, and its projects included Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, and Queen tribute tours, as well as the Soweto Gospel Choir and a range of family entertainment productions. This year promises more along those lines, including productions based around the music of The Lion King, Les Misérables, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

“Of course, the market is very unstable and incalculable,”

“Of course, the market is very unstable and incalculable,” says producer Emelie Löfmark. “For us, productions are selling okay – not good, not bad, just okay. I think this is partly a post-pandemic effect – we are still hurting from the signals the restrictions have sent to the audience.

But the inflation, war in Ukraine, and increasing prices are a part of the shaky environment as well. My feeling is that entertainment that signals “happy” – laughter, feelgood – are all genres that will work in the upcoming year. We are lucky to have that kind of production in our repertoire.”