Swiss promoter AllBlues Konzert changes hands
Swiss independent promoter AllBlues Konzert has been acquired by live music conglomerate, the Bierhübeli family.
Founded in 1994, AllBlues Konzert organises around 100 concerts a year in Switzerland in the fields of jazz, world, funk & soul, blues and singer-songwriter, as well as the long-running Zurich Jazznojazz Festival.
The Winterthur-based firm has promoted shows for the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall, Gregory Porter, Ludovico Einaudi, Joe Bonamassa, Candy Dulfer, Mariza, Angélique Kidjo, Goran Bregovic, Caetano Veloso, Paolo Conte, David Byrne, Elvis Costello and Benjamin Clementine.
The firm has also managed Ed Sheeran’s Swiss concerts, from his first performance in the country in 2012 at Kaufleuten Zürich to his four sold-out concerts at Letzigrund Stadium Zürich in 2018 and 2022.
“We are in an excellent position to operate successfully as an independent concert organiser in Bern and throughout Switzerland”
“I am delighted to have found a successor who offers our team a promising future and who will continue our work and live our passion for concert,” says Johannes Vogel, founder and managing director of AllBlues Konzert.
“During our discussion, it quickly became clear that we share the same values and pursue the same goal: To be successful with top-class concerts. I will continue to support the company to ensure a smooth transition.”
The Bern-based Bierhübeli family owns Bierhübeli (a 800-capacity venue complex in Bern), Sun Music (a music agency for booking and management), K-events (a JV with Kursaal Bern AG for cultural events in the Kultursaal Bern convention centre) and remusic (a promoter for concerts and corporate events).
Nando Hepp, managing director and Bierhübeli CFO adds: “The acquisition of AllBlues Konzert AG is another milestone. With a strong team of 130 employees and a good 300 concerts a year, we are in an excellent position to operate successfully as an independent concert organiser in Bern and throughout Switzerland. We look forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”
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CH-CH-changes
Switzerland is prosperous, politically neutral and stands outside of the EU, a wealthy, land-locked island in the middle of Europe. But in its highly active live business, it is certainly not insulated from competition, external or otherwise.
Take the case of the Hallenstadion, Zürich’s 15,000-capacity former Vélodrome, and Switzerland’s most popular arena destination for major incoming touring acts. Until 2013, the venue was booked exclusively by Good News – then the unchallenged market leader. These days, it’s open to all, as everyone knows, but here’s the point: Hallenstadion director Felix Frei estimates that the arena now routinely takes bookings from ten or 15 promoters.
“We have a much broader base of promoters in music than before,” says Frei. “We have more concerts but, on average, less attendance. The reason seems to be a really, really strong music market here. Artists are playing five, six, seven times in Switzerland and we can feel that.”
“You travel through Switzerland in the summer and basically in every town you have a music event”
Out in the fresh Swiss air too, where it has been joked that every field has its own festival, the open-air market is bulging at the seams. Something like 300 events battle for the attention of fewer than 8.5m Swiss, plus musical tourists.
“I think it’s great for the audience,” says Dany Hassenstein, booker at Paléo in Nyon, which has sold out in advance for 16 years in a row. “You travel through Switzerland in the summer and basically in every town you have a music event. It’s great for people who love music.”
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