Superstruct buys festival giant The Music Republic
Superstruct Entertainment has bought The Music Republic, the promoter behind iconic Spanish festivals Arenal Sound and Benicàssim (FIB).
Providence Equity-backed Superstruct reportedly acquired 100% of the Valencia-based organiser for around €120 million, to be paid over the next five years.
Following the purchase, The Music Republic founders, brothers David and Toño Sánchez, will “continue to have full control and power in decision-making”.
The brothers founded the company in 2010 with the launch of Arenal Sound, a 60,000-capacity festival that takes place annually in the providence of Castellón, eastern Spain.
In 2019, the brothers took over FIB (cap. 50,000) from owner Maraworld (majority owned by MCD Productions and SJM Concerts) and festival director Melvin Benn (Festival Republic).
That same year, there were rumours of Live Nation attempting to buy the company but the deal never crossed the line.
Superstruct reportedly acquired 100% of the Valencia-based organiser for around €120 million
Over the years, The Music Republic has added numerous festivals to its stable of events, including Festival de Les Arts de Valencia, Granada Sound, Interstellar Sevilla, Madrid Salvaje, Love the 90’s Valencia, Metal Paradise and Bahía Sound.
The company also functions as an artist management agency, organising tours and events throughout the country, as well as a creative agency.
One of the company’s latest projects is a collaboration with Licampa 1617, a holding company of Spanish entrepreneur Juan Roig that has was founded especially to build Valencia’s Arena Roig, the new area that will replace L’Alqueria del Basket.
The €220m multi-purpose arena will sit on 21,500 square metres of land, with a capacity of 15,000 for basketball matches and up to 18,600 for concerts.
The Music Republic has been tasked with programming the arena’s concerts, which it will do via its specially created subsidiary Arena Alive. The arena, set to be the largest in Spain, is expected to be complete this year.
Along with The Music Republic, Superstruct’s presence in Spain includes festivals Sónar (Barcelona) and Monegros Desert Festival (Aragon).
The live entertainment behemoth owns and operates more than 70 major events and music festivals in Europe and Australia, including elrow, Sziget, Wacken Open Air, Mysteryland, Hideout, sonar, Flow, Defqon1, Parookaville, Zwarte Cross, Arenal Sound, Øya, O Son do Camiño and Tinderbox.
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Benicàssim festival sells 30,000+ tickets in 24 hours
Festival Internacional de Benicàssim (FIB) sold more than 30,000 tickets in just 24 hours for next year’s event.
According to Spanish promoter The Music Republic, which acquired the festival in 2019, the majority of tickets were bought by domestic residents, while English customers accounted for 20% of the sales.
The 26th edition of FIB is slated to take place between 14–17 July 2022 in the coastal town of Benicàssim, north of Valencia.
Previously announced acts for FIB 2022 include Kasabian, Two Door Cinema Club, Tom Grennan, The Hunna, Declan Mckenna, Steve Aoki, Lost Frequencies and Joel Corry. Festival passes are on sale now, with four-day admission (excluding camping) starting from €54,99.
Previously announced acts for FIB 2022 include Kasabian, Two Door Cinema Club, Tom Grennan, The Hunna, Declan Mckenna
The festival has taken place annually since 1995, though the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In lieu of the 2021 edition, The Music Republic launched a new socially distanced concert series at the Benicàssim festival site.
The promoter, which counts Arenal Sound, Viña Rock, Granada Sound and Madrid Salvaje among its portfolio of festivals, acquired FIB in 2019 from Maraworld, which is majority-owned by MCD Productions and SJM Concerts.
That same year, the 25th edition of FIB took place from 18 to 21 July 2019 and was attended by 114,000 people, almost 30% less than the previous year’s 160,000. The festival saw performances from Kings of Leon, Lana del Rey, George Ezra, Jess Glynne and the 1975.
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More major Spanish festivals pull the plug on 2021
Spain’s 2021 festival season has diminished once again with fresh cancellations from major festivals Mad Cool and Bilbao BBK Live.
Other marquee Spanish festivals including Primavera Sound and Sónar Barcelona were previously called off, while Arenal Sound, Festival Internacional de Benicàssim and Cruïlla are still forging ahead with this year’s events.
Live Nation-promoted Mad Cool (cap. 60,000) was set to take place between 7–10 July 2021 in Madrid but this morning (20 May), the organisers confirmed that this year’s event is cancelled due to the “current force majeure circumstances” of the pandemic.
“It has been a very painful decision to come to, as our desire (and probably yours) was to find ourselves all together again at Mad Cool in 2021,” they said in a statement.
“However, we would like to let you know we think this is the appropriate, sensible and right decision to make. Health is more important than anything.”
“[Mad Cool] would like to let you know we think this is the appropriate, sensible and right decision to make”
The fifth edition of Mad Cool will take place in 2022 from July 6–9. All purchased tickets for Mad Cool 2021 will be valid for the 2022 edition of the festival, while refunds and ticket changes will be available between 7–21 July.
A line-up announcement for 2022 is expected to be made before 7 July, with the organisers noting that “we are keeping as many artists as we can from 2021 and also adding some new ones so we can have the best line-up ever”.
The likes of The Killers, Haim and Cardi B had all been set to play at the 2021 edition of the event.
The cancellation of Mad Cool follows that of Bilbao BBK Live, which was called off on Tuesday (18 May) due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions.
The 15th anniversary of the Spanish event was due to take place between 8–10 July 2021, with the likes of The Killers, Pet Shop Boys, Supergrass and FKA Twigs.
“We appreciate [fans’] patience, and we share the same frustration for missing out on the festival yet again”
“First and foremost, a big thank you to all of you for your patience and resilience during these tough times,” a statement read.
“We feel your support now more than ever. As you can imagine, Bilbao BBK Live will not be held as originally planned nor on the scheduled date. We will have to wait a bit longer as the highly anticipated reunion is postponed to 2022.”
The post continues: “We appreciate your patience, and we share the same frustration for missing out on the festival yet again. All we can think about is how incredible the reunion is going to be after this long wait, and we guarantee it will be worth it.
We will return even more eager to celebrate and enjoy live music. See you next year!”
The line-up for Bilbao 2022 will arrive by 8 July.
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New festival launching in Benicàssim this summer
Festival Internacional de Benicàssim (FIB) promoter The Music Republic has announced the launch of a new socially distanced concert series set to place at the Benicàssim festival site in July.
Billed as a single festival rather than a series of headline shows, Luce Benicàssim will see artists performing to a seated audience in the Valencian seaside resort of Benicàssim. The festival site, which is home to festivals including FIB (which The Music Republic acquired in 2019) and Rototom Sunsplash, can accomodate 50,000 fans, though the Luce audience will be considerably smaller – organisers say they will use the venue’s size to “control the maximum permitted capacity and preserve safety distances” in accordance with current restrictions.
The Music Republic, which in addition to its festival portfolio is developing Spain’s largest indoor arena, Casal España Arena in Valencia, says it aims to “spread some optimism for the upcoming summer” with Luce Benicàssim.
The first acts announced for the festival are Spanish artists Izal (Saturday 17 July), Vanesa Martín (Sunday 18 July), Raphael (Friday 23 July), Mónica Naranjo (Saturday 24 July), Nathy Peluso (Friday 30 July) and Rozalén (Saturday 31 July), with more to be announced soon.
Tickets – whose six tiers denote their proximity to the stage – go on sale next Tuesday (6 April).
While Luce Benicàssim audiences will be socially distanced, organisers cite the success of the recent test concert in Barcelona, which resulted in no infections among the 5,000 attendees, as a positive step towards allowing “larger events” this summer.
FIB is scheduled for 15–18 July 2021, though no line-up has yet been announced.
This article forms part of IQ’s Covid-19 resource centre – a knowledge hub of essential guidance and updating resources for uncertain times.
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Arenal Sound promoter acquires Benicassim
Spanish promoter the Music Republic has acquired the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim (FIB) from Maraworld.
The Music Republic, owned by brothers David and Toño Sánchez, promotes festivals including Arenal Sound, Viña Rock, Granada Sound and Madrid Salvaje.
In a statement, the Sánchez brothers state they will “take over the festival and run it for successive years.” The new FIB owners also note they intend to “maintain [FIB’s] essence and position it once more as a leader on the global scene.”
According to El Mundo, the acquisition of FIB signals the end of Maraworld, which is majority owned by MCD Productions and SJM Concerts.
“We have been told that we are shutting down but we do not have any more details,” a representative from Maraworld’s offices in Madrid told the publication.
“We intend to maintain [FIB’s] essence and position it once more as a leader on the global scene”
Former FIB festival directors José Luis and Miguel Morán founded Maraworld in 1997. Irish promoter Vince Power acquired the company in 2009, selling his share to MCD Productions owner Denis Desmond and SJM Concerts director Simon Moran four years later, after encountering financial difficulties.
With Festival Republic’s Melvin Benn as festival director, the new team revived the struggling festival, putting on “the best FIB of the decade” in 2017, which saw 177,000 festivalgoers view performances by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kasabian and Foals, among others.
The 25th edition of FIB took place from 18 to 21 July 2019 and was attended by 114,000 people, almost 30% less than the previous year’s 160,000. The festival saw performances from Kings of Leon, Lana del Rey, George Ezra, Jess Glynne and the 1975.
Live Nation and SJM Concerts declined to comment.
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Terrorists looked to attack festivals in Barcelona and Benicassim
The group responsible for the terror attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils on 17 August 2017 had also researched music clubs and festivals in Barcelona and Benicassim as potential next targets, police information acquired by Spanish news agency EFE has revealed.
According to the report, the men searched the internet extensively for information on the Rototom Sunsplash Festival in Benicassim, The Razzmatazz concert venue in Barcelona and various LGBT clubs in Sitges, Barcelona. It is thought by police that the group were taking inspiration from the 2015 attack on the Bataclan in Paris and the 2016 attack at Pulse nightclub in Florida.
The information released by police is largely the result of the mobile phone records accessed from a phone belonging to one of the members of the terrorist groups, found in the chalet in which they planned the 17 August attacks. Also on the phone were searches looking for the capacity of the Colossos club in Barcelona.
Other web searches included “Barcelona concerts calendar,” “all festivals 19.08.2017 in the Valencian community,” “major festivals in Sitges 2017” and “major festivals Sitges Les Barrancas”.
The Mossos d’Esquarda, the Catalonian police force, said an attack on any of the places researched in Barcelona and Benicassim would have been a “valid target” for a terrorist attack, since they represent, “by way of music and shows”, the Western way of life that runs against jihadist ideology.
Other web searches included “Barcelona concerts calendar,” “all festivals 19.08.2017 in the Valencian community,” “major festivals in Sitges 2017” and “major festivals Sitges Les Barrancas” (a rural area of Catalonia). The searches were conducted in the period from 13 August to 17 August, the days leading up to the attacks.
In the two attacks actually carried out by the terrorist group, some 15 people were killed. In the most violent attack, the one on La Rambla, a popular tourist destination in Barcelona, a further 130 people were injured. Six attackers were killed by police.
The news that terrorists sought to attack popular music events in Spain comes as similar attacks have risen in frequency in recent years. Alongside the Pulse nightclub shooting and the Bataclan attack, other attacks in just last year involving live music have included the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017 which killed 22 people, the shooting at BPM festival in Mexico in January 2017 where five people were killed and the shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Music festival in Las Vegas in October 2017, which left 58 people dead.
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