Ocesa to create 40k-cap complex in Colombia
Latin American promoting giant Ocesa has announced the creation of a new 40,000-cap events venue in Colombia.
The scheme, called Distrito Verde (Green District), will be located in a 24-hectare space in the Salitre area of the capital Bogotá, and will bid to combine “culture, shows and respect for the environment”.
It will comprise three spaces: a multipurpose area with modular and versatile stands; a green area to host festivals and other attractions; and a 5,800-cap pavilion for circuses, large-format exhibitions and cultural and corporate events.
Forbes Colombia and La Republica report that Colombia welcomed superstars such as Karol G, Jonas Brothers and Maná in April alone, with 300 major concerts being held in the country annually.
“Distrito Verde is the result of the vision of the growth of the live entertainment industry in Colombia, enabling a multipurpose space that combines the environmental recovery of a piece of land with the versatility and adaptation of that space to host concerts, exhibitions and gastronomic festivals, among others,” says Luz Ángela Castro, CEO of Ocesa Colombia.
“It is a multipurpose space that offers comfort and ease in all its experiences, with large green areas outdoors, ideal for holding different events aimed at all types of public.”
“Distrito Verde complements the offer of Bogotá and the country, enriches the alternatives for cultural events and is not comparable with any existing venue”
Live Nation secured a controlling interest in Mexican-headquartered Ocesa in December 2021. Via Ocesa, it expanded its presence in Latin America last year by acquiring a majority stake in leading Colombian promoter Páramo Presenta.
Páramo is best known for its flagship four-day event Estereo Picnic, the biggest music festival in Colombia, as well as Bogotá’s Baum Festival and Knotfest.
Bogotá is already home to other notable venues including the 24,000-cap MedPlus Coliseum and 13,000-cap Movistar Arena, as well as the El Campín Stadium and Simón Bolívar Metropolitan Park, but Castro insists the proposed new development is a unique proposition.
“Distrito Verde complements the offer of Bogotá and the country, enriches the alternatives for cultural events and is not comparable with any existing venue in the capital or outside of it,” adds Castro, who reveals the cost of the project exceeds US$20 million.
“[With] investment in mobile infrastructure and investment in the environment, reforestation and soil adaptation, we are talking about more than US$22 million,” he says. “Beyond the investment, what is relevant is the commitment to a vision of the future, foreign direct investment.”
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Colombia’s MedPlus Coliseum welcomes 550k fans
Colombia’s MedPlus Coliseum is celebrating its second anniversary, having welcomed more than 550,000 people and a raft of international stars since its Covid-delayed opening.
The 24,000-cap multi-purpose venue in Bogotá is the brainchild of Colombian-born US promoter Henry Cardenas, president and executive director of US-based promoter Cárdenas Marketing Network (CMN).
“It’s about time that Colombia had a building that was able to offer more and better shows,” said Cárdenas at the time.
Artic Monkeys, Imagine Dragons, Roger Waters, Twenty One Pilots, Swedish House Mafia and Luis Miguel are among the 180-plus acts to have graced the building since it launched with a show by Latin singer Marc Anthony in August 2022.
As well as its 20,000+ capacity main room, the Coliseum houses more than 750m2 of LED screens, ten loading and unloading docks and a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces. Healthcare company MedPlus agreed a five-year sponsorship deal with the venue last year.
“This alliance with the MedPlus Coliseum has been fundamental in promoting well-being beyond the physical,” says MedPlus CEO Hernando Botero, as per La Republica. “Through this collaboration, we have been able to show that well-being is not only about health, but also about enjoying high-quality experiences and balance, essential aspects for a full life.”
“Inflation here in Colombia is hitting pretty hard, but the big names are selling out, both in stadiums and in arenas”
Upcoming acts set to perform at the US$100 million entertainment and sports venue include Travis Scott, Eric Prydz and Feid.
CMN entered into a “historic” partnership with AEG Presents in March this year in a strategic alliance to create “the world leader in live Latin music”, with ambitions to develop “elevated and expanded experiences” for artists and audiences globally.
The Colombian capital is also home to the 13,000-capacity Movistar Arena, operated by Colombiana de Escenarios – a joint venture between Movistar Arena Chile owner HLR Group and Colombian ticketing market leader Tuboleta.
“Inflation here in Colombia is hitting pretty hard, but the big names are selling out, both in stadiums and in arenas,” Movistar Arena Colombia general manager Luis Guillermo Quintero told IQ‘s 2024 Global Arena Guide.
The country is South America’s fourth-biggest economy, and its second city of Medellín is also set to gain a 16,000-capacity multipurpose arena by 2026. Built by CLK Group, the company behind Tuboleta and promoter TBL Live, Arena Primavera is projected to host 600,000 spectators across 75 events each year.
“We are convinced of the potential of the entertainment market in Medellín and [the administrative department of] Antioquia, which has become a musical and cultural reference for the country, a must-stop for national and international artists,” said Hernando Sánchez, CLK general manager. “Therefore, a venue is needed to place the department as a leader in the global arena circuit.”
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Colombian promoters unite to form Breakfast Live
Colombian promoters Breakfast Club and TBL Live have joined forces to create new entertainment company Breakfast Live.
The combined firm plans to stage around 60 events in 2024, including reggae event Entono Soundsystem at Bogotá’s Movistar Arena, featuring The Wailers ft. Julian Marley and Inner Circle on 11 May, and the disco-oriented Boogie Nights W on 15 May, starring Kool and The Gang and The Village People.
Additionally, the inaugural Tomorrowland presents Core Medellín will premiere from 11-12 May.
“At TBL Live, we are fans of the fans, and this union of forces and talents will open a new chapter in the entertainment industry,” says Andrea Valencia, CEO of TBL. “Two Colombian companies synergise to create opportunities for the audiences, bringing them closer to their favourite artists.
“Starting today, we are Breakfast Live, and we are here to host the best stories, moving emotions through music and culture.”
“From now on, we cease to be simply a club, and we become a platform for tireless creators, eternal visionaries, and dream makers”
Breakfast Live will organise live music shows, tours, cultural and family events, and will continue to expand Breakfast Club’s festival portfolio, which includes brands such as La Solar, Ritvales and La Verbena.
“Today, our paths cross to reach new horizons,” adds Carlos Franco, CEO of Breakfast Club. “From now on, we cease to be simply a club, and we become a platform for tireless creators, eternal visionaries, and dream makers that we will bring to reality with the same love with which they were imagined.”
Both Breakfast Club, which was founded in 2013, and TBL Live, launched in 2018 by CLK, will continue to operate other business verticals independently from event promotion.
Breakfast Club currently holds 15 to 20 events per year, with capacities ranging from 5,000 to 40,000, while TBL Live has worked with acts such as Disclosure, Martin Garrix, Morat, Juan Luis Guerra, Juanes, Maluma and Kygo, and has also staged concerts in Spain, Chile, and Ecuador.
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Iron Maiden smash Colombia ticket sales record
Tickets for Iron Maiden‘s first concert in Colombia for 13 years were snapped up at a record rate for an international act, according to promoter Move Concerts.
All 42,000 tickets sold out in 21 minutes for the metal greats’ return to Bogota on 24 November next year. With more than 11 months to go until the scheduled performance at El Campin Stadium, it also became the first gig in Colombia to sell out so far in advance.
The band last graced the Colombian capital with a show at Parque Simón Bolívar in March 2011. The timespan clocked for tickets sold for the 2024 show broke the sales velocity records of all previous global icons who have performed in Colombia in the past, including the Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Madonna, Ed Sheeran and The Weeknd.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we think it would blow out in 21 minutes and smash sales records”
“We all expected strong sales given the long wait since they last performed here, which was on 20 March 2011, but never in our wildest dreams did we think it would blow out in 21 minutes and smash sales records,” says Alfredo Villaveces, MD of Move Concerts Colombia. “And if we factor in the fact we went up so far ahead of the show date – something no other artist had done here – it is truly amazing.”
The sellout pace was exceeded only by Colombian superstar Karol G, who played two sellout stadium shows in her hometown of Medellin from 1-2 December.
The Latin American stretch of Iron Maiden’s 2024 The Future Past Tour has also got off to a strong start in Chile, with more than 95,000 tickets already sold for the group’s two dates in Santiago at the Estadio Nacional on 27-28 November. The Santiago shows mark the first time the band will play two stadium concerts in Chile on the same tour.
The only international act to have played more than two dates at the 60,000-cap stadium is Coldplay, who performed four concerts at the venue in September 2022.
Miami-headquartered Move Concerts is the biggest independent concert promoter in Latin America, boasting offices in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and Puerto Rico.
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Latam’s largest multipurpose arena opens
The largest multipurpose arena in Latin America opened earlier this month in Colombia’s capital city, Bogotá.
The 24,000-capacity Coliseo Live (Colosseum Live) was inaugurated on 12 August with a concert by salsa superstar Marc Anthony.
Other artists slated to perform at the arena in 2022 include Arctic Monkeys, Imagine Dragons, Daddy Yankee, Ana Gabriel and Ricardo Arjona.
Alongside concerts, the venue (formerly Arena Bogotá) will also host corporate, sports, gastronomic, family events and 360 events.
The previous incarnation of the arena was acquired in 2019 by Henry Cárdenas, president and executive director of US-based promoter Cárdenas Marketing Network (CNM).
Cárdenas also leads Cárdenas Entertainment and Marketing Group (CEMG), founded in 2018 to manage the Arena Bogotá/Coliseo Live project.
“I have dreamed of a scenario that would have nothing to envy of the great arenas that exist in first-world countries”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Colombia-born Cárdenas says he made a “multimillion-dollar investment” in the arena.
“For many years I have dreamed of a scenario that would have nothing to envy of the great arenas that exist in first-world countries, and that is what we bet on,” says Cárdenas.
“I am proud to say that Coliseo Live will surprise all its visitors, placing within their reach, among other things, more than 750 square meters of LED and circumferential screens used in games such as the NBA, a unique and safer ticketing system, suites and boxes of luxury with personalised food and beverage service, air handling units that reduce the probability of contagion of infectious diseases, among other innovations never seen before in Colombia.”
Located in the municipality of Cota, to the west of the capital city, Colieso Live occupies a million-square-foot (93,000m²) site on Calle 80 (80th Street).
The new arena is less than 15 kilometres from Colombia’s first-ever arena, the Movistar Arena (cap. 15,000), which hosts around 90 shows per year.
Read more about Bogotá, and Colombia’s burgeoning live music industry, in IQ Magazine‘s recent feature on Latin America.
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Ocesa spearheads Colombia’s first drive-in shows
Colombian promoters Ocesa Colombia and Páramo Presenta have announced the country’s first drive-in concerts.
The shows, staged in partnership with Live Nation, will be held in the car park of the Salitre Mágico theme park in Bogota. Organisers expect the first concerts, which will include a range of artists and genres, to take place in early October, Páramo Presenta’s Sergio Pabón tells radio show La W.
Initially only open to cars, the shows will be opened up to motorbikes towards the end of the year, he adds.
In Colombia, concerts and other large events are excluded from a loosening of coronavirus restrictions scheduled for 30 September.
“We want fans to enjoy the music and have fun from their vehicles”
Ocesa Colombia’s Luz Ángela Castro says there will capacity for 290 vehicles, “with a minimum of two people in the car and a maximum of four”.
The promoters expect to announce dates and an initial line-up next month. “We have complied with what the public asks of us, and that is also what we want: That fans enjoy [the music] and have fun from their vehicles,” adds Ángela Castro. “Now the public must help us” by buying tickets, he says.
The first drive-in shows in Latin America took place in Puerto Rico in July, courtesy of Move Concerts, closely followed by similar events in Mexico.
Ocesa Colombia’s Mexico-based parent company, Ocesa, was supposed to have been acquired by Live Nation this year. However, the deal was controversially called off in May after LN, reeling from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, said it could not agree revised terms with Ocesa owners CIE and Televisa Group.
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Henry Cárdenas acquires new Arena Bogotá
Henry Cárdenas, president and executive director of US-based promoter Cárdenas Marketing Network (CMN), has acquired Arena Bogotá, a 24,000-seat entertainment and sports venue under construction in Bogota, Colombia.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Colombia-born Cárdenas says he has made a “multimillion-dollar investment” in the arena, which will occupy a million-square-foot (93,000m²) site on Calle 80 (80th Street) in the Colombian capital.
Founded in 2002 and based in Chicago and Miami, CMN produces tours by Latin stars including Marc Anthony, Bad Bunny, Maluma, Nicky Jam, Chayanne, Becky G and Sech, as well as ¡Viva Latino! Live, the package tour based on the Spotify playlist of the same name. Cárdenas also leads Cárdenas Entertainment and Marketing Group (CEMG), founded in 2018 to manage the Arena Bogotá project.
According to Cárdenas, Arena Bogotá will have a number of unique features, including a 131’ (40m)-high roof which can support 110 tons – allowing for bigger production than is currently possible in Colombia – and over 40,000sqft (3,700m²) of storage space, allowing ten trucks to load in simultaneously (more than anywhere else in Latin America).
“I am very proud to be able to become the entertainment ambassador in my native country, and to be able to welcome everyone to Arena Bogotá, which will be the home to all Colombians, businessmen and promoters, artists and live music events, business conventions and sports that our country deserves,” says Cárdenas.
“It’s about time that Colombia had a building that was able to offer more and better shows”
“For the first year of operations we plan to perform between 130 and 140 shows, which means about three events per week, including family events, corporate, live music, sports – for example, motocross, Olympic sports, indoor soccer, boxing, volleyball, tennis, basketball, et cetera – esports, parades and equine events, among others.
Cárdenas says there is no space in Latin America comparable to Arena Bogotá. “There are some similarities with Arena Mexico [16,500-cap.], but even so there are none that have the qualities and grandiosity of Arena Bogotá.
“As a way to compare the relative size, we can look to the AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami, which includes 17,000 seats, whereas Arena Bogotá will have 24,000. This great space gives us the flexibility to perform events and shows that we otherwise may not have been able to do.”
A percentage of the arena’s profits will go the Maestro Cares Foundation, founded by Cárdenas and Marc Anthony, to support charitable projects in Colombia.
“It’s about time that Colombia had a building that was able to offer more and better shows,” concludes Cárdenas. “In the second half of 2020, we will have access to a dream venue to enjoy shows like Marc Anthony, Carlos Vives, Maluma, Nicky Jam, Bad Bunny, Becky G, Silvestre Dangond, Wisin and Yandel, Ricardo Arjona, Maná and Romeo Santos, among others, with our family and friends.
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LatAm associations draft gender equality declaration
Musicians’ unions across Latin America have drafted and signed a declaration pledging to work towards gender parity in their memberships.
At an event hosted by the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) in Bogota, Colombia, before Christmas, local artists’ union Ormúsica, as well as its counterparts in Uruguay (Audem and Fudem), Argentina (Sadem), Peru (SIMCCAP), Panama (Sitmas), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Sindmusi), Mexico (SUTM), Cuba (UNEAC) and Costa Rica (UTM), put their names to a document committing to achieving a 50-50 gender split among their members, with 30% women by 2025.
The declaration, entitled Declaración sobre equidad de género en el sector musical sindical (Declaration on gender equality in the musical union sector), also commits the signatories to undertaking an annual census of their memberships to assess the progress made towards gender equality.
In a statement, FIM, which represents some 70 musicians’ unions globally, thanked Ormúsica “for their warm welcome to a successful event”.
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