The city council of Gold Coast, in Queensland, Australia, has given the go-ahead for a new two-day festival, SandTunes, for December 2018.

The festival, produced by AEG and local promoters TEG Dainty and Cross Promotions, will be held on Coolangatta Beach, in the suburb of Coolangatta, on 1 and 2 December. It is an offshoot of Hangout Music Fest, AEG/Goldenvoice’s popular three-day event in Alabama, which was this year headlined by Mumford & Sons, Chance the Rapper and Twenty One Pilots.

The Gold Coast Bulletin reports SandTunes will be a one-off ‘destination’ event with two stages and a capacity of 35,000.

“This event could go anywhere – there would be venues around Australia lining up to take it”

Two councillors, Gail O’Neill and Pauline Young, voted against the proposal, with O’Neill telling a council meeting “love[s] festivals” but that the event “belongs somewhere else, not on Coolangatta Beach”.

Councillor Bob LaCastra, countering, said SandTunes would help plug a hole left in Gold Coast’s finances by the cancellations of Big Day Out and Summafieldayze festivals. “This event could go anywhere – there would be venues around Australia lining up to take it,” he said.

According to minutes from a 22 August council meeting, the city is willing to contribute up to A$200,000 (US$160,000) towards the cost of staging the festival.

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Less than 15 months after its sale to private-equity firm Affinity Equity Partners, a trio of potential buyers are believed to be waiting in the wings to snap up Australian live entertainment group TEG.

The Australian’s media reporter, Jake Mitchell, reports that CTS Eventim and Chinese conglomerates Fosun and Wanda Group have all held talks with Affinity in recent weeks, although the company is not formally for sale. A TEG spokesman confirmed to IQ there is “market interest in TEG”.

TEG is the parent company of Ticketek, Australasia’s largest entertainment and sports ticket agency, as well as self-service ticketing platform Eventopia, promotion business TEG Live, data firm TEG Analytics and the AEG Ogden-operated Sydney SuperDome (21,000-cap.) arena (recently rebranded as the Qudos Bank Arena). In July it acquired Dainty Group, one of Australia’s leading concert promoters.

CTS Eventim and Chinese conglomerates Fosun and Wanda Group have all held talks with Affinity in recent weeks, although the company is not formally for sale

Ticketek claims to have sold over 23 million tickets to more than 20,000 events, and has a database of 12 million consumers.

CTS Eventim is Europe’s biggest primary ticket agency, while Beijing-based Wanda Group and Shanghai-based Fosun have diversified interests in a number of sectors – the former is the world’s largest property developer, and also operates luxury hotels, cinemas and department stores, while the latter is chiefly involved in iron and steel, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, tourism and sports (it has owned English football club Wolverhampton Wanderers since July).

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Paul Dainty, one of Australia’s most accomplished concert promoters, has sold his Dainty Group business to Sydney-based ticketing, touring and data analytics firm TEG for an undisclosed sum.

In a statement, TEG – formerly Nine Live – says the deal will combine Dainty’s “history and unparalleled experience in bringing some of the world’s biggest acts and productions to Australia” and TEG’s “superior capabilities in ticketing and promotion” to “offer fans and stakeholders access to the best and most compelling music, sporting and entertainment events in Australia”.

TEG is the parent company of Ticketek, Australasia’s largest entertainment and sports ticket agency, self-service platform Eventopia, promotion business TEG Live and data firm TEG Analytics, and also owns the AEG Ogden-operated 21,000-capacity Sydney SuperDome arena (recently rebranded as the Qudos Bank Arena). Ticketek claims to sell over 23 million tickets more than 20,000 events a year.

“Joining the TEG group is a great opportunity for us to be part of a fully integrated entertainment and touring business,” says British-born  executive chairman Dainty. “Over the last 40 years we have had the opportunity to bring some of the world’s biggest names to Australia – Eminem, Hugh Jackman, The Rolling Stones, Prince, Bon Jovi, Michael Bublé, Katy Perry, Paul McCartney, Neil Diamond, Oprah, Lionel Richie, George Michael, WWE and Billy Crystal to name a few – plus a range of theatrical productions such as Jersey Boys and Singin’ in the Rain. We look forward to building on this list and continuing our ongoing artist relationships as part of the TEG group.”

“We are very excited about the potential for TEG-Dainty, and TEG as a whole, now that we have one of the world’s leading promoters at the heart of our business”

The merger creates an integrated live entertainment business (a “one-stop shop”, says TEG) to rival Live Nation Australia, formed in 2012 when Live Nation snapped up formerly independent promoter Michael Coppel Presents.

“Bringing the Dainty Group team into the TEG family is the culmination of a very considered process that was focussed on harnessing the best of both companies under the TEG-Dainty banner,” says TEG CEO Geoff Jones. “Paul Dainty has been recognised globally by peers as both influential and innovative in the live entertainment space. We are very excited about the potential for TEG-Dainty, and TEG as a whole, now that we have one of the world’s leading promoters at the heart of our business.”

Paul Cashmere of Noise11.com reports that TEG-Dainty was at one point in the running to take over Soundwave but was “scared off when [it] saw the books”.

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