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Movers & Shakers: DEAG, MVT, AXS

In the newest compilation of movers and shakers, IQ highlights news from DEAG, Music Venue Trust (MVT), AXS, United Nations, Power of Music consortium, Proactiv Asia and Live Music Now Scotland.

Berlin-based live entertainment giant DEAG has announced the return of Lutz Grotehöfer as executive vice president of operations.

In his new role, he will work closely with Detlef Kornett (chairman of the DEAG executive board, group CEO/international business affairs) and Christian Diekmann (member of the DEAG executive board, CEO national/COO).

In addition to operational and structural issues of the company, Grotehöfer will address strategic issues in the face of a dynamically changing and growing DEAG and live entertainment industry.

Grotehöfer was an executive board member for DEAG between 2014–2017.

AEG-owned ticketing company AXS has made three hires in Europe and Asia

Elsewhere, Music Venue Trust (MVT), the UK charity for grassroots music venues (GMVs), has announced six new patrons.

Joining MVT’s existing list of patrons are acclaimed musician Kate Nash, MP for Brighton Pavilion Sian Berry, CAA agent Summer Marshall, Scottish Music Industry Association’s Robert Kilpatrick, FOCUS Wales co-founder Neal Thompson, Co-founder, and artist and independent label manager Colin Newman.

These new patrons join musicians including Sir Paul McCartney, Nova Twins, Frank Turner and Tim Burgess, broadcasters who include Steve Lamacq MBE and Gemma Bradley, and patrons from industry and politics including Sony Music’s Jason Iley, John Whittingdale MP and Kerry McCarthy MP.

AEG-owned ticketing company AXS, meanwhile, has made three hires in Europe and Asia.

Motoki Ishikawa has been named managing director of AXS Japan, which was established in 2019.

Michael Kill has been appointed as United Nations Representative

Ishikawa joins from Dentsu, Japan’s largest integrated communications conglomerate, where he held senior management roles as CEO Dentsu Sports America, GM Rugby World Cup 2019 (VIP Hospitality and Venue Production), GM Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games 2020 (Sports Presentation).

In the UK, the ticketing firm’s new appointments include Nick Griffith, director of business development, and Sam Ricketts, head of business development and artist services.

Michael Kill, VP of the International Nightlife Association (INA) and CEO of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) UK, has been appointed as United Nations Representative on behalf of the INA as it gains Consultative Status through the UN’s Economic And Social Council.

With this status, the INA will have the opportunity to participate in UN events and debates, present written statements, collaborate with other NGOs and UN agencies, and contribute to discussions on critical topics such as economic development, social inclusion, cultural impact, and responsible entertainment.

Meanwhile, Nordoff and Robbins Music Therapy CEO Sandra Schembri has been appointed as the new Power of Music Consortium Chair. She replaces UK Music chief executive Tom Kiehl in the role after UK Music chaired the Consortium since its inception in 2022.

Judith Anderson has been appointed CEO of Live Music Now Scotland

Elsewhere, Blake Tatroe has been named head of Asia at Proactiv Entertainment, a producer and promoter of large-scale shows, international exhibitions and music concerts.

Tatroe has held a number of senior roles across Asia Pacific live entertainment, most recently serving as international director at Michael Cassel Group in Singapore.

Between 2019-21 Tatroe was senior director, live event marketing at the ONE Championship, following an 11-year stint at Feld Entertainment, where he ascended to become managing tour director.

Finally, Judith Anderson has been appointed CEO of Live Music Now Scotland, succeeding Carol Main, who has led the organisation since it was founded in 1984.

Anderson joins the charity – which works in schools, hospitals, care homes and hospices supporting emerging artists – from the Scottish arts and early years organisation, Starcatchers, where she was head of development and operations.

 


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Wizard: Cast for a spellbinding future

Launched by Ossy Hoppe in 2004, Wizard Promotions marked its 20th anniversary earlier this year with a rebrand to Wizard Live and a star-studded party to celebrate its milestone.

Here, managing director Oliver Hoppe gives an insight into company operations as he plots Wizard’s future…

Wizard was traditionally known for its hard rock shows but now you’re doing classical gigs with Max Richter and stand-up with Senna Gammour. Is that part of a new strategy?
Obviously, we’ve done a lot of rock and metal over the years, and that’s where our strong suit is. But in general, I get my motivation from thinking that I can sell an artist better than anybody else, so we’ve been diversifying into other genres for a while now.

I don’t think I necessarily need to be a fan of our acts, but I want to feel some passion [in order] to tell a great story for marketing and sell tickets for that artist.

For example, I love working with Böhse Onkelz – I love the momentum, the number of tickets we sell, and the standing of the band in Germany. It’s amazing. But do I come home and ask my wife to open a bottle of red wine while I put on a 40-year-old punk rock CD? Not so much.

Senna Gammour is a good example of a new project for us. She has three books under her belt, and she has a very funny TV programme that is predominantly orientated at women with a migrant, Muslim background. That’s obviously not what we have done historically, but I love working with her, and we have an extended deal for ten dates in 2,000-cap venues in Germany next May.

“Everybody wants the Live Nation money but the independent promoter attention”

You say the role of the promoter is changing. What do you mean by that?
We have so many artists that we’re trying to find summer dates for next year, and everybody wants detailed attention – they want a passionate promoter to be at every show and working like they’re the only artist they have.

But people are working like they’re in a slaughterhouse, getting paid by how many cows they chop in an hour, and we’re finding that every act is pitched to multiple promoters so that management can find the best deal.

So, the demand on the promoter has increased manifold, but in my opinion, that system just doesn’t work anymore. You need to take the time to come up with a clever strategy so that you are best-serving the needs of the artist and their fans.

But that’s difficult when you know that five other people are also being asked to come up with a plan, and even if you present your plan, all that seems to matter for some people is a list of dates and fees.

Everybody wants the Live Nation money but the independent promoter attention. It’s not that the guys at Live Nation or AEG aren’t great promoters – they are. But they can afford to make a loss on a tour, knowing that ancillary incomes (beer sales, etc.) make up for that shortfall.

So what the artists want and what the promoters can deliver are very separate at the moment. It’s not a schism, but it’s two fundamental opposites, and the challenge is to get both right.

Wizard has become one of the most established promoters in Germany, but you’ve achieved it with a pretty small team – do you think that will change in the future?
Come January 1st, we’re going to be 16 people, and I think when I started, in 2012, we were less than eight people. You certainly can’t sustain a promoter with less personnel on the level that we’re working at because everything has become significantly more complex.

So, we rely on freelance help for our bigger projects, especially on the production and touring side of things. But on the smaller-scale stuff, we tend to solve as much as possible in-house because costs have gone up significantly, club and grassroots touring is becoming more and more [difficult] for artists, and the bottom line is getting smaller and smaller.

“I don’t like to blow my own horn, but clients tell me that they like my clear-cut approach”

We tend to work most of the club stuff in-house to save costings on the artist’s side, and that’s also a good training ground for staff. I think for young people to get to know the business and understand the daily problems, to understand artists and tour managers, and find solutions to problems, then being out on tour is the best thing you can do.

What are some of the skills you brought in from your previous career that give you a different approach to business from others?
I don’t like to blow my own horn, but clients tell me that they like my clear-cut approach. I’m good at cutting an issue or a plan or whatever down to digestible bits to make it understandable for everybody.

My former boss forced us to narrow down 80-page presentations to one single page with a graphic and explain a five-year marketing plan with just one page at hand. So that taught me very quickly to strip down the narrative to the important parts.

What is the thing that we need to concentrate on? Why are we doing this in the first place? What is the benefit? At Wizard, it works for decisions on how to approach a tour – what size venues do we want to play; what is the next step after that?

For example, recently we had a discussion where an act was offered €500,000 to play in a certain city. And I sent them a very clear-cut email with three good reasons not to do it. And all band members came to an agreement very quickly. That’s what I learned from my previous career, and it’s been a huge help.

What about the biggest lesson you learned from your dad, Ossy?
Ossy is a fucking genius when it comes to giving an artist the feeling of being understood. I honestly have no clue how he does it – I would really, really love to copy the formula. But I see it every single time he’s at a show when the artist comes off stage.

“We look for talent that cannot be bullied into playing one of the big festivals”

It doesn’t matter if there were 500 people in the room or 50,000 people screaming the artist’s name, you can see their eyes light up when Ossy tells them it was an amazing show; probably the best he’s ever seen them do.

A million people say that to every artist every single day, but somehow, Ossy makes it work. And I don’t know how he does it – I don’t have that magic – and that’s why Ossy still works for us on the artist side: it’s good for him, it’s good for the artist, and it’s good for the company.

You’re diversifying the Wizard roster. What do you look for when it comes to new projects?
To be honest, we look for talent that cannot be bullied into playing one of the big festivals. When it comes to the global deals, we lost Sting, Black Sabbath, U2, and those were big hits for our company. But we managed to have a very healthy middle ground, the 3,000-to-8,000-capacity acts that have helped to keep paying the bills.

Luckily, the big acts we still work with are probably too big for festivals, while at the other end, diversifying to work with acts like Max Richter or Senna Gammour means we hopefully won’t lose them to festival package offers either.

For talent, if you don’t want to play at any of the five biggest German festivals, then there’s a lot that Wizard Live can deliver, and that’s what we’ve been looking at more and more over the last couple of years.

Can you see a time where Wizard launches its own festival?
Our parent company, DEAG, has some amazing events, but they tend to be very electronic- and techno-based, which doesn’t relate to Wizard’s touring world.

Do I have an idea for a festival that would be sustainable and fit into an oversaturated market that is very much dying at this point in time? I don’t. Not yet, anyway.

What’s the biggest challenge facing Wizard as it goes into its next 20 years?
The question that I’m really asking myself in my role as a promoter is: if my competition is able to offer guarantees that are 100% or 120% of the bottom line, because they can rely on ancillary income, then what is my role and the role of a company like Wizard?

“There’s a gold rush on one side of the business, but on the other side, it’s a bit bleaker”

I think we as promoters have to reinvent ourselves in a world where nobody wants us to make money anymore. I’m not saying everything’s gone to shit, but I think it’s the reality that we have to face that our role is changing.

There’s a dynamic at the moment of things changing, people moving company, a lot of independent people leaving the business. There’s a gold rush on one side of the business, but on the other side, it’s a bit bleaker. At the core of things, I’m not unconcerned. But what Wizard Live stands for is that we find good solutions for people that want to have our opinion and our expertise. We’re very passionate about the things that we do, and I don’t think that the world can do without that.

 


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Live industry leaders on 2024’s ‘best bits’

While parts of the festival business took a hammering, and touring mid-tier and club-level shows proved tricky, contributors to IQ‘s end-of-year issue have cited numerous highlights from the past 12 months.

Detailing the evolution at DEAG, CEO Detlef Kornett points to different areas of expansion. “We’ve seen significant development in spoken word – in particular, literary and personality events,” he says. “Spoken word and literary events got ‘entertainment-ified’; they became a production with lights, sounds, and video, and they have become very attractive for consumers. We ran more than 300 events in Germany, more than 500 events in the UK, we doubled our business in Australia, and we even did our first tours in the US. So, for us, that has become a major development that I was hoping for but did not foresee – it was a bet that we took.”

At Live Nation, John Reid says, “2024 was a landmark year for live music across EMEA. [For instance], Tons of Rock in Oslo had a great year and also became Norway’s largest festival, which was a real highlight for the team. And of course, Adele’s Munich residency was a standout moment for us, breaking records across ten nights with 730,000 tickets sold, the world’s largest temporary stadium and LED wall, and an innovative 75,000-square-metre Adele World that drew over 500,000 visitors.”

That Munich residency won admirers everywhere.

“I was fascinated with what Adele’s team and Marek Lieberberg and his team pulled off,” admits Move Concerts founder Phil Rodriguez. “The whole concept of a temporary venue and residency was ambitious, but the execution was flawless. I have no doubt this will be a model that may be duplicated in different ways and/or scale in the future.”

From a ticketing perspective, Ticketmaster UK’s Andrew Parsons notes, “Residencies are reaching new heights and proving their staying power. From Adele’s groundbreaking run in Munich, the Eagles’ standout week at Co-op Live, Bruno Mars’ residency in Brazil, and Coldplay set for ten nights at Wembley Stadium next year, this trend opens doors for acts to stay on the road longer.”

“I thought we would be in trouble. But whoever said entertainment booms in leaner times was right”

Highlighting “two successful shows with Andrea Bocelli at Pula’s Roman Arena” that Charmenko’s head of promoting, Sara Gigante, organised, company founder Nick Hobbs reveals that the indie is also getting in on the stadia action. “Next year, we’re part of, most likely, four stadium-level shows, which I can’t reveal as they’re still TBC,” he says. “Generally, we seem to have plenty of work and are already deep into ’26. To what degree the work will be profitable remains to be seen; our margins were squeezed severely this year, and I’m trying to figure out what we can do about it.”

In the UK, industry veteran John Giddings, promoter of the Isle of Wight Festival, admits to being pleasantly surprised by the demand for tickets. “When I was reading about the cost-of-living crisis last year, I thought we would be in trouble. But whoever said entertainment booms in leaner times was right. After Covid (and Brexit), people are living for today.”

Reviewing 2024, Age Versluis at Dutch promoter Friendly Fire comments, “We’ve seen some artists that have been growing organically to hit their biggest shows ever here. Personally, I always look forward most to seeing what new things rise. If I see the lineups for the showcase festivals for next year taking shape, it’s going to be a year with some beautiful new music and live shows.”

Over in Miami, Move Concerts’ 2024 included tours with Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Keane, and Karol G.

“But the biggest thrill was to see the sales we had with Iron Maiden,” says Rodriguez. “We had stadium dates selling out in 30 minutes – they are bigger than ever! We’ve worked together for decades, and they are huge in our markets, but the speed and volume of sales for this tour were totally unexpected.”

That experience is being mirrored in Germany, where DEAG’s Kornett reveals, “Next year, in the UK, we’ve got the Stereophonics in Cardiff for two sell-out stadium shows. And in Germany, we have a fantastic Iron Maiden stadium tour. I haven’t seen Iron Maiden sales at this level in the last ten years.”

Catch up on part one and part two of IQ‘s 2024 Wrapped! feature.

 


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DEAG’s €253m revenue in ‘year of transformation’

DEAG Group CEO Detlef Kornett has hailed 2024 as an “important year of transformation” for the company in the wake of its Q3 results.

For the first nine months of 2024, the Berlin-headquartered live entertainment business reported record revenue of €252.8m – up 19% year-on-year – while third quarter takings of €120.1m represented a 33% increase on the equivalent period in 2023. It continues to project a year-on-year increase in revenue for the full year.

However, EBITDA of €5.3m was down from €13.8m in the same period of the previous year, with the firm citing numerous investments and “one-off burdens on profitability”. DEAG made three acquisitions during the period and expanded into Italy last month with the addition of Milan-based rock promoter MC² Live.

“2024 is an important year of transformation for DEAG,” says Kornett. “We have initiated and already implemented several investment programmes and continued our Buy & Build strategy despite a challenging environment for the entire industry. We made a clear commitment to these extensive investments and therefore also accepted a decline in EBITDA.”

DEAG staged more than 6,000 events from January to September, including concerts and tours by AC/DC, Andreas Gabalier, UB40, Simply Red, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Scorpions and Toto. It has sold around 8.5 million tickets for current and upcoming events  – up 35% on the previous year.

“Thanks to our strong financial structure, a diverse and high-calibre event portfolio and strong ticket sales, we are already bullish about 2025”

It also organised German festivals such as Mayday, Indian Spirit, Nature One and Airbeat One, in addition to other events across Europe.

DEAG notes the reporting period was characterised by “significantly higher production costs”, which “could not be fully offset by the rise in ticket prices”, while inclement weather prevented a number of events from going ahead.

It added that competition from major sports events such as the European Football Championships and Summer Olympics had “a noticeable negative impact”.

Looking forward, DEAG is promoting shows with the likes of Slipknot, The Cult, Marilyn Manson and Tream. Its 2025 schedule also includes Stereophonics, Andrea Bocelli and Iron Maiden, Till Lindemann and Böhse Onkelz, among others.

“We are investing heavily to sustainably drive our company’s development and offer our visitors even more unforgettable live experiences, both digitally and on site,” adds Kornett. “Thanks to our strong financial structure, a diverse and high-calibre event portfolio and strong ticket sales, we are already bullish about 2025.”

 


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Gigantic aims for ‘next level’ after promotions

Gigantic Tickets’ Simon Carpenter has shared his hopes of taking the UK agency to the “next level” after being elevated to co-CEO, kicking off a new era for the DEAG-backed business.

Carpenter, who has led the commercial team for the last nine years, will serve as co-CEO alongside company founder Mark Gasson, and also joins the board as part of a series of senior promotions at the Nottingham-based firm.

In addition, Joe Lilley becomes co-CTO alongside existing CTO James Woodward after 13 years on the core technical team, while Kelly McKinney is upped to head of operations following eight years working in event management & client services at Gigantic.

“I want to take it to the next level,” Carpenter tells IQ. “I want to build on the foundations laid by Mark and James and continue to grow the company – and for us to be the ticket agent for new music as well as established artists.

“I’ve been working within Gigantic for close to 10 years now and have learned a lot from Mark, which means there’s a lot of continuity there, but Mark and James are still heavily involved and will shape what the company looks like. I’ll just take more of a steer on commercial matters.”

One of the UK’s leading ticket agencies, Gigantic was launched in 2007 and is part of the KMJ Entertainment group. Carpenter describes the last 12 months as “very strong” for the firm.

“In terms of the ticketing market, I think it’s very open. There is still a lot of opportunity in the rock and pop world”

“We’ve broken some records and had our biggest selling stadium shows ever on the system with Stereophonics at Principality Stadium in Cardiff,” he notes. “We’ve got more onsales in the pipeline for the next six months that we’re really positive about, we’ve got new clients that have come on board that will start to grow and sell more tickets for us, so we’re very excited about what the next six months brings.”

He continues: “In terms of the ticketing market, I think it’s very open. There is still a lot of opportunity in the rock and pop world. There has been a massive upsurge in interest and as long as that stays the same, the market will always be strong.

“I want us to be on the front foot, future-proofed and deliver products and innovations for our clients and for our customers to make ticket buying very much hassle-free.”

German live entertainment group DEAG acquired a 75% stake in Gigantic back in 2009, but Carpenter suggests little has changed from an operational point of view.

“DEAG has always treated us as our own standalone company and allowed us to make our own independent decisions,” he reflects. “We’re still able to compete in the market and work with whoever we choose to work with, so we’ve maintained the independent spirit we’ve always had.”

Gasson adds: “I’m proud to see such a positive promotion of our internal team, which is testament to the ongoing hard work and commitment of the talent here at Gigantic. We look forward to a future of continued growth and strength.”

 


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DEAG CEO on the firm’s rapid expansion in Europe

Deutsche Entertainment (DEAG) CEO Detlef Kornett has spoken to IQ about the firm’s latest acquisition and how it fits into a wider expansion strategy.

Today, the Berlin-based live entertainment giant announced its first foray in Italy with the acquisition of Milan-based rock promoter MC² Live.

MC² Live was launched after the company’s founders, Andrea and Stefano Pieroni, sold a 51% stake in their former business, Vertigo, to CTS Eventim in 2017.

DEAG says the brothers will continue to manage MC² Live in the long term together with their team, who will all remain with the company.

Speaking about his admiration for the company’s leader, Kornett told IQ: “Andrea has been in the industry for decades and has a very impressive roster of artists and bands that he works with internationally, as well as Italian-language acts.”

“We have had a very impressive growth curve and I believe this acquisition will help us to continue on that path”

Over the past few decades, the stalwart promoter has organised numerous concerts, festivals and events with stars such as Judas Priest, Slipknot, Rammstein, 50 Cent, Ne-Yo, Eros Ramazzotti and Negrita.

“MC² are of a certain size already so this is a very important step for DEAG where we can really funnel growth, and that’s what DEAG has been all about these years,” says Kornett. “We have had a very impressive growth curve and I believe this acquisition will help us to continue on that path.”

Indeed, DEAG has been on an acquisition spree in the past 12 months, entering the Spanish market in late 2023 with the launch of subsidiary Get Rock Live (GRL) and acquiring three companies in the first six months of 2024. With the acquisition of MC² Live, DEAG is now present in Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Ireland, Denmark, Spain and Italy.

“Benelux, The Netherlands is an obvious gap in our marketplace, and at the same time it’s not an easy market – it’s set in a certain way – so the right opportunity would need to arise for us to expand there,” explains Kornett. “That doesn’t mean that we’re not in conversations, it is just not right yet.”

Though the company is bullish in its international expansion, Kornett insists that being a pan-European company is not the main goal.

“Obviously, there are still so many white spots for DEAG on the European map and we will continue to explore those opportunities”

“Obviously, there are still so many white spots for DEAG on the European map and we will continue to explore those opportunities but the partnership has to fit,” he explains.

“The importance is really on the people, the way they conduct business and relationships, and the fit. The way Andrea maintains his relationships, the way he budgets for his events, the way he settles his events fits very well with us.”

Kornett says he’s excited to capitalise on the opportunities available in the Italian live music market alongside MC².

“There’s a huge opportunity for international rock and pop in the market and the Italian language music sector is very important and very big, but it’s also very divided between some major players,” he says.

“There are only very few independents left but now Andrea has a strong partner to continue to be independent in that market. Italy is no different to the UK or Germany, there are opportunities for independent, boutique-type promoters like us, and we intend to take full advantage of that.”

DEAG has set its sights on becoming “a company with more than €500 million in revenues”

The company has already shared ambitions to take some of its pre-existing event brands to the Italian market and introduce some new ones.

“MC² and Andrea have traditionally been focused on Italian artists and international rock and pop,” he says, nodding to the firm’s upcoming shows with Iron Maiden, Pantera, Skunk Anansie and Falling in Reverse.

“I think there are elements within rock that we can add but we would look for synergies the other way. We do all kinds of events in the non-music sector from the spoken word events to the light trails to the family shows to the classical music to jazz. – so we will explore all of these opportunities. Is the market ready for it? Does it work? If it works, then let’s give it a shot!”

While DEAG continues to expand in Europe, the firm has set its sights on becoming “a company with more than €500 million in revenues”. Its highest-ever revenue was €325 million in 2022.

“We will go some way towards that goal in 2025 but it’s more of a three-year plan,” says Kornett. “It’s all in the bottom line, so we have to find the right balance in our portfolio in order to achieve that. We’ve been at 8–9% margin – another thing we hope to grow next year. This year nothing was easy but I generally feel that the business will be in a better flow in 2025.”

 


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DEAG garners €132.7m in H1 to buck European trend

DEAG has delivered a positive financial report for the first half of 2024, with revenue up to €132.7 million despite a challenging economic environment in Europe.

Revenue in the reporting period rose by 8.2% from €122.7m in the same period last year, while EBITDA of €3.1m was down from the previous year’s €5.1m but in line with planning. The dip has been attributed to expenses in connection with the reorganisation of the executive board and integration costs for companies acquired, plus investments in its IT infrastructure related to ticketing.

“DEAG increased its revenue, further expanded its own event formats, successfully continued its Buy & Build strategy and recorded strong ticketing business,” it says in a statement. “The company is therefore optimistic for the second half of 2024 with a high density of events. With a high level of available liquidity of €97 million at the end of the first half of 2024, DEAG has a solid financial basis for a successful, expansive development.”

The company notes that the results come amid a reporting period in Germany characterised by “a decline in economic output and restrained private consumer spending”. It adds that the Euro 2024 football tournament, hosted by the country in June and July, also led to a decline in demand for other leisure and entertainment events.

However, DEAG says its festivals – particularly those in the EDM segment – have held up well in the face of a tough market, which has suffered further from extreme weather. Festival brands under its umbrella include NATURE ONE, Airbeat One, Ruhr-in-Love, Sion sous les étoiles and Belladrum Tartan Heart, which have drawn a combined 800,000 fans this summer.

It has also staged successful concerts and tours by artists such as AC/DC, Andreas Gabalier, Alice Cooper and UB 40, as well as family events including Disney on Ice and the Harlem Globetrotters.

“We defied the difficult market environment in the first half of the year,” says DEAG Group CEO Detlef Kornett. “Unfortunately, the bad weather affected some of our events, which is also reflected in our key financial figures. However, we remain confident for the second half of the year and for 2024 as a whole.”

“Despite the challenges mentioned, we expect revenue to continue to rise and EBITDA to at least the previous year’s level for the year as a whole”

Former co-CEO Kornett took sole leadership of the Berlin-headquartered firm in the spring after founder Peter Schwenkow moved to an advisory role. DEAG has a busy slate of concerts by the likes of Craig David, Lenny Kravitz, James Blunt, Slipknot, Fontaines D.C. and Böhse Onkelz lined up for the second half of 2024.

“DEAG’s second half of the year will be strong, as expected, our event programme is diversified and our calendar of events is tightly packed. Visitors can look forward to hundreds of great events of all genres and sizes. We are also investing heavily in staff, new technologies and our platforms in order to further improve the customer experience and offer our customers first-class entertainment.

“Despite the challenges mentioned, we expect revenue to continue to rise and EBITDA to at least the previous year’s level for the year as a whole.”

DEAG entered the Spanish market in late 2023 with the launch of subsidiary Get Rock Live (GRL), and continued its international expansion by acquiring three companies in the first six months of 2024 and acquired three companies, starting with Black Mamba Event & Marketing – organiser of longstanding electronic music festival Sputnik Spring Break.

In the UK, it enhanced its presence in the spoken word and literary sphere with the acquisition of How to Academy, and l also took a majority stake in live promoter and producer ShowPlanr.” It also spun off its hip-hop booking division into a standalone brand called District Live.

DEAG says it intends to further grow its M&A activities and is currently in “promising talks” with a number of companies, with a particular focus on ticketing and further expansion into other European countries. At last count, the number of tickets to concerts and events it has sold in 2024 and 2025 was up 18% to 5.8 million, with an increase to around 11m expected for the year as a whole.

 


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Belladrum rewards loyalty after 2024 sellout

Organisers of Scotland’s biggest camping festival Belladrum have launched a loyalty presale for 2025 in the wake of its sellout 20th anniversary edition.

Customers who attended this year’s 20,000-cap gathering will be given the opportunity to purchase loyalty tickets starting this Friday (9 August), with general tickets to go live on 12 August.

Artists who performed at the event, held between 25-27 July, included James Arthur, Deacon Blue, Sugababes, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and The Shires.

“We’ve always stuck to our roots of being a ‘festival for all’, all are welcome here and we carefully curate a line-up that will wow our full audience spectrum,” says organiser Dougie Brown. “But for our 20th anniversary we wanted to give our audience the best version we could to make it one of their best ever Belladrum experiences. This paid off with sold out ticket sales and an incredible line up of artists that brought sheer joy to everyone. Add in a wonderful dollop of sunshine and we’ve had our best year ever.”

Owned by DEAG’s Kilimanjaro Live, the Belladrum Tartan Heart Music Festival also generated more than £100,000 (€116,000) for local grassroots charities in the anniversary year.

Elsewhere in the UK, Gloucester’s Witcombe Festival has become the latest cancellation

Belladrum, which has taken place at the Belladrum Estate near Inverness since 2004, will return for its 21st edition from 31 July to 2 August 2025.

Elsewhere in the UK, Gloucester’s Witcombe Festival has become the latest to fall by the wayside in a festival season blighted by more than 50 cancellations.

Scheduled for 23-25 August, it had been due to welcome the likes of Example, Razorlight, Professor Green, Urban Soul Orchestra, Shy FX & MC Stamina and DJ Luck & MC Neat.

“Unfortunately, the ongoing cost of living crisis has significantly impacted our ticket sales and overall planning,” says a statement by promoters. “Despite our best efforts and creativity, including plans to reduce capacity and the size of the festival site, these have not been possible due to strict licensing conditions.

“We have always prided ourselves on delivering an unforgettable experience for our festival-goers, and we believe that cancelling the event is the most responsible course of action to ensure we can return stronger in the future.

“We are incredibly grateful for the support and understanding of our community, artists, and partners during these challenging times. We are committed to returning with an even more spectacular event, and we look forward to celebrating with you all once the situation stabilises.”

 


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Achtung Maybe: Germany market report

Historically one of the most robust live music markets in the world, Germany is not immune to the challenges facing the industry in 2024. IQ talks to those on the front line in a territory where pressures of rising costs has never been more keenly felt.

Germany remains the third-biggest live market in the world, after only the US and Japan. Its turnover is huge – more than €6bn annually from 300,000 events, with over 115m tickets sold [source: BDKV]. It contains markets within markets – Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt: all distinct, all mighty – and a massive infrastructure of diversified promoters, modern venues, and household-name festivals.

This is the kind of territory where Taylor Swift finds the time for seven shows of her Eras Tour, and where Adele is dropping in for ten concerts in a bespoke 80,000-capacity Munich stadium across August – a plan the singer herself, who hasn’t played in Europe in eight years, calls “a bit random but still fabulous”.

On a genre-by-genre basis, there are successes all around. Country is booming, schlager remains strong, and Germany’s domestic artists, not least its locally grown hip-hop acts, are now good for multiple nights in arenas. Nine German promoters – counting Live Nation, which appeared as a combined group – ranked in Pollstar’s global Top 100 by ticket sales in 2023.

“All the traffic that was backed up after Covid is really just done now, and we’re looking at fresh new touring and fresh new on-sales in the market,” says Semmel Concerts head of international booking Sina Hall.

“There’s a lot of good things happening and a lot of very healthy sales going on right now”

“People are definitely out, and they want adventure and to experience live and all the different aspects of it, whether that is an exhibition or a musical or a show. There’s a lot of good things happening and a lot of very healthy sales going on right now.”

But while the pandemic seems to have engendered a rolling wave of demand for big-name live entertainment, its fallout, and that of other local and regional complications, is still being felt in numerous ways.

Germany was the only G7 economy to shrink last year, in the teeth of a painful energy crisis, sluggish productivity, low public investment, and an aging population. For the live business, the sector-specific challenges are crowding in, too, chief among them the soaring costs troubling the business.

“I think the market in Germany has all different aspects,” says DEAG CEO Detlef Kornett. “It is good, and it is tough at the same time. When you look at the big brand names out there touring on their own, from AC/DC to Adele, they can ask for almost any price and do experiments never seen before. On the flipside, I think it is tough for small- and medium-sized bands, because costs have increased so much that touring or individual shows become a challenge.”

Most promoters, while broadly upbeat, also draw a distinction between touring and festivals – the former essentially thriving, the latter particularly exposed to mounting labour, production, energy, and talent costs.

“Artists are looking at getting more money out of touring, and the competition between promoters is getting harder and harder”

Are promoters sending out frantic distress signals? Not necessarily – the engine is still firing, the tickets are still selling, Germany is still a muscular market. But in a world that has had some unpredictable shocks in the past few years, there are clouds in the sky even on sunny days.

“I think the market’s become quite tight,” says Wizard Live managing director Oliver Hoppe. “I think the artists are looking at getting more money out of touring, and the competition between promoters is getting harder and harder. Everybody has increased costs; people have less money in their pocket. I’m not complaining, we’re doing quite good. But it’s just a lot of variables that you have to factor in. It feels a lot more like work than it did before the pandemic, I guess.”

Promoters
Germany houses some of Europe’s strongest and most industrious promoters, and these days, they move in packs.

Of the local corporates, CTS Eventim holds weighty stakes in some of Germany’s biggest players, including Semmel Concerts, FKP Scorpio, DreamHaus, Peter Rieger Konzertagentur, and heavyweight regional promoters including ARGO Konzerte, Dirk Becker Entertainment, and Promoters Group Munich – to add to venues such as the Lanxess Arena in Cologne and the Waldbühne in Berlin.

DEAG likewise has promoters and festival properties the length and breadth of the country, from Frankfurt’s Wizard Promotions and Munich’s Global Concerts to I-Motion in Mülheim-Kärlich, whose electronic festivals include Nature One in Kastellaun, Mayday in Dortmund, and Ruhr-in-Love in Oberhausen.

Live Nation GSA launched in 2016 under the father-and-son leadership of Marek and André Lieberberg, since adding a majority stake in Goodlive to the group.

Elsewhere, there remain independents, including Berlin’s MCT Agentur, which bridges everything from clubs to Rammstein and Robbie Williams shows; Hamburg’s Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion, busy with Taylor Swift and its annual Stadtpark shows; and Berlin’s Landstreicher Booking, with its great strength in domestic artists.

“This whole industry is in flux and has become a lot more complicated”

But the landscape has changed, and in more ways than simply the push towards consolidation. Traditionally, Germany had a very specific way of doing things, involving national and local promoters, and while that setup remains in place, in a globalised world some of those market-specific conventions are gradually being chipped away.

“It has become very complex,” says Kornett. “The German market always had a unique structure of touring companies and local promoters, but the lines are blurring. More and more, tours go direct without really involving a local promoter, and then there are the local promoters that develop into production and touring companies. This whole industry is in flux and has become a lot more complicated, but we intend to take advantage of that development.”

The discombobulated days of the immediate post-pandemic period, when promoters’ instincts didn’t seem to match the new rhythms of the market, have settled down now, but German shows still require a lot of marketing.

“We’re getting better at predicting how people are going to react and how certain things are going to do,” says Hall. “But if I compare our on-sales, for example, to the UK or the US, it feels like we still have a very long on-sale period. It feels like in the other markets, it’s got very, very short notice, like sometimes our big tours have been pushed out like two or three months in advance. And I feel Germany still needs that long on-sale phase.”

Semmel’s business is nonetheless moving forward on numerous fronts, its domestic roster including stadium shows for Herbert Grönemeyer and outdoor concerts for Roland Kaiser, as well as the acquisition of 1,800-capacity Metronom Theater in Oberhausen and the launch, with industry veteran Ralf Kokemüller, of new shows and musicals company Limelight Live Entertainment.

“A lot of smaller and medium artists are facing lower demand and massively higher touring costs”

Live Nation is also seeing heavy traffic. In addition to tours by Billie Eilish, Janet Jackson, Metallica, and Justin Timberlake this year (not forgetting those Adele shows with Austrian co-promoter Klaus Leutgeb), Live Nation presides over Lollapalooza Berlin, Munich’s Superbloom, HipHop Open in Stuttgart, the outgoing MELT in Gräfenhainichen, and versions of the Deutschrap-specific Heroes festival in Hanover, Allgäu, Freiburg, and Geiselwind.

At FKP, this year is a big one on all fronts, as it expands its remit from one of “music-focused promoter to cultural organiser,” in the words of CEO Stephan Thanscheidt, having added exhibitions, family entertainment, comedy, and spoken word to its music portfolio. But the music remains strong.

“2024 surely is a special year for us,” says Thanscheidt. “We’re going strong with seven stadium shows from Taylor Swift and a concert series at the prestigious tech fair IFA in Berlin. Our summer festivals, headlined by Ed Sheeran and other legends, can also be considered top-class, resulting in high demand despite challenging times: Southside has just sold out and Hurricane is very close to its capacity as well.”

But as Thanscheidt is well aware, promoters can’t afford to just be about the big stuff, and there are plenty of challenges further down.

“Promoting the biggest names in the industry is a privilege but far from being the entirety of our work,” he says. “A lot of smaller and medium artists are facing lower demand and massively higher touring costs. Venues are also negatively affected by the explosion of costs in recent years. If we want to keep Germany among the biggest music markets worldwide, policymakers must take further steps to protect and foster the ever more important live sector.”

“Urban artists in Germany are doing a few things that are quite groundbreaking in the live business”

Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion is taking on the Taylor Swift shows in Hamburg, as well as its own 30-show Stadtpark series, this time featuring The Smile, Alice Cooper, Gossip, Sean Paul and others. But in other respects, managing director Ben Mitha believes we can expect a slightly quieter summer than in 2023 – partly due to the Euro football tournament and, less directly, the tour-dampening effect of the Olympics in France – and anticipates a notably busy autumn.

“The football starts middle of June and runs till middle of July, so you’re pretty much missing a full month,” says Mitha. “And also, once the tournament has started, public attention will be leaning very strongly towards it, so I think it’s better to stay away from that period with your bigger outdoor shows.”

Wizard Live celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, with a busy slate of shows by AC/DC, Toto, Bruce Dickinson, Scorpions, Judas Priest, and others. The company recently divided its operation into four divisions: shows and touring, marketing, brand & music connector, and artist development.

Managing director Oliver Hoppe says the business has changed in numerous ways, from weighing the importance of streaming for emerging acts to cutting through with cash-poor, choice-rich gig-goers. Meanwhile, he notes, artists require different things of their promoters. He points to Germany’s healthy, rule-breaking domestic urban sector as an example of the business in flux.

“Urban artists in Germany are doing a few things that are quite groundbreaking in the live business,” says Hoppe. “Some of them are even moving away from having a promoter at all and just saying, ‘Okay, we have so-and-so many followers, we know that if we press a button, we can instantly sell out. There’s literally no risk in putting on the shows, so what do we actually need a promoter for?’”

The opportunity for promoters, suggests Hoppe, is to market their expertise in new, modular ways. “Some artists need more help in marketing; some just need somebody to take care of logistics for them, like a production team would; some need help with legal or ticketing. It depends on where the artist is in their cycle. But I think the full package is not going to be relevant to everyone in the market, moving forward.”

“I think we are very fortunate that we are an independent. We are like a speedboat – we can make individual trips”

Max Wentzler of Berlin-based independent Z|Art also questions the popular conception that smaller shows necessarily struggle for an audience, putting the blame at the door of rigid promoting strategies.

“We have artists selling 100 tickets, 1,000 tickets, 5,000 tickets, and they are all doing well,” he says, pointing to a roster that includes Brakence, Bleachers, Lola Young, Olivia Dean, Ben Howard, and Jalen Ngonda.

“If you apply one way of working to so many artists, which is what I would say the big ticket-company-driven promoters do, then it’s difficult to innovatively come up with strategies for how and where to promote different artists. But that’s where I think we are very fortunate that we are an independent. We are like a speedboat – we can make individual trips. And the others are like the Royal Caribbean, which takes five days to turn around.”

Another promoter questioning the status quo is veteran event producer and talent booker Marc Kirchheim, who has made a career out of corporate and private events, from televised shows at the Brandenburg Gate with acts that include Bon Jovi, to last October’s show with Robbie Williams at Messe Essen for 10,000 employees of German multinational energy firm RWE. He believes too many international artists and their agents have priced themselves out of such shows, and is keen to engage.

“The German market is not only the tours, the ticketed shows, it is also a lot of corporate, private and public events,” says Kirchheim. “But after the pandemic, prices have exploded worldwide, and the big acts are demanding fees that no longer correspond to reality.”

The big tourers and their management should give more consideration to the corporate and private sector, even if their agents aren’t enthused, he suggests. “Corporate and private events are always valuable for international star acts,” he says. “When there are no record sales, just small payments from Spotify and co and indoor tour productions, they require new sources of income. But with the fees that have been asked for since Covid, the international top acts are no longer affordable.”

Festivals
For a bluntly revealing insight into the challenges facing European festivals, look no further than the announcement in late-May by Goodlive’s MELT festival that this year’s event will be the last, after a run that began in 1997.

“Despite our commitment and efforts in recent years, we recognise that the original MELT no longer fits into the German festival market and cannot withstand the developments of recent years without radically altering the festival concept,” said Goodlive director Florian Czok.

“The challenge, not only for Goodlive but all German festivals, is that we can’t raise the ticket price every year – we simply can’t do it”

Even amid a backdrop of well-founded fears for the wider festival business, the reaction among German promoters made it clear that, whatever we might think a doomed festival looks like, MELT – which takes its final bow in July at the Ferropolis open-air museum, near Gräfenhainichen, Saxony-Anhalt, with Sampha, James Blake, Sugababes, DJ Koze, and Romy on the bill – wasn’t it.

“For ages, MELT festival was like the go-to hipster, trendy, buzz-act festival in Germany – it was really like one of the GOAT festivals out there,” says Ben Mitha. “It’s such a lighthouse in the festival landscape, and now it has to close its doors forever. It’s quite shocking, and I hear from a bunch of festivals out there that they are really struggling this year.”

There’s no mystery to the problems festivals face this year, in Germany or anywhere else – costs have soared on all sides, big-hitting talent has been hard to nail down, and the market can’t support price rises that genuinely reflect the mounting cost of staging big events.

“Costs are rising, year-on-year, by at least 10% to 15%,” says Goodlive’s Fruzsina Szép. “The challenge, not only for Goodlive but all German festivals, is that we can’t raise the ticket price every year – we simply can’t do it.

“We all thought costs would go down after Covid, but they keep increasing. And sponsorship income is not rising by 10% to 15% every year. I think sometimes, as festival owners, people think there is always more juice in the lemon, but the lemon is totally dry.”

Germany boasts a giant festival scene that includes rock monoliths such as Wacken Open Air, Rock am Ring, and Rock im Park; electronic institutions such as Time Warp, Mayday, Love Family Park, and Nature One; and indie all-rounders including Lollapalooza Berlin and twin FKP festivals Hurricane and Southside; not to mention vigorous newcomers such as Munich’s Superbloom and small-but-beautiful indie darlings such as Appletree Garden in Diepholz and Watt En Schlick in Varel.

“We have seen cost increases up to 50% across all areas of live culture, mainly due to higher prices for energy, resources, and personnel”

Tricky conditions aside, the market is, in many respects, still a strong one. How optimistic are the big brands?

“My answer can only be two-fold,” says Thanscheidt, whose German festivals include M’era Luna in Hildesheim, Highfield in Großpösna, Elbjazz in Hamburg, and Deichbrand in Cuxhaven. “Of course, our team can’t wait for the festival summer, and given our lineups and commercial success, we’re sure to have set the right course for the immediate future.

“At the same time, we have seen cost increases up to 50% across all areas of live culture, mainly due to higher prices for energy, resources, and personnel. Anyone who compares this dynamic with actual ticket prices immediately realises that we cannot and do not want to pass on the enormous additional costs to our guests.

“Our size as a group currently allows us to produce in such a way that attending a festival remains as affordable as possible. Not excluding anyone from live culture for financial reasons is the most important challenge of our time, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult due to the small margins and high risk of our industry.”

DEAG’s Kornett is reasonably confident about demand, the group having recently announced sales of 4.9m tickets for its 2024 festivals across Europe, up 38% year-on-year. But he is concerned about the impact of increasingly unpredictable weather events on the summer months, which he regards as all but inevitable in 2024.

“Germany has been hit really hard by adverse weather, and it’s a matter of when, not if, there will be adverse impacts of the weather in Germany this year. It has become a common phenomenon,” he says, though on DEAG’s account, he strikes a positive note particularly for DEAG festivals.

“For festivals, the market has been relatively good,” says Kornett. “It has been harder to get a decent bill together, get the right acts for a given festival – it is a matter of acts being available and on the road. But there’s a massive amount of festivals in the summer months, and the consumer wouldn’t go if they didn’t like it.”

“A lot of the festivals, especially the big ones, seem to have been in a bit of an identity crisis, post-pandemic”

Some suggest that the complications and cancellations of the Covid years have left festivals struggling for direction. “A lot of the festivals, especially the big ones, seem to have been in a bit of an identity crisis, post-pandemic,” says Wentzler at Z|Art.

And as tastes shift, there is a strong case to be made for new concepts. Goodlive’s Superbloom, launched in 2022 under the stewardship of then-former (and recently returned) Lollapalooza Berlin festival director Szép, is a recent market entrant that has been widely embraced as offering something fresh.

The imperative, Szép suggests, is to create new and compelling propositions for a changing audience that might not be attracted to traditional festivals. While she stresses that the event is not aimed exclusively at women – Calvin Harris, Sam Smith, Burna Boy, and The Chainsmokers are on the bill – there is clear evidence that Superbloom is filling a new niche. Last year, it sold 50,000 tickets, and this year, three months out from its September slot, it was more than halfway there and selling faster than in 2023.

“With Superbloom, we have somehow created a live brand that people want, especially young women,” she says. “Last year, almost 70% of our audience was female, and when we communicate with our fans, we hardly receive any aggressive or negative feedback. They say they felt super-safe, and they really appreciated our programmes about awareness and inclusion. I never would have thought that this philosophy that was important for me would make such a huge impact already, in two years.”

Evidently, festival success stories aren’t defined by their genre. Stuttgart’s jazzopen celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, with headliners including Sam Smith, Sting, and Lenny Kravitz, plus jazz legends such as Lee Ritenour, Billy Cobham, and Marcus Miller in four venues across ten days, selling 55,000 tickets and bringing in another 10,000 for its open stages.

“About 30% of our €7m annual budget comes from sponsorship by brands”

“While unfortunately a number of European independent festivals cannot survive anymore, jazzopen is on a good track,” says promoter and director Jürgen Schlensog of Opus Live.

“Of course, we are faced with increasing price levels for artists and production costs. However, we have been able to build a strong sponsorship pyramid in the last ten years. About 30% of our €7m annual budget comes from sponsorship by brands such as Mastercard, Mercedes-Benz, Allianz, and more. We are cashless and climate-neutral, and we are proud to be independent and ready for the future.”

And a very different German festival with a clear appeal to its chosen market is Superstruct’s Wacken. The 34-year-old metal institution was plagued by bad weather in 2023 and still, days later, sold out 85,000 tickets for this year’s event in just four-and-a-half hours.

“We are more than grateful and humbled for your trust,” the festival’s promoters wrote in an open letter to fans. “Especially after the difficult start of the festival this summer… we really appreciate that the community stands by us and sticks together.” Other festivals will no doubt be hoping for the same.

Venues
Inevitably, the story of larger German venues is one of a balancing act between healthy demand and punishing increases in costs. Looking through the first lens, the rise and rise of mass live entertainment, especially at the volume end of the scale, is hard to deny.

“The market is constantly evolving and is highlighting new genres that can fill a venue of our capacity”

“The market is constantly evolving and is highlighting new genres that can fill a venue of our capacity,” says Ole Hertel, Anschutz Entertainment Group vice president and managing director, who runs Berlin’s freshly rebranded 17,000-capacity Uber Arena.

“A decade ago, gaming moved into the live event business, then K-Pop took over. Lately, we have international comedians touring German arenas, darts are played before 10,000 people, podcasters are selling out single shows, and German hip-hop acts are selling out consecutive shows – unthinkable a decade ago.”

But with big buildings, of course, come huge costs. The 20,000-capacity Lanxess Arena in Cologne is one of the cornerstones of the German circuit and reliably ranks as the best-attended arena in the country. The arena’s CEO Stefan Löcher reports a strong year so far, with the men’s handball final and 15 sold-out Cologne Carnival events of its own in the immediate rear-view mirror, and incoming shows including Justin Timberlake and Thirty Seconds to Mars.

“The year 2024 feels great so far,” says Löcher. “After the pandemic years and the numerous delayed tour starts due to the energy crisis, it feels like pre-Covid times since last year.

“But I think the entire industry is noticing the increased costs, especially in the tour business. And of course, with a venue of our size, we also have a huge new burden when it comes to energy costs. That’s why it’s important for us to become more efficient in all areas in good time. Of course, that won’t happen overnight.”

“German arenas are increasingly focusing on sustainability”

A new venue in Munich, greenlit in 2022 by the city council but not yet constructed, proposes to be Germany’s first climate-neutral arena, with all its energy generated and supplied onsite via solar panels, geo-thermal energy, and district heating.

Arena managing director Lorenz Schmid reports that the project is moving forward, its plans having been presented to the planning and design advisory committee in the nearby town of Freising in early June.

“The Design Advisory Committee is an official part of the approval process and plays a central role in ensuring urban planning and architectural quality,” says Schmid. “They praised the current planning and gave their approval to continue with these plans. This is a big step and another milestone for us.”

The Munich Arena is only the most notable exponent of a sector-wide trend towards green upgrades and energy initiatives.

“German arenas are increasingly focusing on sustainability, including the implementation of energy-efficient technologies, waste-reduction programmes, and sustainable sourcing of materials,” says Steve Schwenkglenks, VP and MD of Barclays Arena in Hamburg, which is in the process of switching to LED lighting and last year established its own in-house reusable cup-washing facility.

“These efforts are aimed at reducing the environmental impact and appealing to a more eco-conscious audience,” he says.

The Uber Arena, formerly the Mercedes-Benz Arena, is in the midst of its own LED transition programme, which currently stands at 90% complete. Also in the works are an application for AGF’s A Greener Arena certification, the installation of an EV charging station in July, a contract with an outside company to recycle the venue’s paper towels, and the return of bees to the arena roof after a two-year hiatus.

“Long term, we have to evaluate how we source our energy consumption to run a sustainable business”

And while such measures are clearly important, AEG’s Hertel acknowledges that major work remains to be done on the fundamental question of how to power arenas.

“Short term, we constantly look for ways to save energy in our day-to-day operation,” he says. “Long term, we have to evaluate how we source our energy consumption to run a sustainable business.”

In Düsseldorf, the D.LIVE group operates the Merkur Spiel-Arena (in fact a stadium, with a capacity of 52,500), the Mitsubishi Electric Halle (7,500), and PSD Bank Dome (13,500 or 11,000 seated, with the option to reconfigure to 5,500).

Acts and events playing across D.LIVE’s venues this year include Coldplay, Niall Horan, Disney On Ice, Ne-Yo, Bryan Adams, and Troye Sivan, and plans are afoot for the D.LIVE Open Air Park – a space for up to 80,000 spectators that will be up and running from summer 2025. “Over the last [few] years, we invested more than €30m in all our venues,” says Daniela Stork, D.LIVE executive director of booking, ticketing and special events.

“Among other things, we converted the lighting in all venues to LED. In the Merkur Spiel-Arena, we also integrated new full-colour upper- and lower-tier lighting. We have redesigned the VIP areas in the Merkur Spiel-Arena and the PSD Bank Dome, and we have renovated the backstage areas in the PSD Bank Dome and the Mitsubishi Electric Halle so that not only our guests but also the acts and production teams feel at home with us.”

There’s more to the German venue scene than just arenas and stadiums, of course, though it is apparent that the success of the larger rooms means there is less money in the market at other levels – especially the lowest ones. As in all Europe’s thriving cities, German clubs are under threat from landlords, developers, and energy bills, but they are also struggling to get a share of consumers’ entertainment budgets.

“Five years ago, if you put on a show that was not the hottest show in town, 100 or 250 people would still find their way to the show by accident,” says Hoppe. “And that is completely gone. Now, you either have really strong sales, or you have really bad sales, especially in that segment.

“First of all, people don’t have that kind of money anymore. Second of all, people that do have that kind of money have invested in premium shows that now cost 50% more than they did before. Also, I think people like their couch. And those are all the little bricks in the wall we have to navigate in our business at the moment.”

 


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DEAG forms partnership with Black Mamba

Deutsche Entertainment (DEAG) has formed a cooperation with Black Mamba Event & Marketing, organiser of longstanding electronic music festival Sputnik Spring Break.

The Pouch-based festival has been taking place since 2008 and is now one of the largest festivals in eastern Germany with around 30,000 visitors every year.

The 2024 edition of the festival was completely sold out, with headline performances from Cro, Scooter, Nina Chuba, Tream and Timmy Trumpet.

According to DEAG “comprehensive synergy effects with the Group, in terms of production and infrastructure as well as artist acquisition, will lead to continuous margin improvements”.

The firm claims to be the leading producer of EDM/Techno/Urban festivals in Germany, with a stable of events that includes Airbeat One, MAYDAY, NATURE ONE, Indian Spirit, Syndicate, Ruhr in Love, Toxicator and the Kessel Festival in Stuttgart. The new partnership sees DEAG accelerate its growth in this market.

“We have successfully and profitably implemented our growth strategy in the EDM festival segment since 2019”

The German domestic market leads the ranking of monthly Electronic Music listeners with 369 million, ahead of the United States. Electronic Music outperformed other genres such as Rock, Latin and Hip-Hop in terms of growth in online consumption and recorded the strongest growth worldwide in 2023, according to the IMS Business Report 2024.

“We have successfully and profitably implemented our growth strategy in the EDM festival segment since 2019,” says Detlef Kornett, Group CEO of DEAG. “The cooperation with Rico Tietze will enable us to leverage synergies throughout the Group and in various projects beyond Sputnik. This is the next big step for us at DEAG to strengthen our leading role in this segment.”

Rico Tietze, managing director of Black Mamba event & marketing, adds: “We are delighted to have found a strong cooperation partner in our segment in DEAG. Together, we will continuously improve our festival for our guests and use the network within the Group featuring other strong festivals and the experienced team for further expansion.”

DEAG organising more than 30 one-day and multi-day festival events of all music genres in its core markets of Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Spain and Ireland, attracting over 800,000 visitors each year.

Last week, the Berlin-headquartered firm spun off its hip-hop booking division into a standalone brand called District Live.

 


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