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Inside the busiest stadium in Europe

Germany’s Deutsche Bank Park was the busiest stadium in Europe for concerts this summer – and is set for an even better 2023, according to management.

Home of Bundesliga football club Eintracht Frankfurt, the 51,500-cap venue (44,000 for concerts) drew combined crowds of 800,000 to its 18 gigs – more than any other stadium in Europe – including shows by Coldplay (two), Ed Sheeran (three), Iron Maiden, and Elton John.

It also hosted the inaugural edition of the continent’s largest K-pop festival Kpop.Flex in May, with organisers reporting that more than 70,000 tickets were sold in 84 countries.

“The summer 2022 of course benefited from postponed shows from 2020 and 2021, which finally happened this year,” Eintracht Frankfurt Stadion MD Patrik Meyer tells IQ. “But we were able to add quite a lot of new shows as well and we are very proud that we were part of the development of the first K-pop Festival in a European stadium – something we worked on for years and that could finally happen in May 2022.”

Kpop.Flex will return to the Frankfurt venue for a second edition from 17-18 June next year. It also shows on sale by Depeche Mode (29 June & July 1), German singer Herman Gronemeyer (2 June) and “the biggest club in the world”, BigCityBeats World Club Dome, from 9-11 June.

“The bookings for 2023 are very good and we continue projects like Kpop.Flex, World Club Dome and Monster Jam”

“2023 looks even better than 2022,” says Meyer. “The bookings for 2023 are very good and we continue projects like Kpop.Flex, World Club Dome and Monster Jam. With those events, we already fill six days on a yearly or at least regular basis.

“We are looking forward to work with our promoters and partners next year after our record summer this year. In 2023, we will act as a promoter for three shows and as a major project we will be hosting a NFL game in November – a project we won through a tough tender process and that we are delighted about. It is important is, of course, that we provide a full heavy load pitch cover as well as many ‘promoter-friendly’ facilities in our stadium, making it ‘ready to go’ for shows of any kind.”

The stadium is featured as part of the Germany market report in the latest issue of IQ, out now, and Meyer suggests its ability to diversity has been central to its success.

“Since we started as an operator for the stadium in Frankfurt we were always driven to have as many events as possible,” he explains. “In that sense, we tried to be a good and reliable partner for promoters and agencies. We also did our own event development for things like the Handball World Record or the Orchestra World Record, which allows us to understand the needs and challenges maybe a bit more than other operators.

“Creating ideas for events and approaching partners with those concept is something we do all the time. Sometimes we are laughed at – sometimes we initiate something new – we keep going anyway.”

 

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Europe’s first K-pop fest sold 70,000+ tickets

Europe’s first K-pop festival reportedly sold more than 70,000 tickets in 84 countries.

Staged by K-Pop Europa in partnership with PK Events and Korean broadcaster SBS Television Network, the 44,000-capacity Kpop.Flex festival took place at the Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt, Germany, over the weekend (14–15 May).

Due to the huge demand for the event, the organisers have already gone on sale with a second edition, set for 17–18 June 2023 at the Frankfurt arena.

K-Pop Europa is also planning to expand its brand with other new dates and locations over the coming year via a partnership between the UK’s Live Company Group and Germany’s Explorado Group.

A statement from the agencies says: “South Korea is now the seventh largest music market in the world, and audiences for K-Pop are growing at an explosive rate. The high demand for KPop.Flex tickets and the rising star profile in Western media show that the K-Pop wave is not going to ebb away.”

Kpop.Flex featured live performances from acts including EXO member Kai, AB6IX, (G)I-DLE, NCT Dream, Enhypen, Mamamoo, Monsta X and IVE.

The event also featured a Korea Festival, a fan fest arranged by the Korean Tourism Organisation with food stalls and special presentations of Korean music and cultural assets.

While the in-person event is over, the organisers are gearing up for a ticketed global live stream of the event on 29 May.

For €14.95, ticket buyers can enjoy a 90-minute ‘digital experience’ and participate in fan-exclusive group chats.

“South Korea is now the seventh largest music market in the world, and audiences for K-Pop are growing at an explosive rate”

K-Pop Europa isn’t the only promoter bringing K-pop to Europe. It was recently announced that TEG MJR is to promote the UK’s first-ever K-pop festival, taking place in London this summer.

HallyuPopFest, previously held in Singapore in 2018 and 2019, is scheduled for 9 and 10 July at OVO Arena Wembley (cap. 12,500).

According to a new report, more than 2.8 million fans are forecast to attend K-pop events outside of Korea in 2022.

South Korea-based financial investment company Hyundai Motor Securities (HMS) projects that acts represented by management firm HYBE, such as BTS, Tomorrow X Together and Enhypen, will draw 1.27m concertgoers outside their homeland on their own.

South Korea’s capital city, Seoul, is also gearing up for growing demand for the genre, with the development of two new arenas dedicated to K-pop.

K-pop, media giant CJ ENM and AEG have begun construction on an arena in the capital’s Goyang City, slated to open in 2024.

The venue, dubbed CJ LiveCity Arena, is reportedly designed to accommodate 20,000 indoor attendees, with the capacity to extend to another 40,000 outdoors.

Meanwhile, South Korean IT giant Kakao and the Seoul metropolitan government will start building a K-pop arena in Seoul’s northern Dobong district, this June.

Expected to be complete in October 2025, Seoul Arena will reportedly include a concert venue boasting state-of-the-art sound equipment, with a seating capacity of around 19,000 and a maximum capacity of 28,000 for standing events.

 

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