Indie Champs 2024: evenko, Greenhouse Talent & more
To celebrate the hard work of the numerous independent operators that make the live entertainment industry such a vibrant – and growing – business worldwide, IQ is publishing its inaugural Indie Champions list.
Our shortlist of 20 companies were chosen by the IQ readership and have headquarters across 11 different nations but service live events the world over, thanks to their various satellite offices and the artists and partners they work with.
The Indie Champions will become an annual staple of IQ, so if your company did not make it onto this year’s debut list, fear not, as you have a full ten months to prove your credentials to friends, colleagues, and business partners ahead of next year’s nomination process.
IQ will continue to publish entries across all categories over the coming days, and you can find the whole cohort in the latest edition of IQ here. Find part one, which includes Alter Art, Crosstown Concerts and more, here.
evenko (CA)
One of Canada’s largest independent promoters, evenko produces nearly 1,600 music, family, and sports events throughout Quebec, the Atlantic provinces, and the eastern United States on an annual basis. Its key events include hugely successful music festivals OSHEAGA Music and Arts Festival, FUEGO FUEGO, îLESONIQ, and LASSO Montréal, while throughout the year, the company regularly presents shows by Disney on Ice, Cirque du Soleil, and several Broadway shows.
In 2024, evenko’s four festivals attracted more than 270,000 music lovers of all genres – îLESONIQ (55,000), OSHEAGA (147,000), FUEGO FUEGO (35,000), and LASSO Montreal (35,000) – while the company also promoted shows by the likes of Madonna, Burna Boy, Olivia Rodrigo, Andrea Bocelli, Noah Kahan, Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliott, Charli XCX, Troye Sivan, Cyndi Lauper, Justin Timberlake, and Sabrina Carpenter. It will round off the year with performances by Bruce Springsteen, Iron Maiden, Cirque du Soleil, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Russell Peters.
Legendary acts such as Green Day, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Justice appeared as part of the lineup for OSHEAGA’s 17th edition
The company’s festival lineups in 2024 included acts like SZA, Chappell Roan, Maluma, Noah Kahan, Sam Hunt, Tiësto, Rauw Alejandro, and Eric Church, while legendary acts such as Green Day, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Justice appeared as part of the lineup for OSHEAGA’s 17th edition.
Jelly Roll and Bailey Zimmerman are set to headline the fourth edition of LASSO Montréal country music festival next August, and the company will promote shows by Kylie Minogue, Jerry Seinfeld & Jim Gaffigan, Heart, Kane Brown, and more at Montréal’s Bell Centre in the coming year.
Fource (CZ)
Anthony Jouet founded Fource in 2011, after finding himself working in Prague as a consultant in-house promoter at the city’s O2 Arena. “I felt there was a gap in the market, but I was frustrated to be tied to arena shows, so I told my boss, Jacob Smid, and between us we set up Fource to specialise in artist development,” he explains.
The idea was a success and, in 2017, Fource opened a second office in Warsaw, Poland.
“Our business model is based on artist development. So usually, we begin at club level with the artists that we decide to work with. And then we develop them in the market and work with all the possible venues in town up to arena level. 95% of what we do is promote shows.”
“It was very important that we are accountable for everything that we do”
Jouet’s approach to artist development is taking everything in-house. “We have our own ticketing [team], we do our own production, and we have our own marketing team, rather than doing what other players do here, which is relying on venues to promote their shows. For me, it was very important that we are accountable for everything that we do.”
Now employing eight people in Prague and five in Warsaw, the organic growth of Fource sees the company now promoting around 100 shows a year in Czechia and 80 in Poland.
Gérard Drouot Productions (FR)
Founded by Gérard Drouot in 1986, Gérard Drouot Productions (GDP) has become a pillar of concert production in the French music industry, while its name is recognised, appreciated, and trusted by artists and their fans all over the world. Now run by the late founder’s son, Matthieu, the company remains fiercely independent through its continual desire to renew itself and to approach each tour and event as a unique project, requiring creative marketing and promotional strategies.
As a lover of jazz, Gérard Drouot quickly added rock and pop, and more recently, rap, to the company’s portfolio, while film concerts have also become a speciality.
Despite the death of Gérard in 2022, GDP has a bright future ahead of it
GDP’s reputation revolves around relationships built on trust, offering artists opportunities to go beyond the norm to produce memorable performances, be they in a 400-seat venue or at the massive Stade de France. Despite the death of Gérard in 2022, GDP has a bright future ahead of it, with Matthieu Drouot overseeing 600 shows per year, including a raft of upcoming shows whose eclectic range is emphasised by the likes of Fally Ipupa, Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, Shaârghot, The World of Hans Zimmer, Cradle of Filth, and Laura Pausini.
Greenhouse Talent (BE)
Founded by Pascal Van De Velde in 2005, Greenhouse Talent has become the largest indie concert promoter in Benelux, with 50 employees across Belgium and The Netherlands organising around 1,500 events annually for 1.5m fans. Van De Velde’s promoting career began when he was a teenager, and his pathway to launching Greenhouse saw him working for Belgian independent Make It Happen before that became part of the SFX/Clear Channel/Live Nation stable in 2001, where he worked as a consultant before creating his own operation.
“We promote international and domestic shows, we are a booking agency, and we organise festivals, comedy, and family shows,” says Van De Velde. “We do it all: production, marketing, admin, legal, and ticketing; and our mission is to remain talent-driven and participate in the growth process of our artists, based on a personal approach tailored to the artist’s career demands.”
“We do it all”
Among the company’s cornerstone events are Gent Jazz (57,000 attendees in 2024) and Netherlands events such as Zuiderpark Live (25,000), Spoorpark Live (22,500), and Country to
Country festival (10,000).
Looking ahead, Greenhouse has sold more than 200,000 tickets for a series of 40th anniversary shows for Clouseau at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, and two sold-out shows with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds at the same venue. And in the Netherlands, the company will host UB40 at Ziggo Dome, Fally Ipupa at RTM Stage, NCT Dream at Rotterdam Ahoy, Max Richter at Carré, and Kaleo at AFAS Live before the end of this year.
Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion (DE)
The company was officially founded in 1962 by Karsten Jahnke, who finally turned his hobby of promoting concerts into a business. These days, it offers touring services in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as local shows in Hamburg, including, for the past 49 years, Stadtpark Open Air from mid-May to mid-September.
The company is involved in festivals like Reeperbahn, MS Dockville, Spektrum, Habitat, Vogelball, Elbjazz, Überjazz, and Baltic Soul Weekender. Touring clients include The Cure, Beck, Childish Gambino, BLACKPINK, ATEEZ, Branford Marsalis, Cypress Hill, Diana Krall, Gianna Nannini, Gregory Porter, Erasure, Herbie Hancock, Ludovico Einaudi, Nils Landgren, Portishead, Royel Otis, Taylor Swift, Thundercat, Tower of Power, Sasha Velour, Walk off the Earth, Trixie & Katya, Van Morrison, and Wu-Tang Clan.
It offers touring services in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
With a staff of 50 employees, this year, the company promoted two shows with Taylor Swift at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion; tours with Joss Stone, Diana Krall, Sean Paul, Cypress Hill, Birdy, Garbage, Kaleo, Childish Gambino, Gianna Nannini, Gregory Porter, and Tower of Power, amongst many others; around 1,200 shows in the GAS region; and 350-400 shows in Hamburg each year.
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Live Nation partners with Canadian promoter Evenko
Quebec-based promoter Evenko has entered into a strategic partnership with Live Nation, building on the existing business relationship between the two companies.
The partnership aims to drive and grow entertainment opportunities in Quebec and Atlantic Canada, combining Evenko’s knowledge of the local market with Live Nation’s global reach.
Evenko, which will still operate under the same brand, will continue to oversee all operations of its business, including the promotion of more than 1,500 musical, family and sporting events a year and of festivals including Montreal’s Osheaga Music and Arts Festival (45,000-cap.), EDM festival ÎleSoniq (45,000-cap.) and country music festival Lasso Montréal (65,000-cap.).
The company will also continue to manage and programme venues such as the 21,288-seat Bell Centre, 2,300-capacity Mtelus, 10,000-seat Place Bell and the 753-capacity Corona Theatre.
“This is great news for Evenko and music fans throughout Quebec, who will now enjoy a broader range of concerts and shows”
“This is great news for Evenko and music fans throughout Quebec, who will now enjoy a broader range of concerts and shows, with Montreal becoming a must stop on major international artists’ world tours,” says Jacques Aubé, president and CEO of Evenko.
“This partnership will allow us to benefit from Live Nation’s global promotional strength to promote our festivals and events in Montreal and Quebec, as well as evenko Agency and Spectra Musique artists’ tours outside the province.”
Earlier this year, Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster announced an exclusive ticketing partnership with Evenko parent company Groupe CH, serving as the official primary and resale partner for Evenko venues and festivals.
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Ticketmaster signs Evenko parent Groupe CH
Ticketmaster has announced an exclusive ticketing partnership with Montreal-based Groupe CH, one of the largest entertainment and sports businesses in North America.
Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster will serve as the official primary and resale ticketing partner for the Montreal Canadiens, a leading ice-hockey team; Montreal’s 21,288-seat Bell Centre; the 10,000-seat Place Bell in Laval, Quebec; MTelus, a 2,300-cap. performing-arts venue in Montreal; and the Corona Theatre (753-cap.), also in Montreal, as well as several high-profile festivals, including Osheaga, Heavy Montreal and Ile Soniq.
All Groupe CH’s teams, venues and festivals will use Ticketmaster’s Presence platform to offer fans mobile tickets and a personalised event experience, including venue ingress and in-venue offerings.
“Groupe CH has experienced tremendous growth over recent years, and we’re excited to partner with a global leader like Ticketmaster who will not only provide the technology and scale to power the ticketing of our teams, venues and events, but also help us amplify our digital marketing capabilities,” says France Margaret Bélanger, the Montreal Canadiens’ EVP of commercial and corporate affairs.
“We know that Ticketmaster’s scale, coupled with our state-of-the-art products and services, will support Groupe CH’s phenomenal number of events”
“Ticketmaster’s digital entry experience will be of particular interest to our fans based on its success in dramatically reducing fraudulent tickets while also delivering creative fan engagement opportunities.”
Groupe CH’s concert promotion arm, Evenko, was the 16th largest promoter in the world – and the biggest in Canada – in 2018, selling nearly 1.3 million tickets, according to Pollstar.
“We could not be more excited to expand our partnership with Groupe CH, a global leader in sports and entertainment, and to deliver the best experience possible to their millions of fans,” comments Patti-Anne Tarlton, chairman of Ticketmaster Canada. “We know that Ticketmaster’s scale, coupled with our state-of-the-art products and services, will support Groupe CH’s phenomenal number of events while providing fans with a seamless ticketing experience. We’re looking forward to working together as we enter this new era of ticketing.”
Ticketmaster employs over 600 people in Canada, including a 240-strong workforce in its Montreal and Quebec City offices.
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Canadian promoter fined for illegal ticket fees
Canadian promoter and ticket agency Evenko has been fined more than C$10,000 for misleadingly pricing concert tickets, Quebec’s consumer protection agency has announced.
L’Aréna des Canadiens, Inc., trading as Evenko, was ordered to pay $10,056 after an investigation by the Office of Consumer Protection (L’Office de la protection du consommateur, OPC) found the company failed to offer a free delivery method for tickets to shows by Charles Aznavour and Enrique Iglesias at the Centre Bell (21,273-cap.) in Montreal in 2014. “In Quebec,” OPC notes, “it is prohibited for any merchant, manufacturer or advertiser to charge a higher price than that advertised.”
According to OPC, Evenko charged $5 to email the tickets or $7 to have them posted, with no option for picking them up for free at the box office.
“In Quebec, it is prohibited for any merchant, manufacturer or advertiser to charge a higher price than that advertised”
The case mirrors similar complaints brought against CTS Eventim – which was resolved in September by the district court of Bremen, Germany, ruling charging fees on print-at-home tickets is unlawful – and Live Nation/Ticketmaster, where plaintiff David Himber is arguing in a New York court that owing to ‘hidden’ booking fees “the advertised price is available to nobody”.
In Quebec, at least, the law is clear: “Traders are compelled to provide an ‘all-inclusive’ price” for tickets, says OPC, “which includes all fees except taxes. For example, in the case of a concert ticket, the price must include the service charge and [any other] fees related to the delivery of the ticket.”
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