Bulgaria’s FEST Team has shared ambitions to offer full-service tours of Eastern Europe following the firm’s acquisition of Charmenko, which closed this week.

FEST Team is a Sofia-based full-service promoter, founded in 2012, that organises festivals such as the biggest rock and metal festival in Bulgaria, Hills of Rock Festival, with headliners such as Korn, Slipknot, Bring Me The Horizon, the Sofia Solid series, and Spice Music Festival. The firm has also promoted concerts with the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Ed Sheeran, Andrea Bocelli, Guns ‘n Roses, Robbie Williams, Rod Steward, Iron Maiden and more.

Founded in the late 1980s, Istanbul-headquartered Charmenko is an Eastern European promoter, talent buyer and artist agency, with staff and offices in Poland, Czechia & Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia.

While the two firms previously maintained a co-promoting partnership in the Baltic States and Bulgaria, FEST Team CEO Stefan Elenkov hopes the acquisition will transform Eastern Europe’s touring offering.

“This [kind of tour] can create revenue potential similar to a Central European tour with the same or bigger profits”

“Our goal over the next two to three years is to establish a solid and well-structured network for mini-tours for developing or new artists across Eastern Europe together with our current partners,” Elenkov tells IQ. “But this goes beyond just booking artists – we aim to provide a full-service package, covering everything from production – staging, lighting, and sound, backstage services, logistics, ticketing and marketing. FEST Team prides itself on being a 360-degree company that can facilitate these tours seamlessly, while Charmenko will open the right doors with agents and talent buyers.

“We want to sit at the table with agents and our partners and present a structured, well-organised touring model, offering, for example, a 10-city circuit across Eastern Europe within two to three weeks. This can create revenue potential similar to a Central European tour with significantly optimised costs with the same or bigger profits.”

Elenkov argues that optimised production and logistical costs in Eastern Europe mean that profit margins for touring artists could be much bigger than in Western Europe.

“We’re not going to make any compromises, we are optimising the process. The quality of services here is the same as Western standards, at prices relevant to local reality. When you have in mind that artist fees and ticket prices in our region are comparable to Central and sometimes Western Europe, the potential for increased profits, especially in percentage-based deals, becomes clear.”

“I think we can develop our talent-buying work further in the wider region for festivals, self-promoting venues and indie promoters”

“Fest Team cannot compete with massive markets like Germany, France, or the UK, that’s not our aim. Instead, we want to position our region as a strong secondary touring market, capable of offering a competitive addition to Central Europe. Once we prove this model works, we believe more artists will see Eastern Europe as a must-visit touring destination.”

Charmenko’s founder and owner, Nick Hobbs, tells IQ the acquisition will also be beneficial for the firm’s talent-buying business, which operates on behalf of events, venues and concert organisers in Finland, the rest of the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Moldova, Greece & Cyprus, the Caucuses and Egypt, as well as the Baltic States and Bulgaria.

“I think we can develop our talent-buying work further in the wider region for festivals, self-promoting venues and independent promoters. I also feel that we can strengthen what we do as promoters and co-promoters, especially by focusing on what’s best for artist development, which isn’t always the highest offer in my view,” he tells IQ. “I expect us to further develop our own roster of artists, especially by focusing on talent from the less obvious parts of the globe, for whom Britain and North America are perhaps not primary international markets.”

Hobbs founded Charmenko in London in the 1980s before relocating to Istanbul in 2003. The firm later opened offices in Czechia and Poland (2004), Serbia (2018), and Croatia (2021).

It has promoted concerts with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Måneskin, The Chainsmokers, Arctic Monkeys, Marshmello, Rammstein, The National, Green Day, Die Antwoord, Central Cee, Franz Ferdinand, Sting, Tame Impala and Iron Maiden.

At the end of last year, FEST Team’s Elenkov told IQ that the Bulgarian market is open for international stadium shows. Read the full article here.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

European festival organisers are capitalising on the growth of electronic dance music (EDM) with new dedicated events.

Next year, Primavera Sound Porto in Portugal will hold an extra day on Sunday 15 June dedicated to EDM – the lineup and details of which are yet to be announced.

The 12th edition of the festival will return to the city’s Parque da Cidade between 12–15 June 2025, the week after Primavera Sound Barcelona.

Charli XCX, Central Cee, Jamie xx, Beach House, Deftones, Fontaines DC, HAIM and Turnstile are among the acts that were today confirmed for Primavera Sound Porto 2025.

Elsewhere, FEST Team is planning to launch Bulgaria’s first major EDM festival in Sofia next summer.

Belgian DJ and record producer Lost Frequencies is the first confirmed headliner for the three-day event, named Aura.

Having brought international EDM stars such as Armin Van Buuren, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike to the market, FEST Team CEO Stefan Elenkov told IQ that he’s banking on the genre.

“I really believe we will be recognised as the company that organised the best EDM party in the country,” he says.

The global dance music business saw 17% revenue growth in 2023 to a valuation of $11.8bn

Meanwhile, Belgium has gained a new five-day festival and conference dedicated to EDM called Abrupt.

The inaugural edition took place in Brussels earlier this month and comprised seven concerts, six club nights and numerous debates and workshops.

Organised by the non-profit Arty Farty Brussels, the festival took over iconic music venues and clubs such as Botanique, the C12, Bozar and the Ancienne Belgique.

The increasing popularity of EDM is not just underscored by new events but also by the growth of pre-existing ones.

C2C Festival in Turin, which has spawned 22 editions, has gone from strength to strength in recent years.

Organisers yesterday (6 November) reported the highest attendance yet for the 2024 edition, which was the third consecutive sell-out.

This growth is further evidenced by the IMS Business Report 2024, which declared a ‘golden era’ for the global dance music business after 17% revenue growth in 2023 to a valuation of $11.8bn.

Take a closer look at key numbers and trends that are shaping the global electronic music scene here.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

FEST Team founder and CEO Stefan Elenkov has told IQ that the Bulgarian market is open for international stadium shows.

Founded in 2012, the Sofia-based full-service promoter organises festivals such as the Sofia Solid series, Hills of Rock Festival, and Spice Music Festival, and has worked with artists including Arctic Monkeys, Iron Maiden, Tom Jones, Lenny Kravitz, Franz Ferdinand, Editors and Pantera.

This year, FEST Team realised a long-standing ambition of expanding into stadium shows with international artists, promoting concerts with the likes of Ed Sheeran and Andrea Bocelli at the National Stadium in Sofia.

In the past decade or so, Bulgaria has hosted just a handful of stadium concerts by international acts such as Imagine Dragons (2023), Roger Waters and Bon Jovi (2013) and Guns N’ Roses (2012) but FEST Team has been determined to make the country a viable tour stop for A-list artists.

“Bulgaria is an undervalued market,” Elenkov tells IQ. “Many people think that in Bulgaria you cannot sell tickets at decent prices because the economics is bad but we’ve proved otherwise. People have decent incomes and they can afford to pay good money for quality entertainment.”

There was no better proof of concept than Sheeran’s first-ever performance in Bulgaria in August, which sold 60,000 tickets and drew an audience comprising 98% Bulgarians. FEST Team also hailed “great success” with Andrea Bocceli’s show, which took place two weeks later at the same stadium.

“People have decent incomes and they can afford to pay good money for quality entertainment”

“I believe that, now, more and more artists will see that the Bulgarian market is ready for big artists,” Elenkov tells IQ.

Until now, Sofia’s National Stadium has been the only viable venue for international stadium shows but it has lacked the infrastructure needed to seamlessly host big tours, according to the FEST Team CEO.

“You could not drive a big truck inside of the stadium, which is a big logistic problem that usually delays tours,” explains Elenkov. “It’s why we missed out on hosting Coldplay because they didn’t have time to load in and out, outside the stadium.”

But in a massive win for FEST Team, the stadium and its associated stakeholders have agreed to construct a new tunnel to allow trucks to enter and leave the premises.

“We are at the stage where the architects are done with all the calculations and we’ve submitted all the documentation to the municipality and the Ministry of Sport for approval,” he says. “The actual reconstruction work will probably start at the beginning of February and it’s estimated to be finished by the beginning of the summer season which would be great.”

With a clear run at summer 2025, FEST Team has already confirmed its first stadium show for next year and is in the process of confirming another two.

“This has been our biggest year ever as a company and next year will be even bigger”

Elsewhere, construction has also started on a new 16,000-capacity stadium in Sofia, which is expected to be complete by spring 2026.

Though the venue will primarily be used by Sofia’s professional football team, it could open up further opportunities for stadium tours, says Elenkov.

As the stadium-level market develops, FEST Team is also expanding to accommodate healthy demand for mid-tier acts.

The company recently took over and refurbished the 7,000-capacity open-air Sofia Velodrome, where acts including The Smile, Bruce Dickinson, Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeath and Corey Taylor performed this summer.

Meanwhile, the company’s festival portfolio has expanded with the acquisition of urban city festival Sofia Live, and the launch of a new EDM festival called Aura.

And with an offer placed to purchase Eastern European promoter, talent buyer and artist agency Charmenko, it’s perhaps no surprise that 2024 has been a historic year for FEST Team.

“This has been our biggest year ever as a company and next year will be even bigger,” says Elenkov.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Local, independent promoters have spoken to IQ about how they’re breaking ground in their markets with record ticket sales for Ed Sheeran’s 2024 European tour.

The European leg of Sheeran’s + – = ÷ x (Mathematics) Tour is due to kick off on 8 June 2024 in Italy, making 20 stops at a mix of stadiums and festivals across the continent.

The first stadium stop on the AEG Presents promoted-outing will be at Ta’ Qali National Park (cap. 30,000), marking the 32-year-old’s first-ever concert in Malta.

According to one of the show’s local promoters, Nigel Camilleri at NNG Promotions, the 26 June 2024 concert has broken “all records” in the island country.

“The number of tickets in an hour, total number of ticket sales in one day, as well as total gross amount of ticket sales in an hour and in a day,” lists Camilleri, who is promoting the gig alongside AEG and Greatt.

“Hopefully, this will open more doors which were previously closed or only ajar”

“The adrenaline rush when the ticket sales opened was indescribable,” he continues. “It’s not often, at least in Malta, that one gets to promote a concert of an artist who appeals to such a wide-ranging audience.”

Camilleri says hosting a star of Sheeran’s size helps to put Malta – which is isolated from mainland Europe – on the map for other blockbuster tours.

“It is a great triumph for us because we have proven that the Maltese market can sustain an A-level artist such as Ed Sheeran,” he adds. “We have been working towards and building up to this moment for many years and admittedly there was an element of luck with the stars aligning for it to happen.

“As a company, it is a major feather in our cap and hopefully, this will open more doors which were previously closed or only ajar.”

Bulgarian promoter FEST Team is also hoping the success of Sheeran’s show at Vasil Levski Stadium in Sofia (31 August) will be a calling card for other A-list artists.

“[We hope] more prominent artists will acknowledge Bulgaria as a substantial market with tour potential”

“Our aspiration is that the success of this event will encourage more prominent artists to acknowledge Bulgaria and the Balkan region as a substantial market with tour potential,” FEST Team’s Stefan Elenkov tells IQ.

The Sofia-based full-service promoter sold all 60,000 tickets to the Bulgaria date in the first 24 hours of the on-sale. It beat the previous record set in 2009 by Madonna who sold 19,000 tickets in the first 24 hours for a 55,000-capacity show.

“This indeed is a truly remarkable achievement,” says Elenkov. “It is important to mention that a show of this magnitude hasn’t taken place in Bulgaria since 2009.”

Staging the biggest-ever concert in Bulgaria, which is yet to be included in the Schengen Area, hasn’t been without its challenges but Elenkov says his team has been “excited to embrace them”.

“After dedicating eight months to negotiations and detailed planning, we managed to successfully overcome various infrastructural and logistic challenges associated with the venue,” says Elenkov.

“Ticket Station Bulgaria is handling a show of such magnitude for the first time and has met the tour’s criteria”

“Anticipating Bulgaria and Romania’s inclusion in the Schengen area, we expect even fewer logistical challenges, making future tour planning considerably more structured. The routing Budapest – Bucharest – Sofia – Athens—would essentially become practically borderless.”

Another source of pride for FEST Team is the reported absence of tickets for Sheeran’s Bulgaria date on Viagogo.

“This demonstrates our success in implementing stringent security measures, ensuring that only real people have bought tickets for the show,” adds Elenkov. “This marks an important milestone – Ticket Station Bulgaria is handling a show of such magnitude for the first time and has precisely met the tour’s criteria.”

Sheeran’s team has long taken an aggressive stance against the secondary ticketing market, opting to use 100% mobile digital ticketing technology to keep tickets in the hands of fans.

The tour’s local promoters in Lithuania also have a lot to celebrate after sales for Sheeran’s two 2024 dates in the country broke “all previous entertainment sales records” across the Baltic states.

“By selling the most tickets of any artist in the Baltics, Sheeran has set yet another record”

According to L Tips Agency – which is organising Sheeran’s concerts in the Baltics for the third time – the first concert sold out in just over 24 hours the second is already more than 50% sold out, nine months in advance.

Provided both dates in Lithuania sell out, Sheeran will perform to 90,000 fans across the 3 and 4 August at Darius and Girėnas Stadium in Kaunas.

“In 2019, he set the record for the most visited international artist show of all time in Latvia with an attendance of approximately 50,000 people,” says Gints Putnins, owner of L Tips Agency. “Now a new record has been set for the whole of the Baltics!”

The Agency, which is one of the largest independent promoters in the Baltic States, is promoting the concert alongside FKP Scorpio.

Folkert Koopmans, founder & CEO of FKP Scorpio, adds: “By selling the most tickets of any artist in the Baltics, Ed Sheeran has set yet another record. We’re proud and happy to be promoting the shows and couldn’t have done so without the support of all local stakeholders and our partner agencies. L Tips Agency’s work has been invaluable in making the second-ever music concert in Kaunas stadium possible. We’re already looking forward to seeing everything coming together in August 2024!”

The 32-year-old’s forthcoming Dubai concerts could become the best-selling shows in UAE history

Sheeran’s record-breaking streak doesn’t stop at independent promoters, nor does it stop in Europe. As previously reported in IQ, the 32-year-old’s forthcoming Dubai concerts could become the best-selling shows in UAE history, according to All Thing Live Middle East CEO Thomas Ovesen.

The British singer-songwriter is due to play the Sevens Stadium from 19-20 January 2024 in what are being called the largest open-air concerts ever to take place in Dubai.

The dates, which will see Sheeran perform “in the round”, will be his first in the Middle East since playing at the city’s Autism Rocks Arena in November 2017, which attracted a sell-out 23,272 crowd.

Last month, Sheeran concluded the North American leg of his Mathematics tour, with the final date on 28 October at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Sheeran is represented by Marty Diamond and Ash Lewis at Wasserman for US and Canada, and Jon Ollier at One Finiix Live for the rest of the world.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Nothing But Thieves and Franz Ferdinand will perform their first-ever concerts in Bulgaria as part of a new series organised by FEST Team.

The two UK bands will be joined by Finnish-Bulgarian act Hayes & Y for the first concert in the Burgas Summer Live series, on 11 August.

The 11,000-capacity series will take place in the seaside city of Burgas, on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, with more concerts to be announced.

The 11,000-capacity series will take place in the seaside city of Burgas, with more concerts to be announced

Fest Club members tomorrow (24 March) can purchase discounted tickets starting at BGN 88 (€45). The general sale starts on Monday (27), with tickets starting from BGN 99 (€51).

News of the new concert series comes a week after FEST Team, Bulgaria’s largest live music company, cancelled two of its marquee festivals for 2023.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Bulgaria’s biggest rock festival will not take place in 2023 after organisers struggled to book “a quality music programme in the current economic climate”.

Hills of Rock (cap. 15,000) has been held since 2017 at the Rowing Base in Plovdiv, inviting 150 domestic and international rock and metal acts to perform each year.

Slipknot, Iron Maiden, Evanescence, Sabaton, Judas Priest and Disturbed are among the biggest names that have previously played at the three-day summer festival.

Promoter FEST Team announced the cancellation yesterday (15 March), weeks after it confirmed that the Sofia edition of Hills of Rock would not be held this year.

“It has proven to be a real challenge to provide a quality music programme in the current economic climate and we at the Fest Team are not prepared to sacrifice the quality of our festival,” reads a statement from the promoter.

“Therefore, we have come to the conclusion that it is best to focus our efforts on providing the necessary foundation for a stable continuity of the festival next year instead of offering you a compromise line-up this year.

“Over the last few years, together with our partners, we have dedicated all our efforts and resources to providing a first-class music festival with high-quality of programme and production and accompanying entertainment that our audiences deserve and look forward to.

“Fest Team are not prepared to sacrifice the quality of our festival”

“We have the ambition in 2024 to organise the strongest Hills of Rock Plovdiv to date. The bands that you wanted and for which we are already in negotiations are huge names – a dream of every devoted rock and metal fan, and we will share the dates with you as soon as possible.”

Hills of Rock ticketholders can request a refund or hold onto their passes for the 2024 instalment.

FEST Team have also cancelled Bulgaria’s only family music and art festival, ARTE Feastival. The three-day festival has been held since 2021 in Velingrad, welcoming 12,000 visitors each year.

“Unfortunately, despite numerous public discussions in the last two years and the support of the municipality of Velingrad and the hosts from the ARTE Hotel, the organisers do not find the necessary local and communal support for its holding. Although local businesses have direct economic and image benefits to support the long-term occurrence of such events in their territory,” reads a statement from FEST Team.

“The sharp increase in prices of hotel and other tourist services on the territory of Velingrad during the period of the festival does not help its holding, on the contrary, it makes it difficult for the audience of the festival.”

FEST Team says ticketholders should request a refund, and that it will announce a new location for the family festival soon.

In addition to Hills of Rock and ARTE Feastival, the Sofia-based full-service promoter organises Solar Summer and SPICE Music festival.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

FEST Team founder and CEO Stefan Elenkov has spoken to IQ about how the company came out of the pandemic stronger than ever and why artists should include Bulgaria in their touring plans.

Founded in 2012, the Sofia-based full-service promoter organises festivals such as Hills of Rock, ARTE Feastival and SPICE Music Festival, and has worked with artists including Lenny Kravitz, Five Finger Death Punch, Sting, Papa Roach, Hollywood Undead, Bryan Adams and Tom Jones.

With a core team of around 100 employees, FEST Team is the largest live music company in Bulgaria and works with Live Nation, Charmenko and Cobra Agency.

During the pandemic, the company managed to launch a new festival, draw a sensational amount of sponsorship and find common ground with the competition. Now, Fest Team is on a mission to make Bulgaria an unmissable stop for tours…

Was it possible to hold events in Bulgaria during the pandemic?
I think we were the only company to pull off a festival in 2020 – Spice Music Festival. It was a very positive thing that happened that summer in Bulgaria and people were so enthusiastic and so happy that they could be together again, even though there were some restrictions. We managed to gather something like 8,000 people, which was amazing for that summer. Unfortunately, not enough people decided to come to the festivals. It was a very difficult year for us. In 2021, we did three festivals and including a new one called Arte Feastival, which was the first family festival in Bulgaria.

What kind of challenges did you have to overcome?
There were huge problems with the logistics and I believe all artists felt it. We almost lost two of our biggest concerts – Slipknot and Arctic Monkeys – due to logistic problems and transportation. Luckily, we solved it a couple of hours before the concerts and actually, the bands couldn’t believe it because the problems were out of our hands but we pushed really hard.

Those two cases were not isolated – flight delays and cancellations were happening across Europe. And because of the war, inflation increased a lot which pushed the bands to increase their prices. At the end of the day, we spent much more than we earned from ticket sales. We didn’t try to squeeze fans and push them to pay much higher prices.

We managed to get around BGN 2.5 million (€1.2m) from sponsorship which had never been done before in this country

How were you able to keep afloat financially?
From a sponsorship point of view, it was a hugely successful year. We managed to get around BGN 2.5 million (€1.2m) from sponsorship which had never been done before in this country and probably in most parts of the world. Because of our reputation, we collected all the money on the market for live events; all the budgets came to us. We’re the trusted partners for our sponsors and have been working with some beer companies and banks for more than 15 years. We just need to say when and what are we going to do.

And your loyalty programme has been hugely successful, right?
In the past few years, we managed to collect more than 60,000 music fans in the country. For us, it’s very easy to reach the target audience for a particular event – whether it’s a hard rock festival or an EDM event or music from the 90s. We have all the targeted audiences and it’s much easier to secure ticket sales and sponsorship.

Has the Bulgarian live music industry changed much since the pandemic?
During the pandemic, we started working with the other promoters in the country and decided that instead of competing, it’s much better to work together and benefit all together from the small market that we have instead of increasing and fighting for the price of the artist. It’s much easier to work together and coordinate between us and eventually benefit more from the events that we’re working on. I’ve been in the business for 20 years and have been working with most of these people in these companies since the very beginning.

Which of your 2023 events are selling well?
We have three big events at the beginning of this year: Eros Ramazzotti, Pantera and the family show Hot Wheels. All three of them are selling extremely well. People are definitely coming back to shows. The war is no longer on their radar and they’re not worrying about what will happen. Inflation has calmed down. So I believe people will have fun this summer.

Do you have any plans for expansion this year?
I don’t think that this is the year for expansion. We are still facing problems with booking artists for some of the events so our focus now for the next two or three months will be really to build the strongest lineups we can to satisfy the expectations of fans.

During the pandemic, we started working with the other promoters in the country…instead of competing

Tell us about the problems with booking artists in 2023.
We’re trying to be reasonable with artist fees. There are some that are three or four times higher than our offer. We simply don’t book them of course because we cannot afford it. And from the other side, we are increasing ticket prices by no more than 20% from the previous year which is still not enough for bands who are increasing the fee three or four times. We are always aiming for international artists because domestic artists are not that interesting – most of them are performing every week somewhere. Our lineups are 80–85% international acts. I prefer to cancel the festival if I cannot book international artists because fans have high expectations for our events and they want quality without compromise.

Where are you making cuts at the moment?
Right now the biggest cuts we’re making are in the marketing. We’re not spending that much on marketing from the production side of view. That very much depends on the artist requirements but in most cases, we’re trying to find the best possible solution in order to satisfy their needs and then at the same time to keep the production at reasonable levels.

With hotels and accommodation, we have really good deals all over the country and they understand the situation and give us good prices for four and five-star hotels. Human resources and security cost us a lot of money but at the same time, we cannot cut this expense because we see the higher cost of living right now. Inflation is reasonable. We are trying to keep the people who work for us happy.

FEST Team is attempting to expand into stadium shows, how’s that going?
We’re trying to resend a couple of offers this summer. Unfortunately, Live Nation couldn’t provide the artists, or the artists rejected the region for their tours. Right now, we’re negotiating for some stadium shows for 2024. I believe that we will manage to have a couple of them and it will be really nice for Bulgaria fans.

Why should international artists visit Bulgaria on tour?
This region is full of new opportunities and has the potential to deliver something strong for the artists and for the fans.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.