UK promoters FKP Scorpio UK and Communion Presents have announced they are merging with immediate effect to form Communion ONE.

Communion ONE’s team has promoted artists such as Ed Sheeran, Noah Kahan, Sam Fender, Lewis Capaldi, Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, TEMS, The War on Drugs and Laufey.

The merged firm will be led by a board including managing directors Daniel Ealam, Mazin Tappuni and Scott O’Neill. The non-executive leadership team is formed by Communion Music’s MD Jamie Emsell, Communion co-founders Kevin Jones and Ben Lovett, FKP Scorpio CEO and founder Folkert Koopmans, and promoter Carlo Scarampi as a partner.

In addition, the Communion ONE team will include Carly Rocket as head of operations, and Julie Morgan, Olly Goddard, Rich Cheetham, Mike Werbowy and Jack Dedman as heads of marketing, ticketing, production, finance and venue programming, respectively.

“We believe that Communion ONE is creating an even more compelling proposition for our existing and future clients”

“Bringing our two brilliant teams together and combining our shared experience, resources and perspectives, is the most natural thing in the world,” says a joint statement by Ealam, Tappuni and O’Neill. “In doing so, we believe that Communion ONE is creating an even more compelling proposition for our existing and future clients. We’ve all had amazing success so far, but in many ways, we’re only just getting started.”

Sam Laurence’s promoter imprint, Dollop, also joins the newly unified company, with Eve Thomas and Hayley Moss completing the promoter team.

Other acts to have worked with the two companies or Dollop include Michael Kiwanuka, Self Esteem, Maggie Rogers, Holly Humberstone, Ben Howard, Olivia Dean, Dermot Kennedy, Jamie xx, The Lumineers, Bastille, Maisie Peters, George Ezra, Gabriels, Hauser, Greentea Peng, Jungle, The Reytons, Kelela and Calum Scott.

Hamburg-headquartered FKP Scorpio, which sold four million tickets across Europe in 2023, hired concert promoters Ealam and O’Neill from DHP Family in 2020 to head up and grow its then nascent UK touring business.

Communion ONE will also produce a new three-night night event series at Bristol’s 15,000-cap Queen Square

Communion ONE will plug into FKP Scorpio’s European touring network, with offices in 11 European countries, and will also produce a new three-night night event series at Bristol’s 15,000-cap Queen Square from 2025.

It will also continue to book TVG Hospitality’s UK portfolio and affiliates Lafayette, Omeara, The Social, along with its new partnerships with Village Underground and EartH. The firm also plans to expand its outdoor portfolio over the coming year.

Exhibitions specialist FKP Scorpio Entertainment, led by James Cassidy and Barry Campbell, and Communion Presents’ sister companies, Communion Records and Communion Publishing, will continue to operate independently of Communion ONE.

PHOTO (L-R): Daniel Ealam, Mazin Tappuni, Scott O’Neill & Carlo Scarampi

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Festival Republic has applied for a premises licence to stage a three-day music event in Luton, UK this spring.

Luton Borough Council’s licensing panel is due to consider the application today (22 January), with the event pencilled in for the Bedfordshire town’s Stockwood Park across the spring bank holiday.

The promoter is seeking permission to stage the festival between noon and 11.30pm Friday 24 May and 9.30am to 10.30pm on 25-26 May. The licence would allow entertainment including live music, recorded music, dance performances and films, in addition to the sale of alcohol.

Luton Today reports that a representation has been made by a local resident expressing concerns about the suitability of the site, which last hosted concerts by Bad Manners and Levellers in 2010.

“As this is the first large scale event to be held at Stockwood Park, there could be people turning up with the intention of listening to the music, but outside of the event area,” it reads.

The publication notes that a noise hotline would be available during the event, while Festival Republic MD Melvin Benn would consult the local community ahead of the event.

Bristol City Council has approved FKP Scorpio UK’s bid to stage a series of outdoor concerts in the city centre despite local opposition

Also in the UK, Tower Hamlets Council has backed a decision to allow medium and large events at London’s Victoria Park – home of AEG-promoted concert series All Points East – to increase in capacity from 500 to 5,000 and 5,000 to 20,000, respectively. Major events will remain at 50,000-cap, but will rise in frequency from 10 to 12 per year.

According to the BBC, Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman says the council had “no choice” but to hire out the park as another way of making money. The authority is hoping to generate £1.58 million (€1.85m) a year from the increased capacities as it seeks to tackle debt in excess of £68m.

However, some residents have slammed the mayor’s proposal as “a terrible idea that would ruin our park”, and are demanding the council carry out a consultation.

Elsewhere, FKP Scorpio UK’s bid to stage a series of outdoor concerts in Bristol has been approved by the city council despite local opposition. The company will present three 15,000-cap live music events in Queen Square from 9-11 August.

The concerts will be the biggest to take place in Queen Square, which hosts the main stage of Bristol Harbour Festival but is near a growing residential area, since Glastonbury’s Arcadia brought its fire-breathing spider to the square in 2015. Massive Attack also performed at the site in 2003.

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FKP Scorpio UK has applied to Bristol City Council for a premise licence to stage a series of outdoor concerts in the city.

The company is bidding to host an unspecified number of 15,000-cap live music events in Bristol’s Queen Square.

Bristol 24/7 reports that the application is for a licence up to the end of 2028, with shows to run until 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and 10.45pm on Sundays.

The concerts would be the biggest to take place at the venue, which hosts the main stage of Bristol Harbour Festival, since Glastonbury’s Arcadia brought its fire-breathing spider to the square in 2015. Massive Attack also performed at the site in 2003.

FKP Scorpio UK has upcoming shows with the likes of Ed Sheeran, Noah Kahan, Mitski, Anne-Marie, Hauser, Slowdive, and The Reytons

However, as Queen Square is situated near a growing residential area, the Bristol Post notes the plan could prove controversial, with the application expected to go before the licensing committee, which will make the final decision on whether to approve it.

CTS Eventim-owned FKP hired concert promoters Daniel Ealam and Scott O’Neill from DHP Family in 2020 to head up and grow its then nascent UK touring business, which originally soft-launched in 2018.

The UK office worked on Ed Sheeran’s 2022 stadium tour and has upcoming shows with the likes of Anne-Marie, Beans On Toast, The Rifles, Nick Mulvey, DMA’s, Calum Scott, Buzzcocks, Slowdive, Noah Kahan and Sundara Karma, as well as Disney100: The Exhibition.

Meanwhile, it was revealed earlier this year that Bristol’s long-delayed 19,000-cap YTL Arena will not open until late 2025 or early 2026.

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European touring giant FKP Scorpio is expanding its recently formed British operation with a slate of new appointments, as well as a brand new partnership.

Julie Morgan has been appointed as head of marketing for UK & European touring.

Previously head of marketing and PR at SJM Concerts, where she worked for over 16 years, Morgan has worked on campaigns for artists including The Stone Roses, Take That, Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, Adele, The Killers, The Spice Girls, Little Mix and Prince, as well as festivals including the Country2Country brand and Wild Life in Brighton.

In addition, Lou Champion joins as head of ticketing. Champion has previously held roles at Live Nation, Warner Music, Kilimanjaro Live, and London Olympics 2012, and was also a keynote speaker at the 2020 ILMC Futures Forum discussing The Ticket of The Future.

Rebecca Nichols also joins FKP Scorpio UK as head of live co-ordination after a decade working as an agent at CAA. At her former agency, she oversaw all areas of artists’ live touring careers, including booking headline tours and festivals around the world, associated brand partnerships and live streaming productions.

“We feel like we have assembled a dream team of the best talents our industry has to offer”

Daniel Ealam and Scott O’Neill, MDs of live at FKP Scorpio UK, added: “We feel like we have assembled a dream team of the best talents our industry has to offer, and we very much look forward to driving the UK business with a group of like-minded music fans”.

Ealam and O’Neill joined the company in September 2020, alongside co-MDs of special projects Barry Campbell and James Cassidy and CEO Folkert Koopmans.

Koopmans says: “I am really happy that we can welcome Julie, Lou and Rebecca to our FKP Scorpio family and also our partnership with Sam. We all share the same values and have the same vision for FKP Scorpio UK. We will use our experiences, contacts and networks to be the best partners for our artists in the UK and Europe.”

FKP Scorpio UK has also partnered with London-based promoter Sam Laurence, whom Ealam and O’Neill hail as “one of the most exciting promoters in the game right now”.

Under the Dollop brand, Sam counts Jamie xx, Joji, Kelela, M Huncho, Moderat, 100 Gecs, Greentea Peng, Dorian Electra, Berwyn, Erika de Casier, Koreless and Smerz among his clients.

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Concert discovery app Hearby is the final associate sponsor of this year’s virtual International Live Music Conference (ILMC), the leading global gathering of live music professionals.

Hearby, produced by Area4 Labs, is an AI-driven live music tracker which helps users find – and safely enjoy – live music as it returns.

The app allows users across 100 cities in North America and the UK to filter both in-person and livestreamed events by genre, time period, postcode and artist.

This year, Hearby plans to expand to a further 100 European and global cities with a goal to “get a few more people to a lot more shows” by widely distributing and licensing the app’s live music show calendar widgets to news, travel and entertainment companies.

“We are very excited to partner with ILMC and support venues and artists across the globe,” says Ian Condry, chief anthropologist for Area4 Labs and professor of cultural anthropology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“We want to remove the friction for people finding live music events in the community”

“We want to remove the friction for people finding live music events in the community,” he added.

Hearby will be showcasing the product from a virtual exhibition area at ILMC, which delegates will be able to visit.

This year’s conference, dubbed ‘Virtually Live’, will welcome more than 1,000 registered delegates and host more speakers and meetings than ever before thanks to its limitless virtual format.

ILMC 33’s new features include video speed meetings, a digital trade exhibition, ‘watch again’ conference sessions, and live voting and polling. And for the first time in our history, non-members will be invited to attend ILMC, pointing to the busiest live music conference ever staged.

Irving Azoff, Bob Lefsetz, Sam Kirby Yoh, Emma Banks, Tim Leiweke and Klaus-Peter Schulenberg are among the confirmed speakers.

Browse the speakers and sessions online and register for ILMC here.

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FKP Scorpio has hired veteran concert promoters Daniel Ealam and Scott O’Neill to head up and grow its nascent UK touring business.

The hiring of Ealam and O’Neill marks a renewed focus for Hamburg-headquartered FKP on its British operation, FKP Scorpio UK Ltd, which originally soft-launched in 2018. The pair will team up with FKP Scorpio CEO Folkert Koopmans to “actively promote and build the UK arm of the business”, according to the company.

Both promoters join FKP Scorpio from DHP Family, the independent Nottingham-based concert, venue and festival outfit. Ealam had been at DHP since 2002, rising to become director of live in 2016, while O’Neill, who joined in 2010, was formerly senior promoter.

Both have promoted thousands of shows across the UK, from 80 to 80,000 capacity, notes FKP, and sold millions of tickets. Highlights for the pair include 18 stadia since 2015 and outdoor events at Cardiff Castle, Leeds Roundhay Park, Ipswich Chantry Park and Bristol Filton Airfield, with acts including Ed Sheeran, Massive Attack, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Adele, Mumford and Sons, Brian Wilson, Anne-Marie and the War on Drugs.

“We are so excited to build FKP Scorpio in the UK,” say the pair in a joint statement. “We have long admired the company’s ethos and ethics and truly believe that it is a force for good within the industry and expanding at a time when we need strong promoters with good values working across Europe.

“Folkert shares our vision for the business, and we have big plans to make this a huge success”

“Folkert shares our vision for the business and we have big plans to make this a huge success and support our artists, agents and managers and give fans the ultimate live experiences.”

Joining Ealam, O’Neill and Koopmans on the FKP Scorpio UK board are Barry Campbell and James Cassidy, the driving forces behind FKP UK’s Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II shows, which have been touring arenas in the UK and continental Europe since.

In addition to the UK and Germany, majority CTS Eventim-owned FKP Scorpio has offices in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Netherlands, Austria, Finland and, most recently, Belgium. The company is one of the biggest concert and festival promoters in continental Europe, with its flagship festivals, Hurricane and Southside, the fifth and sixth highest-grossing in the world, respectively.

“We are very much looking forward to working with Daniel and Scott, who have built up an excellent reputation and have excellent contacts,” says Koopmans. “We are convinced that with their support we will be able to significantly expand FKP Scorpio’s activities in the UK.”

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