Artist & Manager Awards 2018 to recognise Kili and DHP

Kilimanjaro Live and DHP Family will be jointly recognised for their stand against large-scale ticket touting at this year’s Artist & Manager Awards.

The promoters – which, along with AEG Presents, jointly promoted Ed Sheeran’s recent UK stadium shows, for which unauthorised ticket resale was prohibited and thousands of touted tickets were invalidated – will receive the FanFair Alliance Award for Outstanding Contribution to Live Music at this year’s awards, which take place on 14 November at the new venue of Bloomsbury Big Top.

Newly created by anti-touting group FanFair Alliance in partnership with Music Managers Forum (MMF) and Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), the award acknowledges “the high profile anti-touting initiatives of both Kilimanjaro and DHP Family, and their commitment to fairer ticketing for UK audiences”, say organisers.

Annabella Coldrick, chief executive of MMF, which organises the awards with FAC, comments: “Given the unbelievable successes of the FanFair campaign to overhaul secondary ticketing, it feels entirely fitting that we should celebrate the companies and individuals who have delivered a positive change for artists and audiences. Kilimanjaro and DHP Family have both led the way to help eradicate large-scale ticket touting. They are worthy winners.”

“Kilimanjaro and DHP Family have both led the way to help eradicate large-scale ticket touting. They are worthy winners”

Adds Dan Ealam, director of live at DHP Family: “We are all so proud at DHP Family to accept this award alongside everyone at Kilimanjaro. Seeing in person the real distress and negative impact that unethical secondary sites cause to the lives of music fans, and also our industry as a whole, it was a no-brainer to do all we could to support our artists in getting their tickets into the hands of their fans.

“While mass-scale online ticket touting still exists, we’ll continue to do all we can to support the fight and we thank the MMF and FAC, not only for this award, but also for their vital support in this process.”

Other A&MAs 2018 honourees include Elbow’s Guy Garvey, who will take home the Artist’s Artist award, and Small Green Shoots, the awards’ charity partner.

Further winners will be announced in the coming weeks.

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