Experts based in Hong Kong, Liverpool and Cardiff have shared the secrets of demonstrating the value of live music to local decision makers.

Shain Shapiro, whose music market development consultancy Sound Diplomacy is known for pioneering the idea of the ‘music city’, hosted the ILMC panel Music & Cities: Built on Rock & Roll.

The session at the Royal Lancaster in London explored how a thriving music scene goes hand in hand with a dynamic cityscape. It heard case studies from Marilyn Tham, general manager of Mega Events Development and Enhancement at the Hong Kong Tourism Board, Claire McColgan CBE of Liverpool City Council and Ruth Cayford, Cardiff Council’s head of creative industries and culture development.

McColgan, who produced major international events such as Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture 2008, Eurovision 2023, and the city’s Covid-19 response opening up events for the UK, said it had been a “long story” for Liverpool to reach its current status.

“We’ve got a very clear strategy in Liverpool, which is support your local organisations properly, let them grow and be fantastic artistically and creatively,” she said. “But on top of that, once every two or three years, do these major events that bring huge attention and tourism to the city, and grow the economy as part of that.

“Without supporting the grassroots sector and supporting the cultural sector in the way that we’ve continued to do so over 25 years, it’s hard to do the other because they come and go.”

“Our international reputation can’t just rest on something that happened 60 years ago, it’s got to be about what’s next”

McColgan noted the introduction of the council-backed Mathew Street Festival in Liverpool in the 90s had been crucial to attracting private sector investment.

“It built up that whole audience for the private sector to move in. And now, we don’t run our own festivals anymore,” she said. “Why would we? The private sector’s much better at it. So they’ve moved into that space and they do all that for us. That’s been a long term strategy about creating the ground for a private sector to move in, and we can then use our use our resources to do something else: to do community engagement, to develop academies, to develop new artists and and move our money around and in quite a speedy way.”

And despite Liverpool’s rich musical heritage, McColgan stressed the importance of not living off past glories.

“Obviously, the biggest band in the world came from here,” she said. “You say the word ‘Liverpool’ anywhere in the world and they think of The Beatles. Our job as a city is to keep moving that story on.”

Last September, Liverpool was announced as the world’s first ‘UN Accelerator City’ for climate action.

“As a city in Liverpool – where its whole essence comes from music – you always want to be taking that next step and pushing the boundary,” McColgan continued. “Our international reputation can’t just rest on something that happened 60 years ago, it’s got to be about what’s next.”

“It is so challenging and complicated to build a brand new event in a new destination”

Meanwhile, Tham explained her organisation’s role was to “proactively engaged” with international event organisers about bringing events to Hong Kong, or potentially expand existing brands to the region.

“It is so challenging and complicated to build a brand new event in a new destination,” she said. “So from sourcing the right venue to understanding all the processes and permits and engaging different institutions and associations in that city… that process is so important to make it a success.”

Tham brought up that Hong Kong’s new Kai Tak Sports Park, which features a 50,000-capacity stadium and 10,000-cap indoor arena, was a game-changer for the territory.

“It’s not only a world class venue for cultural arts, music, sports, tournaments, events, but we’re positioned as a landmark for tourists when they come to Hong Kong, it’s a must-see destination for them,” she said. “And what is exciting is that there are more expansion projects in the pipeline, and we see the opportunities, because yes, Hong Kong is very small city of just have 7.5 million people, but we’re connected with the Greater Bay Area, which is 86m people with this seamless infrastructure network.”

Tham mentioned that part of the challenge was to ensure visitors were sticking around in Hong Kong beyond the show.

“We must work together with the tourism and hospitality industry to leverage on the events, to bundle and have different offerings, so hopefully they can stay a little bit longer and contribute to the economy.”

“Clearly, the grassroots music sector is really important to a city. It’s important to what we need for new talent and to grow”

Cayford, who has led on the development and delivery of the Cardiff Music Strategy since 2017, discussed the role of the grassroots music scene.

“Clearly, the grassroots music sector is really important to a city,” she said. “It’s important to what we need for new talent and to grow. I think if you look at the music industry at the moment, there’s clearly been a shift in opportunities of who is making the music and who’s had the opportunities to learn instruments. And I think even if you look at back at government policy from 1970s, it let a lot of working class people have those opportunities. That’s changed.

“We want to readdress that and give kids who haven’t got those opportunities – as well as kids who have – the infrastructure and the venues at a grassroots level, so they can grow into the arenas as well.”

While Cardiff is currently home to the 74,000-cap Principality Stadium and 7,500-cap Utilita Arena, Cayford suggested the city’s impending new 15,000-cap arena would be a much-needed addition to the circuit.

“There was clearly a missing part of the jigsaw puzzle there,” she said. “If we wanted to go and see certain acts, we [would have to travel] to London, Birmingham, Manchester.”

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Promoters, venues and ticketers have been encouraged to “think outside the box” and embrace the various channels available as they seek to maximise ticket sales.

ILMC’s Marketing: Navigating Channels session provided an update on the latest trends and developments in the space over the last 12 months, with the benefits of AI among the subjects up for debate.

Chaired by The O2’s Robbie Balfour, the session featured Nick Faber of creative production house Fabyl, Rob Lievesley of ticketing company AXS, Monica Steyn of Blue Blood Entertainment and Jackie Wilgar of Live Nation at London’s Royal Lancaster.

Former recording artist Faber, whose firm is dedicated to crafting moments that amplify musicians’ marketing campaigns, declared that “creativity always trumps cash”.

“It’s never about budget,” he argued. “It’s always about a good idea done well, so I’m really excited about seeing more creativity, more people thinking outside the box and trying different things, not following fads. And I’m really excited about technology – new ways of connecting with fans and making those meaningful connections.”

“AI is essentially a tool and it does very much rely on the human input”

Faber explained that AI had been a “game-changer” for his business, but acknowledged the technology’s limitations.

“It’s a game-changer for me because I’ve got a very small team and we don’t have the kind of budgets to employ copywriters and proofreaders and concept artists and stuff like that, so we rely on AI every single day,” he said. “It can be a jumping off point, and it can be a tool to deliver a concept art. We can use it through the whole process, through to delivery, but it is essentially a tool and I think it does very much rely on the human input.

“Who knows what it’ll be doing in two, five, 10, years’ time? Maybe it will have some sort of human feel that it doesn’t currently have, but a computer needs an operator – and it is essentially just a tool.”

Wilgar, Live Nation’s EVP, head of marketing & consumer technology – international, is open-minded about AI’s usefulness for the industry.

“It’s not bad,” she said. “We did a test recently with an artist [and] what came back was based on the historic materials that are in the world wide web, per se, about that artist – and it was way off. It was absolutely not applicable to where the artist’s tone or even approach is in this day. So we have a job to make sure that it is properly used to communicate on behalf of the artist, or what we’re doing.

“But the tool is a learning tool. So even a year from now, three years, five years, the tools will learn, and the AI will continue to develop to optimise those things that work and are most applicable as well.”

“If you don’t want it to take your job in the future, learn how to use it”

Wilgar also moved to break down the negative stigma around AI, saying: “People sometimes worry about it as though it’s this big scary thing, and there may be aspects of it that are not ideal and those will filter themselves out or evolve as they do, but there are really cool things you can do about it and use it for.

“There are great efficiencies you can use it for: time savings, administrative things and creative things. And of course, as any individual, you have a job to take a look at it and make sure it’s right – the same way you would check your copy if anyone had written it – but it actually can be a fun tool.”

She added: “If you don’t want it to take your job in the future, learn how to use it.”

AXS Europe marketing head Lievesley said AI was an “interesting one” for ticketing in terms of discovery.

“My dad’s in his mid 70s and he plots his holidays by going on Chat GPT and asking, ‘What’s good in Italy?'” he said. “As an industry, and certainly as a ticketing company… we need to be set up for that human fan, but we probably also need to start thinking about how we set up for the machine learning as well.”

In terms of tried-and-tested approaches to marketing, Lievesley said that email could still be effective.

“We just need to be a lot more targeted,” he noted. “Stuff will cut through if we’re actually using the right targeting and the right content and the right message… How we can best target throughout the customer journey as well: Who are the best people to hit, and when? Who are the later buyers? So email is not dead, it just needs focus.

“We should be not just using emails to sell, sell, sell all the time. We’ve also got to think of a strategy of how are we helping you get the best out of the event? How are we helping our partners make sure that people get in the door smoothly as well? So it’s [about] respecting the email address and the person on it, because you don’t want to lose them.”

“Traditional PR still has its role… But it’s also evolved. Now, you’re looking at the onset of influencers and social media collaborations”

Steyn, Blue Blood’s head of PR and communications South Africa & Middle East, said there was still a role for traditional PR.

“To have a good PR campaign, you’ve got to integrate it with a good digital and a good marketing plan,” she said. “Traditional PR still has its role… But it’s also evolved. Now, you’re looking at the onset of influencers and social media collaborations. They’re a trusted voice – people are consuming more and they’re following these content creators.”

Steyn went on to discuss how the growth of event tourism was impacting marketing strategies, pointing to a recent survey which showed that 40% of attendees for events in the UAE had travelled in.

“We need to be focusing on other ways to reach those audiences, not just the audiences that are currently in that country,” she said. “It’s making it appealing for both the local and international audiences. I think that’s something really big to put a focus to.”

Wilgar detailed the concept of “wiggle and shake”.

“In a digital space in particular, the algorithms and the tools are built to look for things that move,” explained Wilgar. “Even with something that is stagnant, find yourself a tool or technology that makes it wiggle and shake. Anything that creates an emotion, we know has a much higher engagement rate.

“Use the technology to your advantage from a creative perspective. That means make it move.”

She also highlighted the importance of “knowing your fans” as a starting point for campaigns.

“If you literally cannot answer the question, ‘Who is my fan?’ Then it’s pretty hard to do good marketing,” she advised. “And there are so many great ways you can do that, you don’t have to be investing in multi-million dollar tools to do deep analysis – even a good Google pull from a Google Analytics report on a website where cookies are dropping will give you basic insight to a fanbase.”

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The live music industry has been encouraged to diversify its business model and become less reliant on alcohol sales to reflect the habits of younger concertgoers.

Nathan Clark, owner of Leeds’ Brudenell Social Club venue, made the plea during ILMC’s Wellness vs the Industry? discussion, which also featured Mother Artists co-founder Natasha Gregory and Jenni Cochrane, booker at EXIT Festival and founder of mental health and wellbeing non-profit Getahead.

Held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, the panel was chaired by ASM Global Europe SVP operations Marie Lindqvist.

“The entire industry is propped up on food and beverage,” said Clark. “If you take alcohol out of it, I don’t care whether you’re talking about an arena show, an outdoor stadium or anything else, the whole model of live music – certainly in the UK – falls down.

“How can we change the model to reflect the changing nature of society out there, and what we are seeing in trends? So I think there are big economic questions, as well as the wellbeing side that goes with this.”

Clark, who also promotes under the Brudenell Presents banner, said that evidence of the shift was undeniable.

“Anyone who denies it is blind,” he continued. “That’s the honest truth, so you have to diversify your offering.  And you’re seeing festivals pick up and diversify their offering more… When [in the past] would you see a young person at a certain age going out to have a chai latte and going to do yoga? You just wouldn’t have seen it, but that’s the nature of what it is.”

“I’ve been particularly proactive in trying to offer not only non-alcoholic drinks, but diversification”

He offered suggestions for how to keep up with changing tastes, adding the government’s tax cut on low ABV drinks had presented a “cost-effective tax incentive”.

“I’ve been particularly proactive in trying to offer not only non-alcoholic drinks, but diversification – whether it’s Kombucha on tap, or some other kind of offerings on food and drink,” he said. “Low ABV drinks… are now being up taken because the price point is lower, or if you’re a sensible venue, you can sell them at the same price and make a bigger margin, so it’s about keeping aware of the trends.

“If you can start offering those concessions, the audience will repeat buy and come to your venue or festival more.”

Cochrane said that punters now expected a wellness offering at events.

“They expect low and no [alcohol] drinks in the bar, like mocktails,” she said. “It’s just about doing your research and actually knowing what’s going to sell and giving them what they want.”

Cochrane, who also works with organisations including the Exit Festival Group, MDLBeast and music and tech conference Bridge in Croatia, discussed the evolution of the music industry over the course of her career.

“It’s seen to be an industry that everybody wants to get into,” she said. “It’s glamorous, it’s fun, it’s this and that. And with that, there’s an expectation that we should work longer hours than other industries. There’s no such thing as a nine to five, it’s this always-on mentality.

“But I think in a generational shift, younger people coming into the industry are not burning the candle at both ends. They won’t work the crazy hours that maybe we did to get into the industry to try and make our names and they don’t party as much, if at all.”

Gregory agreed that young people were now going out less, citing the pandemic as a factor.

“They grew up differently and have a fear of it,” she said. “I think over time, there’ll be another cultural shift, and so the next generation after will go out more.”

“As an industry, socially, we’re competing with on-demand entertainment”

There was also the cost of living crisis to consider, added Cochrane.

“It’s twofold,” she said. “It’s the financial implications, coupled with the fact that they’re maybe drinking less, they don’t want to go out and they just want to party less… There’s a social isolation point as well – young people have got fewer social skills because they’re online.”

Clark expanded on that statement, saying that technological development had “rapidly changed the whole marketplace”.

“As an industry, socially, we’re competing with on-demand entertainment, whether it be Amazon, Netflix or sport that you can watch on your phone,” he said. “There’s multiple games on TV that they wouldn’t have been able to watch [before], so if you couldn’t get a ticket to that, you went to a show.

“There’s so much more choice out there, so we need to make our offering better when they come out. You have to think, holistically, about what we are doing to make it as a sustainable, long-term business…. Essentially, we’re here to make people get together and have a great time. That’s what the industry is about.”

Gregory, who represents the likes of IDLES, Amy Macdonald and The Teskey Brothers, discussed her own trajectory, explaining how she balanced being an agent with parenting – and how the industry still had a long way to go in terms of support.

“My career is a maze,” she said. “It’s not a ladder, and I’m totally okay with that. I had children, I had them quite late, at 36, because I was shit scared to be honest about where I was in my career and how it would impact. I hoped the way I do things would open it up for so many and I haven’t found that happen.

“I have had to break down barriers at festivals who tell me that it’s not a place for kids, and so I work with them on how it can be a place for kids. I’ve kind of fought my way through not taking no for an answer, and I still do that to this day, because what I’m doing is hopefully opening the doors for someone else to ask that question.”

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Cancel culture and the ethical decisions confronting the touring business were tackled head on in ILMC 37’s gripping Ethics & Activism: Adapting to Artist & Fan Views panel.

Chaired by Media Insight Consulting chief Chris Carey, the session at London’s Royal Lancaster ran the rule over some of the thornier questions facing the industry in 2025.

Ola Krakowska of Poland’s largest independent promoter Alter Art, organiser of Open’er Festival, spoke of the “moral backbone” that guides the company’s decision-making on everything from sponsorship partnerships to its artist lineup.

“It’s about integrity, honesty and also fairness,” she said. “We all know how difficult it is to navigate, but we really stick to this. We always double-check everything that we’re doing, and we really dig into it. Each year we say no to several sponsors. We have cases of companies that we dropped because of moral reasons.

“We do the same with the artists. I’m sorry, but we’re checking you guys…. We really focus on the lineups and we really check the backgrounds.”

Asked whether its policy made it hard to balance the books, Krakowska responded: “No, I think that when you’re good, the good people come to you.”

She also expressed her admiration for Dua Lipa for speaking out against performing at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar due to the country’s human rights record.

“We really admire those artists who just say no,” said Krakowska. “I love the quote [from Dua Lipa]. She basically said, ‘I look forward to visiting Qatar when it has fulfilled all human rights pledges it made when it won the right to host the World Cup.'”

“Where and when possible, we should all be amplifying our voices and supporting one another”

Music and culture executive Amanda Maxwell considered the pitfalls artists can encounter by taking a stand publicly, thereby putting themselves at risk of being “immediately shut down and immediately cancelled”.

“That is the tightrope that everybody is very concerned about at the moment,” she advised. “It feels particularly hot – or has done over the last 18 months – with various different things that we’ve seen going on in the world, so it becomes really difficult. But I think where and when possible, we should all be amplifying our voices and supporting one another.”

Artist manager Bradley Kulisic of Singing Light Music pointed out that some artists “self-censor”.

“If people want to be agnostic about what they say on the stage and to their audiences, they should be allowed to,” he added. “And if people want to confront and put opinions forward and, in turn, accept the accountability for that, I would support them as well – as long as they’re not being disgusting or exclusive.”

However, he acknowledged that by sticking their head above the parapet, acts left themselves open to criticism down the line.

“If you are putting yourself in various activist conversations, you will be held to a certain standard,” he said. “And if, for whatever reason, you’ve crossed the picket line on a certain issue that that community feels strongly about, you will be held to a harder account. And whether or not I think that’s fair… if you get in the ring, you’re going to get hit.”

“More and more artists are  probably going to just disengage… because they think, ‘Is it worth me facing the criticism?”

Alt-J’s Gus Unger-Hamilton brought up the recent backlash to Stormzy’s partnership with McDonald’s.

“I think if an actor or musician who had no history of activism had done a brand partnership with McDonald’s, they wouldn’t face as much criticism as Stormzy did,” he said. “I don’t know how you protect artists in an age of social media because, of course, the democracy of social media is that everybody has the same voice. You can write a tweet at an artist and that tweet has just as much relevance as any other tweet that was sent that day to that artist.

“Sadly, I think more and more artists are probably going to just disengage, not look at their social media, not put their hand up and stand up for good causes, because they think, ‘Is it worth me facing the criticism? Do you want me to lose fans over this? Maybe I’m just going to kind of keep my head down, stay in my seat and just make music,’ which I think is a pity.”

Unger-Hamilton suggested that several issues were “peaking at once” in the current climate, creating a dilemma for musicians.

“The cost of touring crisis for artists is really, really hard,” he said. “Artists are more than ever struggling to pay the bills go on tour. And I’m not just talking about grassroots artists, I’m talking about artists who might be perceived to be at the top of their game, and therefore, where corporate partnerships and endorsements might well be a way to actually balance the books.

“Unfortunately, that is coming at a time of greater than ever scrutiny and a feeling perhaps that people are either perfect or completely terrible. There’s not much nuance in the views of people in that way.”

“Where is the line between approving of a regime by going to a place, or going there and bringing new perspectives and a new message?”

Unger-Hamilton admitted to personal regrets over playing in certain territories in the past.

“We’ve played in Russia two or three times – of course, before Ukraine was invaded – and at the time, I think the view we took was, ‘Where do you stop with scrutinising a country’s ethical record?’ You can’t really say where the line is,” he argued. “Everybody talks about the boycotts of South Africa that went on in the 80s. That’s generally agreed to have been a very good thing, but it’s hard to say now what that equivalent is.

“Let’s not forget that Russia was under a lot of quite correct international criticism for its treatment of LGBT people – it wasn’t like invading Ukraine was the first bad thing Russia had done in the 21st century. We played in Ukraine as well, I’m happy to say, and would like to play there again if we could.”

Unger-Hamilton pondered whether playing in a country automatically represented an endorsement of its government.

“I suppose there seems to be a consensus that the answer to that question is yes, but I’m not sure if that is true every time,” he said. “I do think that there is a validity in the viewpoint that perhaps by going to a country with a repressive regime and bringing in music which people might not have heard before – which might have a message in it that would counter what those regimes are saying to their people – could be a good thing.

“It is really hard to know where the line is. Where is the line between approving of a regime by going to a place, or going there and bringing new perspectives and a new message to that place?”

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BBC Radio DJ Steve Lamacq has called for the narrative to be changed on grassroots venues as the embattled sector bids to turn the tide.

Lamacq, who has chaired UK trade body LIVE since 2023, made the plea during ILMC’s Grassroots Touring – Early-Stage Strategies panel, which looked at how the circuit can turn on a new generation of fans to the more intimate venue experience.

“I don’t think we spend enough time telling people just how great these venues are,” said Lamacq. “There are a lot of stories about venues closing and the pressures they’re under. It must sound so grim… if you’re a 17-year-old, you’re probably thinking, ‘Well, these places must be shit. They’re all closing, it sounds rubbish.’

“If you change the narrative [to], ‘These places are really exciting, you can have an amazing time,’ then I think we encourage people to think differently about it. It’s a safe, brilliant, exciting, creative environment, and that’s what we should be telling people – that you’re missing out, in fact, if you don’t go.”

Moderator Sarah Slater of Ticketmaster UK began the session at London’s Royal Lancaster by reeling off statistics highlighting how touring in the UK has changed “dramatically” over the past 30 years.

“To put things in perspective, in 1994 an average grassroots tour had 22 dates across 28 different locations,” she said. “By 2024… that number has been cut in half, with just 11 dates in 12 major cities.”

“We’re losing all of the grassroots venues in the communities outside of the big cities”

UK-based independent agent Jule Konrad noted some of the complications that had arisen from that shift.

“When the tours used to be longer, you could go to some of the B/C markets,” they said. “Now, with the smaller bands, we don’t go there because they’re not worth enough tickets, so we focus on the major markets. With the bigger artists, if they get 5k in the bigger cities, they don’t want to play for 1k or 2k in the smaller markets, and we’re losing all of the grassroots venues in the communities outside of the big cities.”

Andreas Moeller, who works as a promoter for Konzertbuero Schoneberg in Germany, said the industry could benefit by emphasising the “community” element of live music.

“It’s more about bringing people together,” he said. “Music is wonderful, and most of us are fans. We’re coming from the fan side of things, and we love to be in these small venues and maybe be part of the start of a career.”

MD of boutique Athens venue Piraeus Club Academy, Sophia Kouroumali is also assistant director at Xlalala Presents, the company behind Greece’s longest-running music festival Rockwave.

“We do a bit of both: grassroots in our venue, which is 400 capacity, and then we try to develop those bands to make it to the next stage and come to our festival, hopefully, which is 30,000 capacity,” she explained. “We’re trying a lot of ways to encourage younger artists to take part and audiences to give them a chance, which is becoming more and more challenging.”

A recent initiative has seen Kouroumali launch a competition for new bands, with a festival slot up for grabs for the winners.

“There’s no social media involved,” she said. “They come, they play. We have five bands every gig… and the audience votes, grading every band from five to one. So we’re trying to encourage people to actively listen. Don’t just come and see your friend’s band, don’t just come and see a band that you saw on TikTok or whatever, come and listen to the music live and be a part of it, and you will be the one deciding if this band performs on a major stage.

“The first gig had 27 tickets [sold], and then the second gig had 116 and now we’re already getting phone calls for the third gig. So people are expressing an interest. We see this paying off hopefully, and it creates an atmosphere that is so adorable, because you see bands from 17-year-olds to 60 playing on the same stage, congratulating each other, discussing their strategies, and their audience is blending so they’re finding their people.”

“You are creating so many problems further down the line if you take away the places where the younger generation can go”

Lamacq rejected the assertion that acts were now breaking on social media platforms such as TikTok, rather than on the live scene.

“It’s not like the Spice Girls played Bedford Esquires,” he argued. “There’s always been acts like that and there still will be, and I think that’s a bit of a red herring. There are still big pop acts and they do it in a different way, but bands with a longer career will start out quite often down at the grassroots, and that’s the point we have to get across.”

He continued: “I think [the government] shy away from the music industry in general because they don’t understand it and they think it’s a big commercial thing. But we have to explain to them how culturally important it is and how important it is in so many other ways, because every time you take away a venue from a town which has nothing else for young people, then where do they go? You are creating so many problems further down the line if you take away the places where the younger generation can go.”

Moreover, Lamacq added the business needed to make sure it has “the ear of the next generation” and was putting on “the sort of music and the sort of events that they want”.

On that note, Kouroumali stressed the importance of spreading the word to the younger demographic.

“Grassroots venues may be culturally important but, to me at least, they often feel like they’re becoming irrelevant to younger generations,” she said. “They learn music through Spotify… and they’re almost unaware of the process, so we’re trying to get the message across that The Beatles started from a grassroots venue, or Shakira, or Taylor Swift, whoever is relevant.

“We’re making it a friendlier place and a more open place… One of our major plans for the next season is to have afternoon shows that can cater for the whole family.”

“After the pandemic, people are reluctant to go out. They’re staying in a lot more”

Kouroumali added that the venue was also considering loyalty programmes and ticket offers to entice fans.

“What we’re going to start implementing, hopefully sometime before the end of this season, will be a 1+1 ticket, so you can get a ticket for one gig and then get the second one for half price. Maybe that will encourage people to go out more because another thing – and I think it’s more general than just grassroots venues – is that after the pandemic, people are reluctant to go out. They’re staying in a lot more.”

Lamacq ended with a rallying cry extolling the virtues of grassroots venues, saying there was an irreplaceable magic to seeing an emerging band play to 200 people at the start of their career.

“The best Catfish And The Bottlemen gigs were at Southampton Joiners, Clwb Ifor Bach and wherever else I saw them on that tour,” he said. “The band at their absolute hungriest, not a care in the world. It was fantastic and spontaneous and hot and thrilling – tell people that.

“There’s nothing wrong with big stages and big productions… and it’s lovely when you see 60,000 people come together for one jubilant night at an arena. But it’s also amazing when there’s just two of you, or even if you’re on your own, and you take away that memory of that night. That’s the best thing about grassroots venues for me.”

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The debate over the impact of VIP culture on the next generation of clubbers has been reignited as top executives warn it is in danger of becoming “an elite form of entertainment”.

Moderated by International Music Summit (IMS) co-founder Ben Turner, ILMC 37’s Electronic Music: Where to Now? panel delved into the dance space ahead of the imminent launch of Ibiza’s latest superclub [UNVRS].

Billed as the world’s first “hyper club” thanks to its cutting-edge technology, the 15,000-cap venue is due to open this summer on the site of the former Privilege Ibiza.

“I think it’s going to be amazing,” said CAA agent Maria May, who has worked in the electronic space for almost 30 years. “The team behind it [Yann Pissenem’s The Night League] are incredible. The production in there is going to be epic. I think every artist that is going to be in there is going to make the most of it. Anyone who’s going to Ibiza next summer is going to go to [UNVRS] to see what he’s done to it.”

Today (13 March), meanwhile, it was announced that Calvin Harris will become the first artist in history to hold a double residency at the same White Isle venue in a single season. He will take over Tuesdays (1 July-26 August) and Fridays (30 May-12 September) at Ushuaïa Ibiza this summer with 25 curated shows. General sale tickets cost €100-120.

Speaking at London’s Royal Lancaster, Turner noted electronic music, which was valued globally at $7.3 billion pre-pandemic, suffered an “inevitable dip” during the Covid years, but had since experienced a “phenomenal bounce back” to a “nearly $12bn industry”.

“The whole success of the night is going to be based on if you’re selling out all your tables”

On a less positive note, May admitted to concerns over the general state of affairs, suggesting that young clubbers were shortening their stays in Ibiza due to the escalating costs, and questioned whether the spirit of the island had been “buried”.

“Ibiza was a bit quieter last August, which was unusual,” she observed. “They might have made it up in September, but the reality is it was quieter… because of cost of living.

“I brought someone very important to Ibiza last year, who will remain nameless, but is in the rock & roll world and known to everybody, and they felt that it’s like Vegas now.”

May said the Ibiza profit model was increasingly leaning towards VIP table sales.

“The whole success of the night is going to be based on if you’re selling out all your tables,” she said. “All the investment that’s going into Ibiza has got to be paid for by the VIP tables. [But] there aren’t enough VIPs on the island to fill every single VIP table, so at some point this is going to start to creak.”

May was also critical of some of the circuit’s programming choices for stifling opportunities for newer talent.

“We’re also gatekeeping younger talent from emerging because we continually book the DJs that sell the VIP tables,” she argued. “The whole model now is pretty much based on a VIP offering and what we’re seeing is pretty much the same DJs from the same genres playing every single year. You look around across Europe and you see emerging talent that are selling serious numbers, but they’re not getting a look in.”

“We’re saying that it’s harder and harder to break talent, but we’re actually sticking to that top level… We’re maintaining the hierarchy”

She continued: “An artist that could… be playing in Ibiza this summer is not allowed to, because the promoters don’t know who they are. And yet, in other places in Europe, they’re selling out thousands and thousands of tickets. It takes a lot more than just a hit record and being hot in Europe to have a residency in Ibiza… but there is an element of actually starting to call out the gatekeeping.

“We’re complaining about there’s not enough headliners. We’re saying that it’s harder and harder to break talent, but we’re actually sticking to that top level. Especially in dance music, across the board, we’re maintaining the hierarchy.”

Turner brought up that VIP culture had permeated the London dance scene, pointing to one DJ event where VIP access tickets were priced at £400.

“I can’t stand it, I honestly can’t stand it,” said Pete Jordan of promoter LWE/AMAAD. “It’s a joke, and if we want to onboard young people, we should be really going back to the roots of what it was about… VIP culture is effectively cutting out most people. It’s going to become an elite form of entertainment, and youngsters will just do their own thing – and they’ll do something different.”

He added: “The biggest thing we should be doing is really opening the doors for young promoters to be able to do events and be given a little bit of freedom, and not be pushed too hard financially because, ultimately, it’s a risky business. If you’re 18-19 and haven’t got thousands of pounds to back you, then as soon as you do your one bad show, you’re out of it for good.

“Promoters, DJs, musicians, will keep coming through forever because it’s kind of hardwired into you. But at the same time, we are definitely cutting out some talent at the low end just because there’s too many barriers to getting into the scene.”

“A lot of promoters are going for similar acts across the board”

UTA agent Hannah Shogbola, who represents acts like Jaguar, Helena Star and Girls Don’t Sync and previously worked within the booking team at London’s Fabric, had mixed feelings on the subject.

“I’m kind of split on the VIP thing,” she said. “I think it’s also genre-dependent. For example, within genres such as amapiano and Afro house, VIP does really work. I’m not going to deny that sometimes I prefer to be in a club and be in the VIP section. But in other places, I don’t. I want to be down in the nitty gritty.

“I’m definitely against the insanely overpriced tickets to stand on the side of the stage next to the DJ… But I do think there are events that it is suitable for.”

Shogbola moved on to discuss the heated competition for festival slots within the sector.

“A lot of promoters are going for similar acts across the board,” she said. “Certain parts of my roster that might sit in between fees of £1,000 to £5,000, you’re probably up against 30 to 60 other people competing for that slot. It’s been quite tricky this summer actually, if I’m honest, just allowing myself to give artists that transparency, because obviously, for them, that’s hugely disheartening sometimes. I think in their heads, it’s always like, ‘There’s so many festivals and there’s all these available slots,’ and the reality is there just isn’t anymore.”

“The shows really need to sell out to be successful – 80-90% sold just doesn’t cut it”

Columbo Music’s Marcus Drew, who is also in-house booker for Phonox nightclub in South London and the 15,000-cap Maiden Voyage Festival, described the London festival market as “incredibly saturated”.

“We’re all going for the same kind of space musically, especially within electronic music,” he said. “Two Brixton acts don’t equate to 10,000 tickets. Ultimately, there needs to be an intentional theme in the curation, and there needs to be more community-driven sales beyond just headliners on the bill.

“It’s an interesting point about what slots are available to artists… because of the risks involved with festivals at the moment, the shows really need to sell out to be successful – 80-90% sold just doesn’t cut it. And with that in mind, we’re booking every single slot with artists that have proven ticket value in the market. So even our 12 o’clock slot, our 1pm slot, our 2pm slot, will be someone who’s sold 500 tickets and has proven that in advance. I think that makes it very difficult for everyone else.”

May did see reasons for positivity for the business as a whole, however.

“Yes, we have problems. Yes, there’s a credit crunch. Yes, the cost of living is more,” she added. “But there are still a lot of entities that we work with on a regular basis that are doing really great.”

A report on the state of the electronic music sector will appear in the next edition of IQ.

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The International Live Music Conference (ILMC) returned to London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel last week for its 37th edition, with conversations set to shape how the industry operates over the next year.

The sell-out event, attended by over 1,600 professionals, sparked discussions on topics like headliner booking strategies, festival innovations, emerging markets, venue versatility, balancing wellness on the road, and much more.

While the conversations were wide-ranging, here are five of IQ‘s top takeaways from the week…

How can the business support the grassroots level?
From the kickoff of ILMC, the gap between the ends of the industry was a hot topic.

“We’re seeing the massive disparity between the top end of the business and the lower end of the business needing much more support,” said CAA’s Maria May during The Open Forum. “I feel like there’s a real need for innovation.”

During his opening message, UK culture minister Chris Bryant shared that championing the grassroots scene remained a priority for the national government and stressed its importance to the wider music ecosystem.

“You only get the Paul McCartneys and the Elton Johns, if you also have the people right at the start of their career coming on in every single generation,” he said. “There’s nothing more special than seeing somebody in a tiny venue who then goes on to be an enormous success. We want to make sure that we’ve got that mixture of massive venues and small venues where you can have the intimacy of the experience.”

“We’ve seen an appetite for ticket sales as strong as it’s ever been”

The demand for music is apparent across the board, said DF Concerts’ Geoff Ellis.

“We’ve seen an appetite for ticket sales as strong as it’s ever been [at King Tut’s] and lots of sold-out shows, even in January with just local bands,” he noted. “So that appetite is there for grassroots artists, but also for the big artists as well.”

Panellists on Grassroots Touring: Early-stage strategies opened the conversation on how we keep artists on the road across different markets and, while all acknowledging challenges, spoke about some grounds for optimism.

Fans’ festival desires are evolving: can organisers keep up?
During Festival Focus: Survive & Thrive, panellists dug into how to overcome the myriad issues that are impacting festivals: rising artist fees, steep production costs, severe weather impacts, intense market competition, and a potential headliner drought.

Curating strong branding was a core message from the session, with AEG Present’s Jim King – who promotes festivals such as All Points East, BST Hyde Park and Lido – arguing that there is space for single- and multi-day festivals, so long as there’s a distinguishable identity.

“They’re two different things and they’re both relevant but they should be marketed differently,” he said. “You’re trying to create a different environment, and I think it’s important to achieve that.”

Slam Dunk’s Ben Ray echoed this, citing that their pop-punk/emo brand keeps attendees coming back: “Being a specialist festival, people that are really into that music attend year after year. They will go to Slam Dunk a lot older than they would do a camping festival.”

“We have made a conscious decision to contemporise our lineups”

Camping sites have had to modernise to keep audiences in the fields, with Rock am Ring’s Jana Posth confirming that “expectations for camping are a lot higher now, it has to be more than a tent and some grass.”

A key challenge to the market cited by panellists was the “festivalisation” of concerts, which have built up infrastructure and entertainment to bulk out the traditional show experience.

Rock am Ring’s Jana Posth used Adele’s blockbuster residency in Munich as an example: “It wasn’t just a concert – you could spend the whole day there like you would with a festival. People obviously really like this in-between of festival and concert.”

Despite many A-list acts turning toward headlining shows, young stars are helping fill the gap of festival bill-toppers.

“It’s been tough but we managed to secure a really strong lineup of young artists this year [including Chappell Roan and Charli XCX] and I’m really happy to see them reaching this level already,” said Sziget’s Virag Csiszar.

King added to this: “We’ve got our youngest-ever BST lineup this year and I struggle to think of a time that there were so many young headliners – Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Noah Kahan. We have made a conscious decision to contemporise our lineups.”

“Infrastructure continues to be a challenge”

New, versatile venues will transform the global touring circuit
The development of new venues across markets like Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America was a notable dialogue during ILMC.

BookMyShow’s Ashish Hemrajani spoke about how India’s market could balloon in the next five years and highlighted how a new arena in Mumbai could help alleviate the country’s indoor infrastructure shortcomings.

“Infrastructure continues to be a challenge, and we’re trying to solve that as you build more routing around Middle East and Southeast Asia, because the timing works. It’s the same time of the year, from October to March, April, when you can tour in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. I think anchoring around those markets is a good segue to actually building volume into that market.”

Live Nation is investing in several projects worldwide, working with Oak View Group on an arena in Lagos, Nigeria and with DF Entertainment on operating the historic Luna Park in Buenos Aires, Argentina with DF Entertainment.

Tom Lynch of Live Nation EMEA spoke about The Dome project in Johannesburg, South Africa, citing how the city’s sizable population was a draw. The entertainment firm’s first permanent venue in Africa, The Dome will offer various configurations to best serve its performers and audiences.

“Johannesburg’s somewhere we see a huge future”

“It’s a huge market with a massive population,” said Lynch. “It’s an emerging market, not without its challenges to build new venues, to open venues, etc, but we’re seeing international artists starting to play there… Johannesburg’s somewhere we see a huge future.”

In the Middle East, changing trends in consumer behaviour are prompting new solutions for organisers to stay tapped into demand.

“Because of a shift in working culture compared to a decade ago, there are less people leaving in the summer as you’re expected to work all year, so we’re focusing on building more indoor venues and showcasing more Arabic content during the summer so that families will have something to do even during a normally quiet off-season,” said Paul Pacifico, CEO of Saudi Arabia’s Music Commission.

For venues of all sizes, versatility is now of utmost importance.

“We can configure [the] venue for the amount of people that we expect,” said Ignacio Taier of Argentina-based Grupo Quality. “Therefore we can make sure the fan experience is at its best, and the artist also is performing to a full venue, even if that venue is not really full. We can host general admission ticket shows like parties or [club events to] fully seated shows.”

How will health and wellness disrupt industry standards?
To drink or not to drink? The question has plagued many live music attendees, with discussions about how to supplement slipping bar revenues at venues becoming a focus over the week.

In the Open Forum, CAA’s Maria May raised that young adults across the board are reducing their drinking, and asked whether venues in the UK – where binge drinking has reduced greatly – need to change their business models.

“You’ve just got to adapt constantly because the market doesn’t stand still”

“Clearly everybody needs to innovate and adapt. We’re always needing to do that as business,” offered DF’s Ellis. “You’ve just got to adapt constantly because the market doesn’t stand still.

“Electronic music isn’t dead, but nightclubs have to adapt their model because, as we said, people aren’t coming in and drinking. Not everybody wants to be out until 3am anymore,” he added.

Late nights are a core component of touring acts and crews, who are constantly on the road to make it to their next destination. In Wellness vs The Industry, panellists spoke about the mental and physical toll that touring takes on those working on and off the stage.

The question for the future is: how will the industry change alongside a growing work/life balance alongside a decrease in alcohol consumption for fans and workers alike?

Coldplay may have the answer. In a session dedicated to their record-breaking Music of the Spheres world tour, production manager Chris Kansy said the band and team prioritise the wellbeing of their crew.

“The level of respect that they give to everybody on their team, and the amount of care and emotional work that they do in regard to making sure everything is fine, I just couldn’t be more happy to work for Coldplay. I respect them greatly, and I respect management greatly, and their vision for the band, so having this kind of job is incredibly rewarding.”

“The power of the network starts to bring everybody up”

Superstruct reveals its secret to success
To close out Wednesday’s programme, Superstruct Entertainment co-founder and chairman James Barton shared how the firm scaled to become the world’s second-largest festival promoter in just six years, emphasising the value of partnership and collaborative networks.

“The core philosophy of the business is that it’s about the festivals. It’s about the owners of the festivals. It’s not about us. That’s why we haven’t done an interview. We do our best never to talk about ownership, we talk about partnership. It’s about the brands, and it’s about the people behind the brands.”

“When you get enough scale, and enough good people in the room, you can share information, data and good practices. So then the power of the network starts to bring everybody up.”

Despite their sizable portfolio of festivals — the company owns and operates over 80 across Europe and Australia — Barton’s message stresses collaboration over control as a means of success.

The London-based festival firm helps facilitate operations for events including Wacken Open Air, Parookaville, Tinderbox, Sónar, Øya, Arenal Sound, Kendal Calling and Boardmasters.

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The International Live Music Conference’s annual deep dive into the venue sector delved into new markets, capital city residencies and the impact of 2025’s huge stadium summer on arenas.

Oak View Group (OVG) International’s Rebecca Kane Burton, Marie Lindqvist of ASM Global Europe, Live Nation EMEA’s Tom Lynch and Ignacio Taier of Argentina-based Grupo Quality convened for ILMC 37’s The Venue’s Venue: Anchor Topics session at London’s Royal Lancaster, chaired by James Drury.

Kane Burton brought up OVG’s investment alongside Live Nation in Lagos, Nigeria, while Lynch discussed LN’s new live entertainment space, The Dome, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“It’s a huge market with a massive population,” said Lynch. “It’s an emerging market, not without its challenges to build new venues, to open venues, etc, but we’re seeing international artists starting to play there. We’ve got Tems in a few weeks and Central Cee’s going down there, but then a huge domestic talent pool as well. So Johannesburg’s somewhere we see a huge future.”

Lindqvist spoke of ASM’s projects in Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as the UK.

“Italy is a very interesting market for us,” she said. “We’re involved in two new builds outside Milan: one in Bergamo, which will have its first show in a couple of weeks, and another project in Cantù, also in the Milan district. Here in the UK, it’s such a big market if you compare it to the rest of Europe, so we’re opening up in Derby in just a few weeks.”

“There’s been an increase in the amount of tickets that we’re selling and the amount of shows that we’re promoting, so there’s definitely an audience”

Taier, meanwhile, referenced Live Nation and subsidiary DF Entertainment recent 40-year agreement to operate Buenos Aires’ Luna Park.

“There’s a need for more venues everywhere, and Latin America in general,” he says. “We have seen more venues in Colombia, Brazil and other places, so I think that’s a constant.”

He added: “There’s been an increase in the amount of tickets that we’re selling and the amount of shows that we’re promoting, so there’s definitely an audience. The thing is, all costs have gone up, ticket pricing has come down, so there’s a problem there. But in general, tickets are selling, so there’s an opportunity.”

However, Lynch suggested the market was still currently under-served in terms of mid-size venues.

“I sat on [the ILMC] stage on the old hotel five years ago and talked about that gap in 4,000-5,000 cap rooms, and we’ve not really moved on a huge amount,” he observed. “And when we look across Europe, actually, there’s that huge gap still. We’ve got plenty of large scale clubs here in the UK, the US is coast to coast and France is okay. But in every other country, you tend to have 2,000-cap theatres and then an arena, so artists are trying to do two, three, four, night runs to fulfil the needs of their fans and that’s not necessarily very efficient.

“We’ve got a venue in Amsterdam, AFAS Live, and if I could pick AFAS Live up and put it in every major city in Europe, I would do. It’s intimate enough that you’re playing to maybe 2,000-3,000 fans, but you’ve got a big production, you’ve got high ceilings, you’ve got a good PA and it feels like an arena show.”

“A capital city without an arena just doesn’t make sense”

Taier agreed that being able to offer a level of versatility was ever-more important.

“That’s really key nowadays, because we can configure it venue for the amount of people that we expect,” he said. “Therefore we can make sure the fan experience is at its best, and the artist also is performing to a full venue, even if that venue is not really full. We can host general admission ticket shows like parties or [club events to] fully seated shows.”

Lynch also revealed his excitement at Live Nation’s mission to restore Finland’s Helsinki Halli to the arena international touring map. Live Nation has taken on a 20-year long-term lease to operate the venue, which is scheduled to reopen this spring after being mothballed for the past three years due to sanctions on its previous Russian ownership.

“A capital city without an arena just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Wherever the touring goes, artists want to play in capital cities.”

Be that as it may, the panel raised concerns that certain regional markets were being neglected as major tours increasingly focused on the capitals. Taier said the trend was particularly noticeable in Argentina.

“Many shows go to Buenos Aires, the capital, and they just stay there,” he said. “They don’t come to B-markets or C-markets and that is something that really affects us, but we can understand it. There are a lot of artists that prefer to travel less and do more nights at the same place.”

“You’re creating a barrier between those that can afford and those that cannot – and many young fans cannot”

Lindqvist admitted to fears that some younger fans from outside the capital cities could be priced out of attending as a result.

“You have to buy an expensive ticket, and then on top of that, possibly buy airfare and hotels, so I think you’re just creating a barrier between those that can afford and those that cannot – and many young fans cannot,” she said.

“We all know that you don’t start to go to gig when you’re 30 or 40. You start when you’re a teenager. Building that kind of passion and love for music starts at an early age, and we’re providing a barrier to that. I think we’re going in the completely wrong direction, and we’re also diluting the cultural life in cities that are not the A-markets.”

She added: “Why would a city or a private developer invest in new venues or infrastructure and so forth, if the shows aren’t coming to the city? So I think it’s a worrying development that we need to take seriously.”

Nevertheless, Lindqvist dismissed suggestions the rise of stadium shows could have a negative effect on ticket sales for arena productions.

“I think it’s two separate businesses,” she argued. “Maybe, on the other hand, it’s just creating more buzz around live music and people that get to experience a big stadium show will hopefully go to more arena gigs. We’re having a strong stadium year, but we’re also having an extremely strong arena year in most markets, so I think it’s just good for the industry.”

Summing up, Kane Burton stressed that the industry had a collective responsibility to make sure the right artist was playing the right space.

“Thinking about our buildings and thinking about real estate, there’s a massive opportunity,” she concluded. “There’s some huge spaces, right across the world, that just don’t get used in three quarters of a year. What’s good for one city in one space is good for the entire city. So from an ecosystem point of view, I think we should embrace it.”

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The team behind Coldplay’s history-making Music of the Spheres run have revealed all about the most well-attended concert tour ever in a special ILMC 37 panel.

The band’s agent Josh Javor of WME, production manager Chris Kansy and Live Nation promoter Phil Bowdery were joined by Laura Coroianu of Romania’s Emagic for yesterday’s Coldplay: ‘Inside Music of the Spheres’ conference session at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel.

Since kicking off in Costa Rica in March 2022, the tour has comprised 184 shows across multiple continents, including Asia, Europe, South America, North America and Oceania, with more than ten million tickets sold.

It has also set records for consecutive shows at numerous venues around the world, including ten nights in Buenos Aires, six shows in San Paolo, six shows in Singapore and three dates in Auckland, with a ten-night Wembley Stadium residency to follow later this year.

“The tour has also been heralded and recognised by climate action leaders around the world for its efforts in sustainability, which has led to a 59% reduction in CO2 emissions over the first two years of the tour,” noted moderator Ruth Barlow of Beggars Group.

“The important thing for the band is that every single ticket is sold, and everyone can afford to come to the show”

Discussing their sustainability commitments, Bowdery said: “The band, particularly Chris [Martin, singer] has always wanted to make sure that he was doing everything he possibly could to help in all of those areas. So every time they have toured, they’ve always looked at ways of trying to bring that to fruition.

“It was a commitment from all of them. They realised that by touring the way that we are – it’s quite a large show – they needed to try and do something in the way of sustainability… we have to try and cut down our footprint.”

So far, Music of the Spheres has been seen by 10.3 million people and grossed an estimated $1.14 billion, but Javor suggested it was the former statistic that took priority.

“The important thing for the band is that every single ticket is sold, and everyone can afford to come to the show,” he said. “Having the accolade of the highest-grossing tour of all time is not something they’re necessarily interested in… They want to have the tour that the most amount of people came to see.”

At three years and counting, the tour is already significantly longer than Coldplay’s previous global outings.

“Coldplay, historically, had never really toured for more than about two years,” pointed out Javor. “The last tour, we started in Buenos Aires in March 2016 and finished in November ’17. So when we all started this, genuinely, I don’t think anyone thought we’d be sitting here still doing it now, but I think the way the tour has morphed, and how everyone’s been enjoying it, has allowed us to continue.”

Tantalisingly, Bowdery added: “We’re not finished yet,” as Javor crossed his fingers when asked about the possibility of further tour dates.

“What was very important for Romania is it was the first time a show sold out basically the minute it was put on sale”

Javor disclosed that planning for the trek began as far back as 2019, before the pandemic. He said the cities visited in its first year of the outing were “quite standard” touring stops, with new territories becoming more of a focus in years two and three. Suggestions from fans also fed into the strategy.

“We will get messages because they’ve seen something on their social media that they want us to look into,” he explained, adding that the band’s two gigs at Bucharest’s 53,000-cap Arena Națională in June 2024 arose simply from never having played in Romania before (“We’d never been and we wanted to go”).

Emagic’s Coroianu, who organised the shows, suggested the concerts represented a victory for perseverance.

“We’d been sending offers in since about 2010,” she laughed. “Chris made up his mind that he wants to see other fans, and we got lucky. I think the confirmation came at ILMC the year before. We had a meeting and we heard that we’d got the show. Nobody believed in the beginning, and then it dawned upon everybody that it was really happening.

“What was very important for Romania is it was the first time a show sold out basically the minute it was put on sale. That never happened before. We were flabbergasted.”

“Chris and the band really know how to present their show”

The band’s tour announcement back in late 2021 came hand-in-hand with a 12-point plan for cutting their carbon footprint, including a pledge to reduce their direct carbon emissions from show production, freight, band and crew travel by at least 50% compared with their previous A Head Full of Dreams stadium tour.

Kansy, who recently became the first person to collect IQ Magazine‘s award for top production guru (aka The Gaffer), twice, spoke about the visual elements of the ongoing production.

“Coldplay has a tried and true formula for presenting their shows: no roof, open air, long runway, B-stage, C-stage, so they can get to different ports of the stadium and play to everybody,” he said. “They’ve done that again on Music of the Spheres, and it’s just bigger. There’s just more: it’s brighter, there’s more LED, the whole confetti presentation is just so, so effective. Chris and the band really know how to present their show, they know their audience, and they’re very good at it and very successful.”

Kansy also talked through the key sustainability practices.

“We started off doing the easy stuff – the stuff that anybody could do: no plastic, trying to keep food waste down,” he said. “But the meat and potatoes, no pun intended, behind the whole thing is how we power the show with BMW batteries. All of our shows are powered on batteries and that’s not just part of the show, it’s all of the show.

“We do have to use generators to some extent to charge the batteries when we can’t use sustainable house power, but we run our generators a fraction of what a normal show would and, more often than not, run HVO [hydrotreated vegetable oil] fuel.

“And then, of course… we’ve got our energy floors, where fans actually jump on the suspended rubber floor and the kinetic energy charges batteries. We’ve got solar that we lay out at the front of house. We’ve got solar that we lay out at the seats behind the stage. Those all charge batteries.”

“We need a significant amount of power to run the show, so there’s a lot of forethought and a lot of clever people involved”

He added: “We need a significant amount of power to run the show, so there’s a lot of forethought and a lot of clever people involved in this project to make sure we’re on point and make sure we have power and make sure that we’re as sustainable as possible.”

Bowdery praised the contribution of Live Nation sustainability manager Ariel Bojeun, who is on the road with the band for the entirety of the tour.

“In whatever city they’re going to, Ariel will be doing her job to make sure that she’s contacting all the local bus services and train services so that they can push on the Coldplay website the most sustainable way of getting to the gigs,” he said. “Ariel will make sure that even from crew catering, there’s no food wasted in any way, shape or form. If there is anything left, it goes to a local charity or local food house. So Ariel’s job is very complex and time-consuming, but she makes sure that everything works on the sustainability side.”

In closing, Kansy, who has worked with the likes of Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nine Inch Nails, Mary J Blige and Roger Waters in his 40-year career, summed up where Music of the Spheres ranks among his highlights.

“People ask me all the time, ‘What’s the favourite tour you’ve ever done?’ There’s so many different ways to answer that question,” he said. “Is it the money you make? The music you listen to every night?

“With Coldplay, it’s almost all there. The management and the band are so wonderful to work for. The level of respect that they give to everybody on their team, and the amount of care and emotional work that they do in regard to making sure everything is fine, I just couldn’t be more happy to work for Coldplay. I respect them greatly, and I respect management greatly, and their vision for the band, so having this kind of job is incredibly rewarding.”

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Artist and SoAlive Conference organiser Ruth Koleva moderated a fascinating session concentrating on the health of the markets in the central and eastern European region, covering territories that spanned from the Baltics down to the Balkans and Greece.

She prefaced the discussion by introducing some key states about the region, including that it is home to 160 million people in total population, while in the past couple of years its markets have hosted stadium shows by the likes of Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Rammstein. Its annual festivals also include iconic brands such as Untold, Exit, Sziget and Pohoda.

And highlighting specific markets and their love of music, Koleva noted that her home country, Bulgaria, reported growth of 40% in terms of recorded music sales, in 2023, while Turkey was even more impressive, with the IFPI stating that recorded music sales were up by more than 95% in the same year.

“Romania and Bulgaria joined the Schengen zone this year, so there are no borders any longer, enhancing touring and performing opportunities,” she said, adding that feasibility in terms of tour routing had also been improved by the construction of new roads and transport links.

Agent Georg Leitner was asked about how he and his peers persuade artists to tour in the region.

“Central and Eastern Europe are not being put in one basket,” he said .”When it comes to the likes of Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, there is very little discussion with the artist, however when we talk about Albania and Kosovo, we start getting questions. It’s really a matter of how much artist traffic has [historically] been through any particular market.”

“Some shows can sell really well, compared to markets where the artist might have played many times”

Another delegate noted that it can be difficult to even speak to an artist manager or agent, while when a conversation does take place, those representatives often ask for fees that are higher than the artist would expect to demand in western Europe – immediately putting the eastern European business at a disadvantage.

Türkiye-based exec Nick Hobbs countered that said had promoters had to stick to their guns by analysing risk and just saying ‘No’ to unacceptable demands. Koleva agreed, noting that economically it is a struggle for local businesses to sustain fees that are higher in other territories, especially when the local population has lower annual wages.

Agent Andrew Leighton-Pope explained that all new promoters should expect to be asked for 100% of the fee in advance, but that would stop if have proven track record with the agent and their clients. Hobbs told fellow delegates that the higher fees might also relate to artist expenses, as it may cost them more to travel to eastern Europe if it is a one-off show, but lower if it’s more of a tour around the region.

Ivan Milivojev co-founder of EXIT Festival, revealed exchange of artists with Sziget Festival in early days. But those bands are not selling tickets – you rely on headliners to sell tickets, but it can be interesting for programming.

Outlining the opportunities in the region, Koleva observed that a recent show by Nick Cave sold out in just 20 minutes: “So some shows can sell really well, compared to markets where the artist might have played many times.”

“It’s better that we maybe try to take advantage of the fact that we are part of a bigger market, and spread our reach”

Turning to attracting fans from other territories, Hobbs said that some markets and events could benefit from their appeal as quirky settings.

“Exit in Serbia is held in a fortress, while Sziget is on an island in the middle of Budapest, which is a tourist city, so those are unique aspects to talk about and market,” he said, suggesting that other events should look for their unique selling points.

Addressing obstacles in the region, Koleva pointed out that infrastructure, tech, insurance, and performance tariffs could prove tricky from country to country, while Hobbs suggested that each territory needs a strong association to speak with one voice to the government and the local collection societies to argue their point.

“The only thing you can do is fight and convince the government that more shows should take place to benefit the country – they don’t care about copyright royalties being paid to songwriters in America,” said Hobbs. “I no longer distinguish eastern Europe differently from western Europe – it’s just part of Europe. It’s better that we maybe try to take advantage of the fact that we are part of a bigger market, and spread our reach.”

Koleva summed up that while it can be frustrating to miss out on artist tours, those working in the region could flag up a number of incentives to agents and artist managers.

“Taxes can be attractive, economies are stable, there are no borders, except with Serbia, and we already have a lot of shows happening. Most of all, people are hungry for live music, so the potential is definitely there,” she added.

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