Country music again takes centre stage in the UK this weekend with the return of Country to Country (C2C), as the genre’s remarkable international growth shows no sign of plateauing.

Lainey Wilson, Dierks Bentley and Cody Johnson headline the 2025 edition of Europe’s biggest country festival, which returns to London’s The O2, OVO Hydro Glasgow and Belfast’s SSE Arena from 14-16 March.

Created by AEG Europe and SJM Presents in collaboration with the Country Music Association (CMA), the event launched in London in 2013 and has expanded to other markets including Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Germany and Australia.

“It’s such an incredible brand and is the market leader,” The O2’s GM and VP Steve Sayer tells IQ. “Each year the programming gets bigger and better and it’s one of our favourite events of the year. The bill is as big as it’s ever been and as in previous years, you’re going to see programming right across the O2 site.

“From our perspective, we’ve seen country music really take off in the UK in the last few years, in no small part, because of the success of C2C. It’s an important genre in our programming strategy and country music is only going to grow over the coming years.”

“Brands are completely ingrained in what we do. The artists are as engaged as the fans are”

The CMA hosted a presentation at The O2 today (14 March) entitled Brand Power of Country Music in the UK, which explored the rise in country consumption and the consumer loyalty of country music fans. The panel was attended by leading UK and US promoters, agencies, record labels and management companies.

It noted that in 2024, country streams surpassed 1 billion for first time in the UK in Q3, while five of the top 15 tracks of last year were country songs. Since Q4 2022, country music streams in the UK have grown 159%.

UTA agent Sean Hendrie spoke about opening mindsets of brands to country and it being “an untapped genre” which has now gone mainstream, with brands involved in country space now including Urban Outfitters, Victoria’s Secret, Primark, Louis Vuitton, Shein and Levi’s.

“Brands are completely ingrained in what we do,” added AEG Presents UK promoter and C2C booker Rachel Lloyd. “The artists are as engaged as the fans are.”

Furthermore, the audience for Bauer’s Absolute Country Radio was up 50% year on year, while Global’s Smooth Country reported a 650% rise in female listeners aged 15-24.

“C2C has laid a lot of the foundations for what we’re now doing at Hyde Park”

Almost 30 country acts will visit the UK for headline tours in 2025, including Brothers Osborne, Kip Moore, HARDY, Alana Springsteen, Darius Rucker, Kane Brown, Old Dominion, Dasha, Tyler Childers and Brett Young, as well as Post Malone and Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter Tour.

In addition, there are now more than a dozen country festivals on the UK calendar such as Highways, Red Rooster, The Long Road, Towerfest and Maverick. Meanwhile, Morgan Wallen became the first country headliner of AEG’s BST Hyde Park last week.

“C2C has laid a lot of the foundations for what we’re now doing at Hyde Park,” said AEG’s European festivals’ chief Jim King.

Following Wallen’s success, fellow country star Zach Bryan has gone on to sell 130,000 tickets for his two nights at the London concert series this summer.

“It’s tremendous to be a part of that, and a part of the country music journey in the park,” added King, who said he expected country to become even more ingrained at BST in 2016.

“It’s not just about the programming,” stressed King, “we’re fully committed to this genre, not just at BST but at other events we’ll be running in the future.”

“Year after year, the passion grows, the audiences get bigger and the atmosphere more unforgettable”

Last weekend saw AEG and Semmel Concerts stage the German edition of C2C, attracting 9,000 fans to Uber Eats Music Hall in Berlin from 7-9 March.

The site-wide festival featured 51 international artists, including the likes of Dylan Gossett, Dasha, Lainey Wilson, Tucker Wetmore, Chase Matthew, Tanner Adell, Nate Smith, Shaboozey, Chayce Beckham and Avery Anna, attracting coverage in several media media outlets for the first time.

“The impressive growth of the country genre in Germany was more than evident at the festival in Berlin,” says Semmel’s Sina Hall. “The enthusiasm of the fans shows how much country music has now arrived in the mainstream – and with growing momentum.

“Year after year, the passion grows, the audiences get bigger and the atmosphere more unforgettable. This festival has proven once again that country is not just a niche in Germany, but a movement that is constantly growing.”

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Top European festival organisers came together at ILMC 37 to discuss the changing tastes of festival fans and how their events are vying to stand out in an increasingly competitive live music market.

Moderator Alex Bruford, ATC Live (UK), was joined by Jim King, AEG Presents (UK), Virag Csiszar, Sziget (HU), Jana Posth, Rock am Ring (DE) and Ben Ray, Slam Dunk (UK) for Festival Focus: Survive & Thrive.

The session kicked off with a health check on the festival market at large, with panellists agreeing that the sector is in flux and still facing some challenges. While rising costs and artist fees are ongoing concerns among organisers, a newer hurdle is the “festivalisation” of concerts and the competition that poses to traditional festivals.

Rock am Ring’s 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.”

In addition to a pop-up stadium, the Munich site featured Adele World: an area the size of a small festival, with a recreation of lost Kilburn (London) venue The Good Ship, a fairground, and live performances including a Spice Girls tribute group, for pre-event and after-hours fun.

“Younger people are not really interested in the whole [six-day] package anymore”

Discussing whether younger music fans prefer a one-day event to a multi-day festival, Sziget’s Csiszar noted a change in ticket-buying behaviour for the Budapest-based event. “Younger people are not really interested in the whole [six-day] package anymore,” she said. “We try to convince them to not only come for specific artists but to enjoy the whole experience and to provide exciting stuff.”

However, King – who promotes festivals such as All Points East, BST Hyde Park and Lido – argued that both single-day and multi-day festivals have their place for Gen-Z but that a strong identity is key.

“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.”

Ray, who promotes the one-day pop-punk, emo, metal and ska-themed festival Slam Dunk, said that attracting new audiences isn’t much of an issue due to the event’s brand and format.

“Luckily, we get a lot of repeat business,” he told delegates. “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.”

“Expectations for camping are a lot higher now, it has to be more than a tent and some grass”

Indeed, greenfield festivals have been stepping up their camping offering to attract the newer generation of festivalgoers. Last month, Reading & Leeds announced details of a ‘historic overhaul’ to its camping offering, unveiling five new campsites featuring a range of improvements, experiences and complimentary add-ons.

Rock am Ring has also updated its camping site, with Posth adding: “Expectations for camping are a lot higher now, it has to be more than a tent and some grass.”

Expectations of food and beverage at festivals have also changed, according to Posth: “It’s true, the younger ones don’t drink as much – I can see this. And they’re also more focused on healthy food, which influences that aspect of the festival. In Germany, you cannot just offer fries and sausages and pizza.”

Though bar-spend may be less among Gen-Z customers, King said there are plenty of other revenue opportunities associated with that generation. “I think you’ve got to understand what your business model is and be flexible with it, especially if you’re going to nine headliners across a festival like BST,” he said. “Our sponsorship numbers are the best we’ve ever seen for every single show that we do and they extend even further when we get into the Gen-Z audience.”

The panel also said that the availability of A-list artists is still an issue for their festivals, though some are looking to the next generation of headliners to fill the gap.

“Our sponsorship numbers are the best we’ve ever seen for every single show that we do”

“It’s always been really hard to find the right six headliners in August – especially because we set expectations high after having Prince and Rihanna,” said Csiszar. “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.”

King responded: “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.”

However, the discrepancy in artist fees for touring and festivals is the single biggest issue for festivals according to the AEG Presents veteran.

“You go back five, maybe seven, years ago and there was a marked difference between a major outdoor show where you have concessions – and therefore other forms of revenue – and a concert,” King told delegates.

“Now parties can make much more from headline shows and that’s become a major challenge to the festival industry, which is trying to secure that level of artists so you can’t compete against that.”

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The Country Music Association (CMA) and singer Morgan Wallen have presented promoters Jim King and Anna-Sophie Mertens with a token of appreciation for their efforts in growing the genre outside North America.

King, AEG Presents’ CEO, European festivals, and Mertens, Live Nation VP, touring, were honoured prior to Wallen’s 50,000-cap headline performance at BST Hyde Park in London earlier this month.

“This is a milestone for the country genre and it’s important that we acknowledge the promoters who are supporting country music’s rapidly growing and mainstream appeal in the UK,” says Milly Olykan, CMA VP, international relations and development.

“As the fastest-growing genre in the UK, thanks to countless artists who are focused on building a global audience, we are grateful for the foundation that has been laid that has led to opportunities like BST Hyde Park, and we are more excited than ever to see what’s to come.”

Morgan Wallen became the first country artist to headline BST Hyde Park

Wallen took the stage later that 4 July evening, becoming the first country artist to headline the AEG-promoted London concert series in the process, with country icon Shania Twain also headlining the festival three days later.

K-pop superstars Stray Kids brought this year’s BST Hyde Park to a close last night. Other 2024 headliners included SZA, Kings of Leon, Andrea Bocelli, Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue and Stevie Nicks, who brought out special guest Harry Styles for the climax of her 12 July show.

Live Nation, meanwhile, launched country and Americana festival Highways with the Royal Albert Hall in 2023. The event returned to the London venue with an expanded two-day format in May, featuring acts such as The Cadillac Three, Brett Young, Shane Smith & the Saints and The War and Treaty.

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AEG’s European festivals CEO Jim King has spoken to IQ about BST Hyde Park’s most “diverse and exciting” lineup yet.

The 11th edition of the London concert series kicked off on 28 June with All Things Orchestral, and includes concerts with Robbie Williams, Shania Twain, Andrea Bocelli, Stevie Nicks, Kylie, Kings of Leon, SZA, Morgan Wallen and Stray Kids.

Notably, Bocelli will be the event’s first classical headliner, while Stray Kids will follow in the footsteps of BLACKPINK who last year became the first-ever Korean band to headline a major UK music festival with their performance at BST.

“I think it’s really important that we’re stretching, musically, where we’ve been previously,” King tells IQ. “We’ve got a really great balance of shows and genres this year. We’ve also got strong female headliners, which we always strive to do. We’re very happy that Kylie, Shania, Stevie Nicks and SZA are on the bill.

“I think SZA is one of the most important contemporary artists around at the moment, certainly of her generation,” he continues. “We were really fortunate to be able to confirm her off the back of a long cycle. And we’re especially excited about Stevie Nicks. We’ve tried several times to book her and it’s never been the right moment so I thought we’d missed the chance.

“I think it’s really important that we’re stretching, musically, where we’ve been previously”

“She’s timeless and has never been more relevant,” says King. “When you look at the data of who buys her tickets, it’s a young audience. She’s got an unbelievably strong connection [with that audience] through the artists she’s inspired like Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey.”

Though this year’s sales don’t quite match up to 2023’s record year, in which 550,000 tickets were sold, King says the diverse bill has paid off.

“We’re still going to have one of the most successful series ever, with 500,000 people coming to the park – which is incredible when you match that up against any event around the world,” he says. “And what we’re seeing is artists outperforming themselves because there’s something magical about artists headlining shows in Hyde Park in the centre of London in the summer.”

BST’s unique setup tends to be a big draw for both artists and fans but King says it’s not easy to source the calibre of acts that meet the event’s criteria.

“This show stands for getting the biggest artists doing special things or a combination of things they’ve never done before,” he says. “We’re trying to provide fans with unique experiences they don’t normally get to see, not just a tour date, so we set the bar pretty high. This is Kylie’s only show [in London], while SZA is just playing here and Glastonbury and then Stevie Nicks rarely plays.”

“There are certainly fewer stadium-level, Hyde Park-level artists who are touring in ’24”

Weighing in on the much-discussed ‘headliner drought,’ King says: “There are certainly fewer stadium-level, Hyde Park-level artists who are touring in ’24 but I can assure you the 2025 marketplace is already busier so it’s just a cycle.”

King hastens to add that London is the “most competitive music market in the world” and that comes with advantages and disadvantages.

“The artists benefit from that because it’s a wonderful market to play and fans to get to enjoy the great diverse range of those artists coming in, so that’s positive,” he says. “But the competition has [downsides] in terms of the supply chain and staffing.

“We’ve lost a lot of really skilled engineers, riggers and staging contractors, as well as casual staff who were working security or cleaning or running bars,” he says. “And it takes a while to get that level of skill back in.

“I always say that if the first member of staff a fan meets when they come to one of our shows can’t respond to a question like ‘Where’s the bar’ or ‘Where’s the toilet’ or “Can I have this drink’ we’ve already lost.”

“We should find a pathway through this challenging problem and protect important revenue sources”

Another, newer challenge, in the festival sector has been artists boycotting events whose sponsors have ties to Israel.

“We always review and fully audit people we work with,” he says. “And we operate in a society of free speech – we respect everyone’s views within that. We’re a facilitator of music events and I think that a neutral position in our role is important to provide a platform for people to create their art and operate their businesses.

“At that same time, this industry doesn’t get much governmental support so it needs to find solutions from within itself. We should be sitting down as an industry and reflecting on how we should find a pathway through this challenging problem and protect important revenue sources.”

BST Hyde Park continues this Thursday (4 July) with a headline performance from Morgan Wallen.

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Leading UK promoters have spoken out on the live industry’s success rate at developing fresh stadium and festival headliners.

The new headliner question has been a perennial debate in the touring business over the past decade, amid claims of an over-reliance on heritage artists. Yet despite legends including Elton John, KISS, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne and the Eagles all retiring from the road, the pipeline appears to be as healthy as it has been in decades.

The summer of 2023 has witnessed open air spectaculars by an abundance of stars still in their 20s and early 30s such as Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran, Billie Eilish, Burna Boy, The 1975, Arctic Monkeys, Wizkid, The Weeknd, Blackpink, Sam Fender and Bad Bunny, and AEG’s European Festivals chief Jim King is buoyed by the state of play.

“It’s a very interesting question because it comes up a lot,” he tells IQ. “But as I remind everybody: some of the biggest shows this year have been with young, contemporary artists, or certainly will be in the next 12 months.”

Blockbuster tours by Taylor Swift ($300.8 million), Harry Styles ($124m) and Ed Sheeran ($105.3m) all hit the nine-figure mark in H1 2023, with Swift’s Eras Tour on target to become the first concert tour in history to net more than US$1 billion, and Styles recently wrapped Love On Tour generating close to $600m overall.

“Harry Styles could probably still be playing Wembley now if they had the availability”

Only this week, meanwhile, it was announced that The Weeknd pulled in over 1.6 million fans to the European leg of his After Hours Til Dawn Tour. The Canadian shattered Wembley Stadium’s record for sales with a traditional concert set up with the stage at one end with 87,000 tickets sold, having also set a new attendance record for London Stadium after drawing 160,000 fans over two nights in July.

In Milan, the 33-year-old sold over 159,000 tickets, making him the first artist to sell out two nights at Ippodromo La Maura, with his shows in Paris marking the biggest sales for Stade de France this year, totalling to 151,000 across the two dates. His shows in Nice, France sold 70,000 tickets across two shows – the highest in the city’s history.

“We talk our supply chain of new headliners down so often, with other artists sadly no longer with us or retiring,” says King. “But if you look at this great run of stadium shows, there has been no bigger act in London this summer than The Weeknd, with two London Stadiums and a Wembley Stadium.

“Harry Styles could probably still be playing Wembley now if they had the availability. His quality as an artist is unquestionable, not just in terms of his music, but his live performances. Taylor Swift will set records next year, no doubt, as she continues to in North America, and Ed Sheeran continues to do so as well – and those are just the easy ones off the top of your head.”

King oversees the 65,000-cap BST Hyde Park in London, which this year featured seasoned headliners Guns N’ Roses, Take That, Billy Joel, Pink and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, plus contemporary superstars Blackpink and Lana Del Rey.

“Stadium business in the UK has never been stronger”

“The process of developing artists to that level has clearly changed since the 1970s, but most of the cultural industries have changed in some ways since then as well,” he adds. “I don’t feel any lack of optimism about the future – Lana Del Rey could have sold 100,000 tickets in London this summer if she’d have wanted to, such is the love and appreciation of where she is in her career. So I think the industry is in far better shape than people say.

“Stadium business in the UK has never been stronger. Trying to get avails for stadiums in the UK at the moment is beyond a challenge, and we know from The O2 and our other venues that live music is extremely strong – and that’s because of the quality of the artists. When quality sits in place, demand will follow.”

This weekend’s Reading & Leeds Festival (cap. 90,000 & 75,000, respectively) will be headlined by British artists Sam Fender, Foals and The 1975 (subbing for Lewis Capaldi), as well as Billie Eilish, The Killers and Imagine Dragons from the US, and Festival Republic boss Melvin Benn is confident the UK is still developing enough headline talent in relation to its American counterparts.

“Two out of the three Glastonbury headliners [Elton John/Arctic Monkeys] were UK acts, three out of six at Reading and Leeds are UK acts, three out of the three at Latitude [Pulp/Paolo Nutini/George Ezra] were UK acts, three out of the three at Wilderness [Chemical Brothers/Fatboy Slim] were UK acts, well one’s French albeit UK-based [Christine & The Queens],” Benn tells Music Week.

“If you look across festivals as a whole, there are more UK headliners than US headliners. Wireless [Playboy Carti/Travis Scott/D-Block Europe] has a greater propensity of US artists than UK artists because of the nature of the music. But if I was to look across all of the festival headline positions, the UK is very much the strongest generator of headliners.”

“There’s a fresh pipeline of talent coming through, which is needed”

Superstruct-backed UK festival promoter From the Fields booked Nile Rodgers & Chic, Kasabian, Blossoms and Royal Blood to headline its 40,000-cap Kendal Calling and Roisin Murphy, Pavement and Grace Jones for the 25,000-cap Bluedot.

“I’ve always struggled finding the headliners,” company MD and co-founder Andy Smith tells IQ. “I’ve always been the boy who cried wolf thinking that this is the year we won’t be able to find anyone. I remember back in 2011, the festival had completely sold out and we couldn’t find a Sunday night headliner. and that was two months of sheer panic, but eventually Alex Hardee came through and we got Calvin Harris so it worked out in the end. But it’s always difficult. If it wasn’t difficult, everyone would be doing it, but we always come through.

“I’d say it’s as difficult as it’s ever been. But this year, we had one of our strongest, most varied bills and it’s great to see newer acts taking our headline slot. Blossoms have played a number of times at the festival, but this was their first time on the main stage and they were headlining it and they did a great job. Royal Blood, again, had never played at Kendal before. So there’s a fresh pipeline of talent coming through, which is needed.”

Speaking earlier this year, Live Nation boss Michael Rapino praised the emergence of younger headliners such as Bad Bunny, Karol G, Rosalia, Blackpink, BTS and Billie Eilish.

“Six of the top 10 artists were younger artists,” he said. “There’s just a host of great new talent every year coming up, filling the pipe. We didn’t know Luke Combs was going to be selling stadiums out this year, two years ago. We had no idea Bad Bunny was going to be the largest selling artist last year.

“We’re also seeing this encouraging new supply strategy where for many years, it was all about US or UK-based artists that filled the charts and fill the stadium and most other talent was domestic… Now, you can see artists coming from Latin America and Korea and becoming global superstars.”

The debate will take centre stage at this year’s International Festival Forum (IFF) as part of the Headliners: The Winner Takes it All panel from 10am on Thursday 28 September, which will be chaired by WME agent Andy Duggan. Click here for more details.

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AEG’s European festivals CEO Jim King has spoken to IQ about the firm’s efforts to cultivate a “strong hub” for touring artists through its collection of late summer festivals.

The company’s All Points East (APE), Rock en Seine and Forwards Festival are all coming up in the next few weeks, while it has also aligned with Spanish independent promoter Last Tour on the latter’s Cala Mijas and MEO Kalorama festivals in Spain and Portugal, respectively.

First held in 2018, APE returns this Friday in London’s Victoria’s Park with the first of two weekends, featuring Stormzy (18 August) and a Field Day event headlined by Aphex Twin and Bonobo (19 August). It will then welcome headliners The Strokes, Jungle, Dermot Kennedy and Haim from 25-28 August.

“We’ve got a strong All Points East again this year,” says King. “It’s an event we’re still building and a relationship that we’re still building with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the community there.

“We’re really pleased with the way their programme is going. They’re really well curated lineups, which our team put together very passionately. So that’s great and it’s allowed us to consolidate our European position at the end of the summer.”

“The artists moving between those four shows has created a really strong hub”

AEG switched APE from its previous May slot to coincide with Rock en Seine at the end of August. The 20th anniversary French festival, which was acquired by AEG in 2017 in partnership with media investment group LNEI, takes place in Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, Paris on 23 and 25-27 August, topped by Billie Eilish, Florence + the Machine, Placebo, The Chemical Brothers and The Strokes.

“Rock en Seine had its best year ever [last year] since it started and I think we’ll go beyond that again this year with sold-out shows every day,” says King. “I love that show. It’s such a great site. We’ve talked about London being super-important culturally, but magical things happen when you’re in Paris and I always find it really exciting. You go there in an elevated state of emotion, if you like, and then you’re more receptive to being entertained.”

Meanwhile, AEG’s relationship with Last Tour on Cala Mijas and MEO Kalorama festivals, set for 31 August-2 September, will see Florence + the Machine headline both events, with The Strokes also performing at the former.

“The artists moving between those four shows has created a really strong hub,” says King. “We’re calling it ‘The Camino’, which allows these artists to move between as many or as few of those shows as they want. It just creates a very strong end of August, beginning of September run for artists coming into Europe or those who are based here.”

In addition, AEG teams with events company Team Love on 30,000-cap Forwards in Bristol, UK. The metropolitan festival, which debuted in 2022, returns to Clifton Downs for its second year from 1-2 September, headlined by Erykah Badu and Aphex Twin.

“It’s a very demanding industry at the moment. If you’re not on your game as a promoter, you’re going to be challenged”

“Forwards forms part of that run of shows as well,” notes King. “We had a great show last year – we broke even in year one, which is beyond our expectations for any new festival, and we’re building on that for year two. So that’s been a really good start. We set up our European festival division a few years ago now, and the building of that is still taking place, but the benefits of it are thankfully already with us, and we think it puts us in a really strong position for the next five years.”

Around 550,000 tickets were sold for AEG’s flagship BST Hyde Park Festival earlier this summer, topping the previous best of 530,000 set last year. The London concert series was headlined by Guns N’ Roses, Take That, Blackpink, Billy Joel and Lana Del Rey – plus two nights each from Pink and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. And King says he is not surprised by the number of successful shows to have gone ahead in the UK this summer.

“Certain parts of the industry, one could argue are outperforming expectations, but that’s not to say that we weren’t confident they will be successful,” he adds. “If you look at events out there, you can see the quality ones in terms of the way they’re presented and operated, and the value point for them and the lineups which they have.

“I’m not surprised at all that they’re being successful. I’m also not surprised at all that the ones that aren’t presenting that level of quality aren’t as successful either because it’s a very demanding industry at the moment. And if you are not on your game as a promoter or as an artist, then you’re going to be challenged. But if you are, the chances are you’re going to be rewarded for it.”

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AEG Presents’ Jim King has reflected on the success of BST Hyde Park’s 10th anniversary edition, telling IQ the event enjoyed its biggest year of ticket sales yet.

Presented by American Express, the acclaimed London concert series was headlined by Guns N’ Roses, Take That, Blackpink, Billy Joel and Lana Del Rey – plus two nights each from Pink and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – from 24 June to 9 July.

Around 550,000 tickets were sold for the festival, topping the previous best of 530,000 set in 2022 – an edition that starred the likes of the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Adele and the Eagles.

“I never thought I’d be able to say we sold more tickets than last year, but we sold more tickets than we’ve ever sold before. It’s incredible, everybody sold out,” says King.

“You can go to any arena or stadium in the world and you’ll have these great moments with your favourite artists, but – and I’m biased when I say this – something different happens in Hyde Park. It’s just this magical space. There’s a different energy created there and I hope that we play a positive role in helping that.

“Hyde Park it is one of the true great parks in the world and I find those performances with these great artists connect stronger with fans when you get those great summer evenings, in the heart of London, and I think that’s what we saw.”

“It was important that we widened our lens in how we looked at the selection of our headliners”

AEG’s CEO of European festivals, King is full of praise for this year’s artists, singling out newer headliners Blackpink and Lana Del Rey, alongside the established greats.

“It was important that we widened our lens in how we looked at the selection of our headliners,” he says. “Having a K-pop band headline a UK festival for the very first time and deliver a great show was an important moment for us. And personally, I was looking forward to Lana Del Rey so much because she doesn’t tour very often and we’d tried so hard to get her to play. It’s a big risk for any artist to come and headline a Hyde Park show, especially for the first time, and it was announced quite late, compared to other shows, but it sold out instantly.

“Ultimately, we’re there to ensure that that great connection when the artist sings their first note or plays their first chord, that that next 90 minutes, two hours, or three hours in the case of many, is spellbinding, memorable and emotional, and that the artists and their fans will remember for a very long time. And when Lana came out, the sense of anticipation in the air from the fans was palpable. I thought it was one of the great Hyde Park shows for that energy and connectivity.”

For the second year in a row, the festival took place across three weekends, comprising nine concerts instead of the previous six.

“Three weekends is a challenge,” admits King. “It’s nine shows, so the obvious point to raise is that we’ve got to book nine headliners. It used to be hard to book six – it used be hard to book three in the early days! And the best artists have a plethora of choices for where they wish to play, so I think it’s important to remind everybody that we don’t choose the artists, the artists choose us.

“It’s not like any promoter walks into a supermarket and fills their their trolley with two artists from the top shelf, three from the middle and four from the bottom, it’s the other way around – it’s the artist walking into the supermarket and choosing.”

He adds: “I think it’s a really good event for fans to come to and artists like coming and it’s a prestigious show for them to play – not many people get to headline Hyde Park in their career – but we’re certainly not resting on our laurels.”

“The supply chain is getting back to normal after being in a very different state coming out of Covid”

The 65,000-cap event was preceded by classical show All Things Orchestral on 23 June, presented by Myleene Klasse and featuring Alfie Boe and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. General admission ticket prices were set at £11.45 in a bid to “bring classical music back for all”.

“We had great attendances for Open House, our midweek programme, and were very happy to launch All Things Orchestral this year with [AEG artistic director] Lucy Noble joining us from the Royal Albert Hall, which was an idea that had been on the shelf for us to do for many years and I mentioned it to Lucy when she joined. It was just a germ of an idea but she pulled it together really quickly, and with such skill and quality.

“It was what we want to do at BST, which is ensure we have a wide-ranging festival that appeals to everybody. I thought that was another real highlight of this year. I was really pleased with the way it went and credit to her.”

Having launched in 2013, BST was celebrating its 10th anniversary and has hosted acts such Taylor Swift, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Adele, The Who, Bob Dylan & Neil Young, Justin Bieber, Tom Petty, Carole King, Barbra Streisand, Eric Clapton and Paul Simon. Wrapping up, King speaks of his ambitions for the event moving forward.

“We set very high standards in terms of what we want to organise and what we want to deliver,” he says. “The supply chain is getting back to normal after being in a very different state coming out of Covid. That has been the challenge for the last 18 months and I think we’ve met that.

“I’m still excited about how far we can push to experience, how great we can make it for artists to come in, and how great we can make it for fans coming to London for the very first time, so I like those challenges. We’re in a good state; we love what we do and we’re very fortunate to be able to do it.”

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AEG Europe has appointed Lynsey Wollaston as vice president and general manager of its European festivals division.

Wollaston brings 16 years of experience years of commercial and operations experience to oversee the European Festival team’s day-to-day operations and play a key role in developing and supporting the strategic vision for the division alongside the US AEG Presents senior leadership team, according to the company.

She will work across AEG’s renowned roster of festivals, including American Express Presents BST Hyde Park and Luno Presents All Points East in London, Rock en Seine in Paris, and AEG’s newest festival, Bristol-based Forwards.

“I look forward to working with Jim and the team to take the festival division to new heights”

Prior to joining AEG, Wollaston held the role of managing director of festivals and events at Vision Nine Group and previously served as the global operations director at IMG (Arts, Entertainment and Culinary) and operations manager for the Royal Horticultural Society.

“We are delighted to have Lynsey join us as the new vice president and general manager for European Festivals,” says AEG European Festivals CEO, Jim King. “With her extensive industry leadership and experience, Lynsey brings huge value to our team. As we gear up for the busy festival season ahead, I look forward to working with Lynsey to deliver the best-in-class events for which we are renowned, and to growing the festivals division of the business.”

Wollaston adds: “I am incredibly excited to join AEG Europe and help lead the European Festivals team in delivering memorable events for music fans. With AEG’s reputation for innovation and excellence, I look forward to working with Jim and the team to take the festival division to new heights.”

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Rock en Seine GM Matthieu Ducos and AEG European festivals boss Jim King have previewed a new era for the French festival in an interview with IQ.

The extended 18th edition of the 40,000-cap event takes place in Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, Paris from 25-28 August with headliners Arctic Monkeys, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tame Impala and Stromae.

“From an AEG perspective, we see Rock en Seine as being as important to our global portfolio of festivals as Hyde Park, All Points East, Coachella and everywhere else,” says King. “It’s equal in every measure to the other festivals that we operate in any market around the world.

“It needed some attention; it needed resource and support and we needed to allow the team to realise their ambitions. But it has the potential to be one of the world’s leading city-based festivals and we certainly feel it’s on its way to achieving that.”

AEG acquired Rock en Seine in 2017 in partnership with media investment group LNEI, but King suggests the event’s return from its Covid-enforced hiatus marks something of a reboot, as it is the first edition to be held since the launch of AEG’s European Festivals division in three years ago.

“It had not had its best years, but it is a well respected event with a great history, and a great site in the centre of Paris”

“It allowed us to bring some specialist overview to Rock en Seine, which is a very long-standing and established festival in Europe,” he explains. “It had not had its best years but it is a well-respected event with a great history, and a great site in the centre of Paris.

“With the Covid shutdown, it enabled all stakeholders this extended review on how to make it better. It allowed us to reset the team locally, build a stronger relationship and, from that platform, provide whatever assistance – and I need to underline assistance – to that team to realise what their vision of it was.

“What you’re seeing now is the realisation of the outlook and the vision of the team in Paris. Our role has been able to provide that framework and at times just some guidance and resourcing to allow that to be achieved.”

AEG’s London concert series All Points East, which was held in May pre-pandemic, has been pushed back to the same weekend as Rock en Seine, enabling Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Tame Impala to headline both events.

All Points East, which kicks off tonight with Gorillaz, runs in Victoria Park over two weekends – 19-20 and 25-28 August.

“Festivals live and die on artist bookings. We can say otherwise, but it is essential to it”

“The one thing we did centrally was reposition All Points East to the same weekend, which would then allow Matthieu and also Arnaud [Meersseman], who runs AEG’s Paris office, to work much more closely with the booking teams from All Points East and establish that new culture,” says King.

“Festivals live and die on artist bookings. We can say otherwise, but it’s essential to it. So the idea was to start building that platform where agents could see a strengthened end of the summer window, with two great shows which they could then support with their artists.

“Those foundations have then been picked up by Matthieu, and what we’re seeing now is the best line-up Rock en Seine has ever had. That’s creating more ticket sales and a higher gross than Rock en Seine has ever had, and more sponsors and sponsorship gross than Rock en Seine has ever had. So it’s just success, on success, on success.”

Ducos backs up King’s assessment.

“Moving All Points East to the same weekend as Rock en Seine was a huge step,” he tells IQ. “I agree we have the strongest line-up we’ve ever had, so it’s great to start this new version of Rock en Seine after a two-year stop.

“Usually, about 60% of the festival-goers come from the Paris region and 40% from other regions of France and abroad. We will have more people from abroad than usual, that’s for sure, because we have some bands that are doing only a few shows in Europe, like Arctic Monkeys, so people are coming from far away to see them.”

“We have great ambitions that it will continue to grow”

With the festival expanding from three to four days for the first time this year, King elaborates on the ambitions to grow Rock en Seine’s international appeal.

“You look at some of the other successes around mainland Europe where they have become destination festivals for a multinational audience, and for whatever reason Rock en Seine had lost that, or was not that,” he says. “But I think it certainly is developing into that and we have great ambitions that it will continue to grow because Paris is such a great city and so easy to travel to. Once you’re there, there’s so much to do. So why only do it for two days or three days?

“The ability to attract great talent is based on many things: the offer, the routing, but obviously where you’re going to and what we were able to do with Rock en Seine is to be more ambitious with the acts that we wanted to attract and then, with that, be more ambitious with the audience that we want to attract to see those acts.

“I think you’ll see great developments in the range of people – and the countries they originate from – coming to Rock en Seine over the next five years.”

In a setback for organisers, a planned standalone date on 30 August, headlined by Rage Against the Machine, with support from Run The Jewels and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, was scrapped last week on “medical guidance” due to an injury sustained by RATM frontman Zach de la Rocha.

Nonetheless, Ducos suggests AEG’s backing puts Rock in Seine in a strong position as it looks to enhance its reputation year-on-year.

“Paris doesn’t have a history of iconic, pop/rock music festivals,” he says. “We’ve been there for 18 years now and we did a great job, but I think we can go further and become an iconic festival in this great city. I’m quite confident about our power and attractiveness to book the rock, pop, but also electro and hip-hop acts we want in the future.”

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AEG’s Jim King has hailed Adele as “the biggest act on the planet” ahead of the singer’s exclusive two-night stand at BST Hyde Park this weekend.

Demand for the 65,000-cap London shows was enormous, with tickets selling out within minutes of going on sale last October.

The 1-2 July double-header will be the star’s first concerts proper since 2017, when her scheduled four-night run at Wembley Stadium was cut short due to damaged vocal cords. Her planned Weekends With Adele Las Vegas residency was postponed in January – just 24 hours before its opening night – with rescheduled dates still to be announced.

“She’s the biggest act on the planet. And for us to be able to have two concerts with her here is such a highlight for everybody involved,” King, AEG’s CEO of European festivals, tells IQ. “We couldn’t be more thankful that she decided to come and play here. We know they’re so excited about it.

“Fans are going to see the biggest act in the world perform two of the best concerts anyone’s going to see this year”

Adele, whose 2016 Adele Live tour grossed $167.7 million across 107 shows, is represented by WME agents Lucy Dickins internationally and Kirk Sommer in North America.

“The conversations that we’ve been having with her team all the way through this have been unbelievably positive,” adds King. “They are a great team to work with – we know them very well from days gone by. Fans are going to see the biggest act in the world perform two of the best concerts that anyone’s going to see this year. It’s very exciting.”

This year’s BST hosted headliners Elton John, the Rolling Stones and Eagles last weekend, with Adele and a second date with the Stones (3 June) following over the next three days. Concerts by Pearl Jam (8–9 July) and Duran Duran (10 July) bring the 2022 American Express-sponsored series to a close.

But despite expanding the BST programme from six concerts to nine, AEG pressed pause on pre-pandemic plans for new events in favour of rejuvenating existing festivals. King – who previously warned the live industry against oversupplying the market – feels the promoter’s “cautious” approach since returning from Covid-19 has been vindicated.

“The concerns that we had at the top end of the year still apply now”

“I think we’re going to continue to have an amazing year, but based on the fact that we were relatively cautious,” he says. “It sounds a bit crazy to say that with nine sold-out Hyde Park concerts, but it’s nine – we’re not chasing 99. So we have chosen to be fairly modest in our output.

“The concerns that we had at the top end of the year – that rescheduled shows from 2020 and 2021 were being rescheduled into ’22, on top of those shows that were coming into the marketplace in 2022 – still apply now.

“What we saw, and what we still see, is the indoor touring cycle extending quite deeply into the summer because of venue availability, and thus you have festivals competing with headline tours. There’s only so much money that people have to buy tickets, so I think that concern is very real and our response to it – which was being cautious in the number of shows that we did – was the right thing to do.”

“The backbone of the industry is the supply chain and the staff. They’re the people who make this happen”

King also reflects on how the touring business has changed compared to pre-March 2020 times.

“From an operational perspective, it’s largely the same, albeit there are well documented challenges in the supply chain – labour resourcing, etc, has been particularly difficult,” he says. “We have an industry now which has picked itself back up again, but there are a lot of faces who are no longer with us. A lot of experience left the industry and that is one of the greatest challenges we have needed to bounce back from.

“How do we quickly and aggressively drive that experience back into what we have? Because the backbone of the industry is the supply chain and the staff. They’re the people who make this happen. And the ability to make decisions and, more importantly, make the right ones is what makes the UK industry the leading one in the world, in my opinion.”

He adds: “We’re also dealing with the impact of a wider economy issue of the cost of living crisis, which is ongoing and will be with us for some time, no doubt. But we’ve been here before, we’ve been in challenging economy situations where money’s tight and we have to react accordingly. We have to drive value and quality into the market so that when fans buy tickets, they feel that their experience was unbelievable value and they want to remain with us.”

Read part one of our interview with King here.

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