Billie Eilish tour ‘can serve as blueprint’
The sustainability efforts of Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever Tour can serve as a “blueprint” for future tours, according to Live Nation promoter Kelly Chappel.
Eilish, who will become the youngest ever headliner of Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage this Friday, partnered with environmental nonprofit Reverb to make the tour more sustainable and empower her fans to take action for people and the planet. The link-up extended to cross-campus climate festival Overheated at London’s The O2, which began on June 10 during Eilish’s dates at the venue.
The O2 has presented the 20-year-old with a special First Time Award to celebrate her six night sell-out residency at the arena, which wraps up this weekend.
“I’m personally so proud of our six Billie Eilish shows at The O2,” says Chappel, Live Nation’s EVP of global artist development and global tour promoter. “I’d like to thank everyone who was involved in delivering this tour. It’s testament to thoughtfulness and hard work, and it can serve as a blueprint for future arena tours, as this proves that artists performing on large scale tours can make vital changes to aid sustainability and be friendlier to our planet.”
Inspired by Eilish’s passion for sustainability, the award features a unique design and has been created using Jesmonite, a sustainable material which can be crushed and reused. It also features a piece of The O2’s own tent fabric that was retrieved following Storm Eunice, as well as photographs from her first show at the venue.
“The fight against climate change is incredibly important to us and with these initial steps and conversations there is now a chance to build on this”
Christian D’Acuña, senior director of programming at The O2, says: “It’s been incredible to welcome Billie Eilish to The O2, and we’re so proud to have hosted not only six incredible debut shows at the venue, but also the Overheated festival, which has sparked important discussions around making both our planet and our industry more sustainable.”
In conjunction with Eilish’s show dates, and the Overheated festival, The O2 also made several commitments to make the venue more sustainable, and in response to Eilish’s Green Rider, including offering a fully vegan menu in The O2 arena for all of Eilish’s show dates. The O2 also introduced recyclable paper cups and recycled PET fabric wristbands in the arena for the first time.
“A special thank you to The O2 for hosting us over what has been six incredible shows and the opportunity to create meaningful change through the launch of Overheated,” adds Eilish’s agent Mike Malak of Wasserman Music. “The fight against climate change is incredibly important to us and with these initial steps and conversations there is now a chance to build on this.”
The Happier Than Ever Tour continues its European stretch next week with stops in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, before concluding in Australasia in September.
“This partnership allows us to continue investing in improving the customer experience”
Meanwhile, The O2 has also announced a multi-year partnership with instant commerce firm Gopuff, which has been named as the venue’s principal partner and official grocery, food and beverage delivery partner.
The deal, which was brokered by AEG Global Partnerships, means fans visiting the venue can now bypass concession lines through rapid click-and-collect services in The O2 app powered by Gopuff. It will also provide artists with instant access to their performance essentials while onsite.
“This partnership allows us to continue investing in improving the customer experience for our fans and premium clients, and with digital ticketing and other innovative solutions available for all customers via The O2’s app, we’re making the concert-going experience as seamless as possible through digital means,” says AEG Global Partnerships EVP Paul Samuels. “We are confident that over the next few years, Gopuff will significantly boost the onsite experience both for fans and artists, and we’re delighted to have them on board.”
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Arthur Awards 2020: All the winners
The 26th annual Arthur Awards, the live music industry’s equivalent of the Oscars, took place at London’s Sheraton Grand Park Lane hotel last night. The awards, which take place as part of the ongoing International Live Music Conference (ILMC), honoured the industry’s best and brightest across 11 awards categories.
The prizes were handed out during the Arthur Awards Winners’ Dinner, hosted by CAA’s Emma Banks, who took to the stage in a full hazmat suit and gas mask emblazoned with the letters CAA across her back in hazard warning tape.
As the evening culminated with The Bottle Award, the unique industry achievement gong, Emma was invited back on stage to receive it, to loud applause and a standing ovation. “If I should say anything, it’s that we should all pick up the phone more,” she said. “You can’t have a relationship via text message or Whatsapp. We need to speak to each, to be more nice to each other.”
It was a successful night all round for CAA, as Summer Marshall won the Second Least Offensive Agent award.
The prizes were handed out during the Arthur Awards Winners’ Dinner, hosted by CAA’s Emma Banks
Elsewhere, Live Nation’s Kelly Chappel took the best promoter gong, French festival Eurockéennes was crowned best festival, All Points East won best new event, London’s Roundhouse received the best venue award and Charly Beedell-Tuck from Solo Agency won the Tomorrow’s New Boss award, which recognises the industry’s most promising new business talent.
Notably, all Arthurs for individuals – the prizes for best assistant, professional services, new business talent, agent and promoter, as well as the Bottle award – went to women.
The full list of winners is below:
Venue (First Venue To Come Into Your Head)
Roundhouse, UK
Promoter (The Promoters’ Promoter)
Kelly Chappel, Live Nation
Festival (Liggers’ Favourite Festival)
Eurockéennes, France
Agent (Second Least Offensive Agent)
Summer Marshall, CAA
Production Services (Services Above and Beyond)
Showsec
Professional Services (Most Professional Professional)
Tina Richard, T&S Immigration Services
New Gig on the Block (New Event)
All Points East, UK
Assistant (The People’s Assistant)
San Phillips, Kilimanjaro Live
Ticketing (The Golden Ticket)
Ticketmaster
New Business Talent (Tomorrow’s New Boss)
Charly Beedell-Tuck, Solo
The Bottle Award
Emma Banks, CAA
Prior to the Arthurs, ILMC head Greg Parmley presented two special ILMC Medal of Honour awards for longstanding service to the organisation. Production manager Bill Martin and agenda consultant Allan McGowan were both invited to the stage. “Bill is nothing short of a magician,” Parmley said, “He juggles set design, lighting, stands, stages, and a hundred other elements to make the conference and this dinner happen every year.”
And speaking of McGowan, he said, “Across two decades, Allan has been a central figure in all of ILMC’s panels, putting hundreds of them together. And for ten years, his role as associate editor on IQ was instrumental in the magazine’s growth.”
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IQTV: Kelly Chappel, Live Nation
Welcome to the fourth episode of IQTV, IQ’s new YouTube video series featuring revealing interviews and insights from some of the biggest players in the international live music business.
Following interviews with Thomas Johansson, Andy Copping and Mark Yovich, this week we catch up with Live Nation’s VP of European Touring, Kelly Chappel. The video forms part of a series commemorating Live Nation’s 10th year in the business.
In an interview filmed at ILMC 28 in March, Chappe ltalks getting into the live music business, advice for people starting out, and booking her dream line up…
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