The optics of Austria in 2024, viewed from the outside, aren’t especially good.

The far right, embodied by the Freedom Party (FPÖ) made an emphatic point in the country’s September elections, taking 28.9% of the vote. The economy is technically in recession, with GDP expected to decline by 0.6% this year and exports to the all-important and somewhat ailing German market significantly down. Then again, whose optics are good these days? And where the Austrian live business is concerned, appearances can be a little deceptive, says Richard Hörmann, co-managing director of the country’s leading promoter, CTS Eventim’s Barracuda Music.

“I think, in general, the atmosphere is much worse than the real situation, especially in entertainment,” he says. “We aren’t seeing slower sales – we have [had] very strong figures for the last few years.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Austria isn’t in a cold spell; more that, in this prosperous, 9m-strong nation, shows and festivals remain fairly affordable luxuries. Even a price rise of around 10% to 15% on the average ticket has done little to stifle demand.

“In Austria, it’s more a situation [in which] people can’t afford to buy apartments anymore or maybe can’t afford to buy cars, but they invest in their entertainment,” says Hörmann. “They go on holidays, and they watch shows.”

After all, Austria still has the fifth-highest GDP per capita in the EU at €46,200. And to look on the bright side, the FPÖ, while resurgent, has been unable to find a coalition partner, leaving the way clear for a three-party coalition of the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP), the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), and NEOS (liberals).

“There’s still plenty of momentum, especially around large-scale events and innovative formats”

There are still underlying concerns, of course, just as there are everywhere in a candidly unpredictable world: from Vienna’s controversial noise restriction law and frustrating venue omissions to the shifting of the world’s political and macroeconomic centre of gravity.

“Everything is a bit difficult right now in Europe,” acknowledges Silvio Huber, co-MD of Live Nation-owned Goodlive Artists. “If Germany struggles, we struggle. We don’t know where Europe will be in the future, between the US, Russia, and China, and this and that. But we don’t see the effects of any of that yet. Let’s see how that will turn out in the next one or two years, the next decade. But basically, it’s still okay, it’s really solid.”

That view holds fast across the board, in a market that hungrily hoovered up most of the German and international tours on the circuit this summer, with appearances from Coldplay Metallica, AC/DC, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Nicki Minaj, Travis Scott, Ed Sheeran, André Rieu, and the rest.

“The market in Austria does feel like it’s gradually stabilising after the post-Covid surge,” says Filip Potocki, CEO at FKP-backed promoter Arcadia Live. “However, there’s still plenty of momentum, especially around large-scale events and innovative formats.”

Unfortunately, the most headline-grabbing piece of news from Austria’s live calendar this year was one about which there is little worth saying. In August, Taylor Swift and Barracuda were forced to cancel the Vienna leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour, which was due to be seen by 170,000 fans over the course of three nights at the Ernst Happel Stadium, after an apparent terror plot was foiled.

It was initially said the shows could go ahead with additional security, but the concerts were soon cancelled as Vienna police chief Gerhard Purstl said an “abstract danger” remained. Three arrests were made and investigations continue, and in an otherwise bountiful year, the promoter has made little comment about the affair.

“Austria has a very distinct individual national character”

“There’s nothing to add,” says Hörmann. “It is what it is, and within the company, it’s still an ongoing process. Obviously, it’s not going to be replaced.”

Austria also got its share of Europe’s alarming weather events this summer. A headline show by US band Agriculture scheduled for Arena Wien was among a number of shows called off due to flooding on the River Danube in mid-September. And in July, Barracuda’s 70,000-capacity Electric Love festival in Salzburg was forced to shut down for half a day due to a severe weather warning.

Nonetheless, the business rolls on. As far as concert hotspots are concerned, Austria doesn’t just mean Vienna, but for sheer numbers, the City of Dreams is very much the centrepiece. Between 70% and 80% of all tickets sold are for shows in and around Vienna, though there are decent secondary markets, too, from the second city of Graz to Linz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck.

“The focus is, of course, on the greater Vienna metropolitan area, where 4m people live – nearly half the Austrian population,” says Live Nation GSA chief executive Marek Lieberberg. “Hence, this is where most major events take place, similar to Zurich in Switzerland or Amsterdam in the Netherlands.”

Given the presence of powerful German-based promoters – including Live Nation GSA; CTS Eventim, whose umbrella extends across both Barracuda Music and Arcadia Live; and Semmel Concerts, whose Show Factory offshoot is personally overseen by Dieter Semmelmann – it is easy to cast Austria as an unofficial extension of that larger market. However, Lieberberg declines the characterisation.

“Austria has a very distinct individual national character, and the dark times when it was regarded as a German province are definitely over,” he says. “Everybody has to recognise this fact and the unique appeal of Vienna as the political, cultural, and historical centre. The EU allows individuals and companies to operate in all countries of the union, and this opportunity is respectfully used.”

“We live in a strong market, but we obviously have strong competition”

Promoters
Formerly a proudly independent market, Austria these days broadly shakes down into a two-way battle between CTS Eventim (via Barracuda and Arcadia), and Live Nation GSA (in its own right and through its 2022 acquisition of Goodlive).

Barracuda – formed in 2016 from leading Austrian indies Skalar, Red Snapper, and NuCoast Entertainment, before Eventim took a 71% stake in 2019 – handles around 350 events a year and dependably sells between 1m and 1.2m tickets, making it the market leader, albeit in an increasingly spicy field.

“We live in a strong market,” says Hörmann. “But we obviously have strong competition. Live Nation realise that Austria is a good market, so they have enforced their operation here and will be doing more and more shows. But so far, the market seems to soak up whatever you offer.”

A rising tide of stadium shows, particularly heavy in 2024 with Coldplay, AC/DC (promoted by Marcel Avram), the abortive Swift residency, and others, does not appear to have dramatically distorted the market, suggests Hörmann, who has Robbie Williams and Iron Maiden on sale for 2025.

“Barracuda averages about a million tickets a year, and that didn’t drop [as stadium shows have increased]. So it’s not that the stadium shows take away any other markets at the moment. The very small club situation might get difficult, but other than that, figures are pretty stable,” he says.

“Undoubtedly, Coldplay were the highlight of the year, with a record attendance of 250,000”

Inevitably, the Taylor Swift drama led to heightened tensions around subsequent shows in Vienna this summer. Enhanced security was in place for Coldplay’s four-night residency at the same venue a fortnight later, with armed police stationed on the roof of the stadium, uniformed and plain-clothed officers in the crowd, and extensive video and aerial surveillance.

Live Nation Austria managing director Matthias Rotermund chalks up the resulting gigs as the peak of Live Nation’s year in Austria.

“Undoubtedly, Coldplay were the highlight of the year, with a record attendance of 250,000,” he says. “We were very pleased that despite the challenges – particularly after the cancellation of Taylor Swift’s shows – we successfully presented all four concerts without any incidents.”

Elsewhere, Live Nation inaugurated its Racino open-air venue in Ebreichsdorf near Vienna – usually an equestrian park, but this summer, the site of the three-day Rolling Loud Europe (with Nicki Minaj, Playboi Carti, and Travis Scott) and the one-day Racino Rocks, with Metallica, Five Finger Death Punch, Ice Nine Kills, and Mammoth WVH.

“Metallica showed their exceptional potential, drawing 55,000 fans,” says Rotermund, who also picks out some family entertainment highlights. “OVO, another highly attractive Cirque du Soleil show, sold 45,000 tickets, and the international tour of Mamma Mia! sold 30,000.”

Live Nation worked on the Racino shows with frequent local partner Leutgeb Entertainment Group – which also contributed to Adele’s summer shows in Munich – and this year also saw the first collaboration between the local Live Nation operation and Goodlive who together brought Big Time Rush to Vienna’s Gasometer B.

“We’ve noticed growing potential in more niche offerings”

“That sold out in five minutes,” says Huber, who anticipates more team efforts. “There’s still the question of how we can work together best, but we will work together more, for sure. They are experts in stadiums, huge shows, and we have lots of club-level, mid-level, and we can build artists. Actually, we complement each other very well.” Goodlive also chalked up satisfying larger-scale successes with The National and Cigarettes After Sex this year at the 16,000-cap Wiener Stadthalle – the latter particularly gratifying to Huber, who recalls promoting a 250-cap club show in Vienna for the same band in 2016.

“That is always the nicest thing as a promoter,” he says. “We have had a journey from that club show to selling out the Stadthalle, which I never would have expected ten years ago.” Arcadia Live, formed in 2015 from Potocki and Bernhard Kaufmann’s full-service Arcadia operation, with backing from German players FKP Group, Four Artists Booking Agency, Chimperator Live, and KKT, has established a new fes- tival of its own in Linz’s Lido Sounds, as well as a concert series in METAStadt Open Air in Vienna, whose headliners included Jungle, Cypress Hill, Air, and Korn this year.

“Headliner-driven single shows have been the strongest performers this year, with a series of standout open-air events in Vienna during the summer,” says Potocki. “Beyond that, we’ve noticed growing potential in more niche offerings, such as spoken word events, exhibitions, and podcast-based formats.”

Among Austria’s remaining indies, meanwhile, is Alex Nussbaumer of al-x, long-term promoter of Iggy Pop and The Cure, whose late-2024 shows include a three-date Austrian tour for Roachford. Meanwhile, Soundportal, promoter of Styrian Sounds festival and numerous local shows, is a stalwart of the scene in Graz.

Other companies
Austria’s advantageous location on the cusp of western and eastern Europe makes Austria a popular spot for numerous outward-facing live businesses, from trucking company Beat The Street, based in Fritzens near Innsbruck, to prominent Salzburg-based boutique metal booker Cobra Agency, whose acts include Sepultura, Sabaton, Slipknot, Danzig, Testament, and Amon Amarth.

“The rock and metal market has shown incredible resilience and growth across Europe,” says Cobra Agency co-managing director Günther Beer. “A few years ago, there were only one or two metal arena tours in the fall. This year, our agency alone had multiple rock acts touring arenas, all of which delivered outstanding results.

“It’s a sad development when too many decisions about Austrian talent are made in Germany”

“Austria has proven to be an excellent base of operations for us,” he adds. “While the market itself is relatively small, its strategic location and strong connection to Germany, Europe’s largest rock and metal market make it incredibly valuable.”

For Vienna-based independent artist agency Georg Leitner Productions, which books Earth, Wind & Fire, Dire Straits Legacy, and Gipsy Kings around the world, the local market is just one more market, though it is a healthy one.

“With Barracuda, we have the Clam Castle shows, where we always have artists perform, and Lovely Days,” says Leitner, who steps down as CEO in December in favour of partner Harald Büchel, while remaining an agent and company owner. “So yes, for us, it’s very much a market like any other. The only difference being that when we have acts booked in Austria, suddenly we get a lot of calls for guest tickets. Which is a pain in the ass,” he laughs.

Leitner does, however, have misgivings about Austria’s status in the German-language music business. “There’s a tendency, especially on the record company side, to diminish Austria to a province. Universal Records have laid off half their employees. And those employees that they laid off were those who were sourcing Austrian talent, which is a very vibrant market.

“Austria also has a unique culture, even language. There are Austrians who perform, not in German, but in Austrian languages, and they will be understood up to the borders of Bavaria but not any further,” he says, pointing to Austrian dialects such as Austro-Bavarian and Alemannic.

“So it’s a sad development when too many decisions about Austrian talent are made in Germany, in my view, because it doesn’t recognise the uniqueness of Austrian culture. But then I think new types of companies will evolve who will see the potential and take it into their own hands.”

Part two of the Austria market report can be accessed here.

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Live Nation GSA (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) has announced that Ioannis ‘Pana’ Panagopoulos has rejoined the company as director of A&R.

Panagopoulos previously spent more than five years with the firm prior to switching to CTS Eventim’s DreamHaus as director of talent buying in 2021.

“I am absolutely delighted to welcome Pana back to the Live Nation family, both personally and professionally,” Andre Lieberberg, Live Nation GSA president and MD, tells IQ. “He brings with him a wonderful roster of outstanding artists and a wealth of relationships, further strengthening the top tier of our promoter and booking team.

“I believe that his ‘homecoming’ also underscores the culture and vision we aspire to build here at Live Nation GSA, so really am looking forward to what will all accomplish together in the years ahead.”

Panagopoulos’ re-appointment is effective from today (2 December).

“I am very much looking forward to be working with some of my old and new German and international friends again”

“After three and a half years at DreamHaus and being and part of their amazing team, I decided that it is time for a new adventure,” he says. “I’m very grateful for everything and it was a real pleasure to work with each and everyone in the company.

“Now, I am totally thrilled and excited to rejoin André, Uli [Meyer-Madaus], Marek [Lieberberg] and their brilliant team at Live Nation GSA. I am very much looking forward to be working with some of my old and new German and international friends again. I really can’t wait.”

It was revealed in September that Berlin-based DreamHaus and fellow CTS subsidiary Peter Rieger Konzertagentur (PRK) were merging to form a combined company, PRK DreamHaus.

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The team behind Adele’s historic German run have told IQ the acclaimed show represents “a milestone in music history” and debated whether it will inspire further residencies.

The singer broke numerous records with her 10-night stint at a giant pop-up stadium in Munich – the largest temporary arena ever built.

More than 730,000 tickets were sold for the exclusive European concerts, held between 2-31 August, which registered the highest attendance of any concert residency outside Las Vegas, according to promoter Live Nation.

Speaking in the latest issue of IQ, Adele’s agent Lucy Dickins and Live Nation GSA CEO Marek Lieberberg do not rule out the possibility of other acts staging similar productions down the line, but stress that it isn’t an easy template to follow.

“Not everyone is of Adele’s scale,” reflects Dickins, WME global head of contemporary music and touring. “I still have yet to see anyone greater than her live. She’s the most unbelievable professional I’ve ever, ever had the pleasure of working with. She’s super-smart, she always knows exactly what she’s doing.”

The “bespoke” outdoor venue boasted a 220m x 30m LED screen, supplied by Solotech, which has been certified by Guinness World Records as the Largest Continuous Outdoor LED Screen (temporary) ever built.

“Before this started, I said: ‘Never before and never again.’ Now, I would say, ‘Never before but maybe again”

Alongside the venue, the 75,000-square-metre Adele World – which included an authentic English pub, a fairground wheel, karaoke, Farmers Markets, merchandise and a typical Bavarian beer garden with live entertainment – attracted 500,000 visitors.

“It’s been very intense because something like this has never been done before. There is no precedent. We could not simply use a blueprint of another project – we had to start from scratch,” says Lieberberg, who co-promoted the residency with Klaus Leutgeb, CEO of Austria’s Leutgeb Entertainment Group.

“Before this started, I said: ‘Never before and never again.’ Now, I would say, ‘Never before but maybe again. We need to analyse the Munich residency thoroughly. All the shows have been spectacular and overwhelming, from Adele’s unique performances to the audience response, as well as the reaction of the media worldwide.

“It’s a milestone in music history, for sure. And it seems too good to waste. But if we ever did something like this again, it has to cater to the specific vision of the artist, like this one has.”

Leutgeb, who organised shows at Munich Messe with artists including Andreas Gabalier, Helene Fischer and Robbie Williams in 2022, had approached Dickins with a series of proposals in the past. However, an updated offer including the suggestion of a purpose-built stadium – illustrated by a sketch from production designer Florian Wieder – persuaded Dickins to take the concept to her brother Jonathan, Adele’s manager, last year.

“I knew questions would be asked, like, why Germany? Why Munich?”

“I knew questions would be asked, like, why Germany? Why Munich?” she says. “Well, she hasn’t played in Europe since 2016, and if you look at Munich, it’s slap-bang in the middle. But the main bit for me was the Oktoberfest is held here. So they have infrastructure to get a lot of people in and a lot of people out. I had all these ideas going around in my head, and I called Jonathan, and he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s interesting.’”

Lieberberg credits support from the very top of Live Nation with enabling the project to come to life – and reserves special praise for the production team.

“We had so many brilliant minds joining forces,” he says. “At these shows, we possibly experienced the greatest open-air sound ever – it was like sitting in a studio with B&O boxes and a Thorens player, and you put on the vinyl. And then you have a world-record LED wall in the shape of a wave, like a film scroll. A tailor-made stadium, all in black, no advertising at all, just with Adele signage. It’s really a piece of art.

“In German, there’s a word for it: Gesamtkunstwerk. A total piece of art, a composition of many parts creating an artwork in itself. And people realise that when they enter into a new environment that is so different from any other arena or stadium. This stadium was made for the show, and the show was made for the stadium.”

The full feature on Adele’s German residency can be read in issue 130 of IQ, which is out now.

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Adele wrapped up her “historic” concert residency in Germany at the weekend, setting several new records.

The London singer performed 10 nights in August at a bespoke 73,000-capacity pop-up stadium in Munich – the largest temporary arena ever built.

With over 730,000 tickets, the Munich shows registered the highest attendance of any concert residency outside Las Vegas, according to promoter Live Nation.

The exclusive European concerts, which mark the first time Adele has played mainland Europe since 2016, were co-promoted by Live Nation GSA’s Marek Lieberberg and Austrian promoter Klaus Leutgeb. Adele’s team, including manager Jonathan Dickins and agent Lucy Dickins, have been instrumental in shaping the project.

“The flair of the unique Adele performances combined perfectly with the special atmosphere of this city,” says Lieberberg.

“It was trendsetting: the harmony of concerts in a never-before-seen visualization in an epic custom-built pop-up colosseum”

“Her music, the fans and Munich came together in a way that is rarely experienced. It was trendsetting: the harmony of concerts in a never-before-seen visualization in an epic custom-built pop-up colosseum with perfect open-air sound, created for Adele fans. A joyful, cheerful and peaceful pre-Oktoberfest.”

The “bespoke” outdoor venue, imagined by co-promoted Leutgeb and designed by Florian Wieder, boasted a 220m x 30m LED screen. The screen, supplied by Solotech, has been certified by Guinness World Records as the Largest Continuous Outdoor LED Screen (temporary) ever built.

Alongside the venue, the 75,000-square-metre Adele World – which included an authentic English pub, a fairground wheel, karaoke, Farmers Markets, merchandise and a typical Bavarian beer garden with live entertainment – attracted 500,000 visitors.

The residency gave a spending boost of more than €540 million to the Munich economy, according to the head of Munich’s economic department Clemens Baumgärtner.

“I believe that something historic has been created here in our fast-moving age that will have a big impact for a long time to come,” Lieberberg continues.

“I believe that something historic has been created here in our fast-moving age that will have a big impact for a long time”

Adele adds: “To the many people who helped organise these events and let me put on the most spectacular show, thank you for taking the chance on me and letting me go out with a bang. I’m so grateful.”

During the final night of her Munich residency, the 36-year-old announced that she will be taking an extended break from music when she concludes her Las Vegas residency in November.

During the 31 August concert in Munich, Adele told fans that she has 10 more shows to deliver to fans in Vegas “But after that, I will not see you for an incredibly long time.”

The Grammy-winner explained that she has been touring and performing non-stop for almost three years – the “longest” time she has ever performed for – and that’s she’s ready to get back to “living my life”.

The next edition of IQ magazine, due mid-September, will go behind the scenes of Adele’s Munich residency.

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Live Nation and Leutgeb Entertainment Group are hoping to establish a new 60,000-cap concert venue in Austria with two huge events this summer.

The promoters are teaming up to stage Rolling Loud Europe – 2024’s only European edition of the hip-hop festival franchise – at Racino open-air venue in Ebreichsdorf, Vienna from 5-7 July, marking the brand’s debut in the country.

Rolling Loud Europe will be headlined by Nicki Minaj, Playboi Carti and Travis Scott, with other acts to include Ice Spice, Offset, Shirin David, Gunna, Lil Tjay, Don Toliver and NLE Choppa, among others. Remaining weekend tickets cost €259.

The same venue will also host the one-day Racino Rocks, starring Metallica, backed by a supporting bill including Five Finger Death Punch, Ice Nine Kills and Mammoth WVH. General sale tickets cost €149.00 to €223.70. Punters also have the option of arriving onsite a day early for €25.

Speaking at a press conference, Live Nation’s Marek Lieberberg, André Lieberberg and Matthias Rotermund, and Austrian promoter Klaus Leutgeb declared that both events are expected to welcome 60,000 fans per day.

“We are extremely satisfied with the response,” said Live Nation GSA head Marek Lieberberg, as per Vorarlberg Online and oeticket.

Lieberberg said he was “very happy and proud” that Leutgeb had secured a year-round contract for the location, which he described as “one of the most beautiful festival grounds in Europe… embedded in nature, close to the metropolis of Vienna”, after a decade of working with Racino.

Moving forward, the promoters plan to organise smaller 5,000 to 10,000-cap events at the Racino each year, as well as larger concerts

“We are here to stay,” he added. “We are putting the metropolis of Vienna and its charisma at the centre. The visitors come from Vienna, will go back there and spend the night there.”

André Lieberberg noted that 50% of the visitors to Rolling Loud Europe will come from Austria along with a significant from southern Germany, while almost 1,000 tickets have been sold in the US so far.

Moving forward, the promoters plan to organise smaller 5,000 to 10,000-cap events at the Racino each year, as well as larger concerts for up to 60,000 attendees.

Launched in 2015, the Miami-hailing Rolling Loud has also run events in Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Sydney, Toronto, and is also plotting a debut event in Thailand for November this year. In Europe, most recently Rolling Loud has been staged in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, Portimão on Portugal’s Algarve and Munich, Germany.

Marek Lieberberg also played down reports that Rolling Loud’s 2023 German launch had been married by crowd trouble. Nine security staff were reportedly pelted by bottles and stones by festivalgoers on the event’s first day, as police described a “remarkably aggressive” mood among the audience.

“You should classify it,” Lieberberg told local media. “No people were hurt, no containers burned.”

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Austrian promoter Klaus Leutgeb has spoken about co-promoting Adele’s 80,000-capacity residency in Munich, Germany.

The run was announced last Wednesday (31 January) as a four-date stint in August but a further four days were added due to “phenomenal demand”.

“I have been in contact with management for two years; I had a vision that drove me forward,” Leutgeb told Krone. “I had to develop something very special, something that was 100 percent Adele.”

The summer shows will take place in a “bespoke stadium” with a combination of grandstand seating and standing areas, based at convention centre Munich Messe.

“It’s a multifunctional arena, twice the size of a football stadium, with a diameter of 300 meters, the stage alone is 220 meters wide,” says Leutgeb, who has enlisted the help of renowned stage designer Florian Wieder.

“I had to develop something very special, something that was 100 percent Adele”

“But for me, it’s not about size or dimension. For me it’s about content, I want to realize my dreams and visions because that’s the only thing that makes me happy and I’m restless.”

The promoter, who has previously organised shows at Munich Messe with artists including Andreas Gabalier, Helene Fischer and Robbie Williams in 2022, will co-promote the shows with Marek Lieberberg of Live Nation GSA.

The exclusive European dates mark the first time Adele has performed in mainland Europe since 2016.

At the time of the announcement, Adele said: “I was too curious to not follow up and indulge in this idea, a one-off, bespoke pop-up stadium designed around whatever show I want to put on? Ohh!? Pretty much slap bang in the middle of Europe? In Munich? That’s a bit random, but still fabulous!”

The singer’s 100-night Weekends with Adele run at The Colosseum (cap. 4,100) at Caesars Palace is due to wrap up in June this year. The first 24 dates grossed US$52.8 million (€48.8m).

The 35-year-old star is represented by Lucy Dickins and Kirk Sommer at WME.

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In the memorable assessment he provided to IQ last year, Rammstein and Robbie Williams promoter Scumeck Sabottka of MCT Agentur gave the German market short shrift.

“It’s shit,” he said. “The really big and hot things still sell, but the middle bit is really struggling. And that is the important bit, because we don’t just live on cake, we live on bread. And all the bread is gone.”

This year, Sabottka hasn’t drastically revised his view. “It seems that major stadium and arena tours are selling well, while club and mid-size-venue acts are not performing as well as before the pandemic – but that’s just my personal observation,” he says. “Overall, I would say business is stalling and not healthy. Let’s hope for 2024 to do better.”

Other promoters have reported similar challenges in a market characterised by rising costs, extreme saturation, and unpredictable demand for all but the most star-powered events. While more Germans are attending shows than ever before, the sheer quantity of those shows has led to weak sales in many instances. So, while plenty of blockbuster events have managed to buck that trend, the general sense is of a packed market that can’t quite be trusted.

“Compared to pre-pandemic, I think it’s busier,” says Sina Hall, head of the international booking department at Semmel Concerts. “And it’s gotten a little bit rougher because everybody is back out now.

“It’s a little bit more mystifying and harder to tell what are going to be the hard ticket sales for an act”

“Because their markets reopened much earlier, the US acts are now willing and ready to put focus on Europe again, so there’s a lot of content going through, and the markets are tricky now. We are all coming to terms with the fact that everything has got so much more expensive, and it’s a little bit more mystifying and harder to tell what are going to be the hard ticket sales for an act. You can’t necessarily compare it to pre-pandemic conditions.”

But though all is not entirely well, Germany remains the largest live music market in Europe and the third biggest in the world. In addition to heavy gig-going cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Hamburg, and Frankfurt, it has a further 35 cities with populations of around 200,000-plus and plenty of shows and local events in most of them.

Local giant CTS Eventim has significant strength in the German market, with stakes in promoters FKP Scorpio, Semmel, DreamHaus, Peter Rieger Konzertagentur and a number of regional promoters, as well as venues such as Cologne’s Lanxess Arena and the Waldbühne Berlin. The group reported a milestone €1.02bn in revenues for the first half of this year, and noted that Germany, along with Italy and Austria, was among the major drivers.

FKP Scorpio makes its home in Hamburg and presides over more than 25 festivals across Europe. The company has tours this year with acts including The National and Queens of the Stone Age and will also promote Taylor Swift’s Eras stadium dates in Germany next year.

FKP’s German festival portfolio is a strong one. This year’s twin Southside and Hurricane events – respectively in the southern town of Neuhausen ob Eck and at the Eichenring motorcycle speedway in Scheeßel in the north – came close to selling out this year, with 78,000 attendees at Hurricane and 60,000 at Southside, and Muse, Die Ärzte, Placebo, Queens of the Stone Age, The 1975, and Loyle Carner at the top of the bills.

“Rising costs for virtually everything continue to take their toll”

To hammer home their ongoing health, the festivals promptly sold 50,000 tickets for the 2024 editions on the first day of presale. “As we have not yet released any acts for the coming year, this result is also an enormous vote of confidence, which is perhaps even more valuable than any economic success,” said FKP founder and CEO Folkert Koopmans.

Other German festivals for FKP include Highfield, M’era Luna, Rolling Stone Beach, Metal Hammer Paradise, A Summer’s Tale, Plage Noire, and Deichbrand. Berlin’s open-air festival Tempelhof Sounds, produced with DreamHaus and Loft Concerts, took a break this year after its 2022 debut, as its Tempelhof Airport site is home to a growing number of refugee shelters.

“Rising costs for virtually everything continue to take their toll,” FKP MD Stephan Thanscheidt told IQ in July. “Because of this, less demand, and purchasing power, a lot of festivals are struggling, and we suspect their number to further decrease in the future.”

M’era Luna, took place before 25,000 fans in Hildesheim in August, featuring artists including Within Temptation and Ville Valo. The Highfield Festival, organised with Semmel Concerts, attracted 35,000 fans in August, while the 60,000-cap Deichbrand Festival, in Cuxhaven on Germany’s North Sea coast, sold out in July.

Semmel is another German titan, regularly ranking among the leading promoters worldwide. It handles a heavy schedule of major shows and exhibitions, adding up to more than 1,500 events a year for over 5m visitors, with Hans Zimmer, Schlager great Roland Kaiser and Elton John arena blockbuster Rocketman In Concert among the stars, to add to many big shows and a booming exhibitions business.

“We need to take care of the acts now that will make our life and our industry possible tomorrow”

But alongside the larger shows, Sina Hall is passionate about the notion of developing newer talent, and she notes that while many bigger artists and productions are keen to make up for lost time, younger ones are seeking to tour for different reasons.
“There’s a lot of different models for going out there,” she says. “Some artists understandably just want to play again, and then there are artists that really need it as a crucial part of their career development.”

In that spirit, for the first time, Semmel launched a Reeperbahn showcase this year, with eight acts on the bill, including German and US acts across a range of genres. “I think that’s showing how important we find this development of younger artists,” says Hall. “We need to take care of the acts now that will make our life and our industry possible tomorrow.”

Of the other Eventim-affiliated promoters, DreamHaus, founded by Matt Schwarz, former MD and COO of Live Nation GSA, handles the Eventim-owned twin Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals – which bring a combined attendance of 150,000 to Nuremberg in June, this year with Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, and Die Toten Hosen as headliners – in addition to numerous artist shows.

Live Nation has been big news in Germany for eight years, since its acquisition of the powerful MLK operation. The ensuing years have been predictably muscular ones, and Live Nation GSA staged more than 50 open-air events for over 3m visitors in summer 2023.

A first edition of Rolling Loud Germany drew 60,000 to Munich’s Messe München fairgrounds in July for a hip-hop extravaganza spearheaded by Wizkid, Kendrick Lamar, and Travis Scott. Superbloom, staged in Munich in early September by Live Nation-owned Goodlive for the second time, sold 50,000 tickets on each of its two days, and Superbloom director Fruzsina Szép pronounced the event “almost perfect.”

“There’s a lot of different models for going out there”

“It was an absolutely beautiful and calm atmosphere throughout those two days,” she told IQ days after the festival. “I’ve never experienced a festival like this, that I’ve been involved with.”

Live Nation’s Lollapalooza Berlin in April became the first festival in Germany to be awarded the DIN ISO 20121 sustainability accreditation. However, its 111,000-cap Download Germany at the Hockenheimring was cancelled due to production issues resulting from this year’s busy summer season.

Among its many artist shows, Live Nation GSA also sold out eight stadium concerts for honorary Germans Depeche Mode this summer – two in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Düsseldorf; one each in Munich and Leipzig – and the band return for eight arena shows early in 2024.

Careful but prosperous and acquisitive throughout the post-Covid period, German-headquartered live entertainment group DEAG in August laid bare its expansion plans for 2023, with a revenue goal of more than €300m, ticket sales of 10m – up from 9m in 2022 – and an expectation of 6,000 events across its key European markets. The company also revealed in its H1 financial results that it has “several acquisitions in advanced stages of negotiation.”

The company had a strong festival summer, welcoming more than 800,000 visitors to its festivals between late June and early September. A new acquisition, German electronic dance festival Airbeat One, attracted 70,000 people to its 20th anniversary. Other major acquisitions in 2022 included the summer psytrance Indian Spirit event in Eldena, and Classic Open Air in Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt – to add to a portfolio that includes the Ruhr-in-Love, Nature One and Kessel festivals.

“If you look at their audience, they have almost four generations there now”

DEAG-owned Wizard Promotions has plenty of success stories to throw into the pot, including Scorpions, the KISS farewell tour, and a notably storming Iron Maiden arena run. “They know what they are doing, and they can go to market very well,” says Wizard managing director Oliver Hoppe of the British heavy metal heroes. “Every show was a sell-out – one of the best Maiden tours I have ever seen. If you look at their audience, they have almost four generations there now. For a lot of the younger kids, 18 or even less, that whole metal and rock thing is starting to come back a little now.”

All the same, Hoppe echoes the sense of a market still trying to regain its feeling for what works. “Pre-Covid, there was a certain formula and understanding of things: if you do this, then that will happen,” he says. “Post-Covid, a lot has changed. Anything that has a brand name does well, to a certain degree, and often regardless of the ticket price. When people know what they are getting for their money, they don’t really care how much they spend on it. But if they are paying €100 for a big show, maybe they don’t go to the smaller shows, the bands they haven’t seen before – they save up for a couple of months for the bigger ticket.”

Among Germany’s other notable national promoters, Hamburg-based Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion organises about 1,300 concerts a year – 900 of them its own tours in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and around 400 as a local partner in Hamburg for other promoters. Forthcoming shows include a stake in two Hamburg dates on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour with AEG Presents and a wealth of other events from Björk to BABYMETAL.

On the festival side, its events include the Stadtpark Open Air concert series in Hamburg’s City Park, launched by Jahnke in 1975, as well as JazzNights, Elbjazz, and Überjazz festivals, plus Way Back When and Campus Spring Break in the Ruhr region.

Other independents in the German market include Berlin-based booker and national promoter Z|ART, whose shows currently include Boy & Bear, Jockstrap, and Johnny Jewel; Hamburg’s a.s.s. concerts & promotion, which promotes and books up to 1,200 concerts a year for German and international artists, with branch offices in Berlin, Hamburg, and Düsseldorf; Hamburg-based indie Neuland Concerts, whose shows for next year include Jason Derulo; and another Hamburg native, Music Minds Productions, which this year has been involved with shows by both Till Lindemann and – in person at Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena but not singing – former president Barack Obama.

“When people know what they are getting for their money, they don’t really care how much they spend on it”

Of the market’s other key festival promoters, Cosmopop is responsible for the 29-year-old Time Warp electronic festival in Mannheim and further afield; Opus produces the renowned Jazzopen Stuttgart; while ICS (International Concert Service) controls the legendary Wacken Open Air in Schleswig- Holstein, one of the world’s biggest rock festivals.

From a geographical and promoting point of view, Germany is a huge market and a highly regionalised one, in which the 16 states have significant local differences. Traditionally, national promoters have partnered with local promoters for shows in specific cities, though these days the boundaries are often less defined.

National promoters often run their own shows in cities where they have a presence and some cultivate local specialists in-house. For instance, Wizard Promotions and sister company Handwerker Promotion formed a local joint venture in 2018 called Rhein-Main Concerts in Frankfurt to produce events in the south-west region of the country.

Nonetheless, the old system remains broadly in place, with powerful local promoters including Eventim’s Dirk Becker Entertainment, which operates in the Rhine-Ruhr region of western Germany encompassing Cologne; DEAG’s Munich- based Global Concerts; Hannover Concerts in the northern city of the same name; and Undercover, based in Braunschweig and operating in northern Germany and beyond.

German recording giant BMG acquired Undercover in 2020. It has booked Berlin’s 1,600-seat Theater des Westens until the end of 2024 for a series of residencies by domestic and international recording artists, as well as stage musical productions, and curated the live programme of the Hessentag, Germany’s largest state festival, in Pfungstadt, Hesse.

Global Promoters Report 2023 is out now.

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Rolling Loud’s debut in Germany was marred by a spate of incidents, with police describing a “remarkably aggressive” mood among the festival audience.

Live Nation and Austrian promoter Leutgeb Entertainment Group teamed up to bring the hip-hop brand to Germany for the first time last weekend.

Wizkid, Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott headlined the event at the Munich Exhibition Center from 7-9 July. However, police say nine stewards were injured on the first day after being pelted by bottles and stones by festivalgoers, leading one security firm to withdraw from the site. The scenes led performances on the festival’s second stage having to be brought to a premature end.

There were also reports of overcrowding during the event, resulting in “isolated cases of panic attacks and crush injuries”.

“As a result, the police forces deployed had to support the tasks of the security service in front of the stage area on the premises,” says Munich police. “After a brief interruption of the concert for security reasons, stones and bottles were thrown at the police. There were no injured officers since the forces wore helmets and protective equipment.”

“While the event went largely smoothly, individual aggressive visitors triggered unprovoked incidents”

The situation is said to have calmed by the evening on day two, with the last day of the event, which was attended by around 45,000 people, passing off as planned. Organisers blamed “individual aggressive visitors” for the trouble.

“While the event went largely smoothly, individual aggressive visitors triggered unprovoked incidents,” says a statement by Live Nation GSA MD Andre Lieberberg, as per Rolling Stone Germany.

“At the festival we responded to the problems as directly and professionally as possible. Our efforts have always been to comply with all official requirements and we were in constant contact with the police, fire brigade and [district administration department] the KVR.

“The event concept has proven to be coherent, including intensive security precautions. The individual incidents were quickly remedied through increased security measures.”

Launched in 2015, Rolling Loud has grown from a one-day event in Miami into the world’s largest hip-hop festival franchise, with a presence in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Portugal.

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This year’s edition of Download in Germany, the second offshoot edition of the long-running UK rock festival brand, has been cancelled, with organisers citing production issues caused by a busy summer season.

Slipknot, Parkway Drive, Volbeat and The Prodigy were due to headline the event, which would’ve taken place over two days for the first time, from 23 and 24 June at the Hockenheimring, a motor racing circuit situated in the Rhine Valley near the town of Hockenheim.

“Despite the first-class line-up, the massive number of open-air events made organisation and implementation considerably more difficult this summer,” reads a statement from Download Germany organisers Live Nation GSA. “Unfortunately, the associated technical production obstacles proved to be insurmountable.”

Other major festivals that will not return in 2023 include Falls Festival (Australia), Rolling Loud (US), Summerburst (Sweden), Hills of Rock (Bulgaria), InMusic (Croatia), Wireless Germany, Hear Hear (Belgium) and Tempelhof Sounds and Tempelhof Sounds Presents (Germany).

FKP Scorpio CEO Folkert Koopmans recently laid bare the post-pandemic financial struggles faced by festivals, estimating that only 20% are still profitable.

Koopmans revealed that FKP’s flagship festival Hurricane lost money in 2022 despite selling out and warned that the sector is being “overwhelmed by spiralling costs”.

“The associated technical production obstacles proved to be insurmountable”

“We’re struggling with it, trying to keep the costs under control,” he said. “But it’s incredibly difficult. Of course, we also have an extremely high break-even point.”

Fellow German promoter DreamHaus (Rock am Ring/Rock im Park) previously revealed that production costs increased 25–30% for this year’s festival season.

“There are not that many suppliers that can supply festivals of our size so we’re also in a corner, where we can take it or leave it,” said DreamHaus’s Catharine Krämer.

“We could lower the cost of the whole festival experience but this would have a significant impact on the whole quality of it.”

Download Germany is the fourth sister event (after Melbourne, Sydney and Paris) of the UK’s premier rock festival, which returns next week for a 20th edition.

The anniversary event, which takes place over four days for the first time ever, became the fastest-selling in Download’s history.

More than 60 acts have been confirmed for Download Festival 2023, including headliners Bring Me The Horizon, Slipknot and Metallica, with the latter playing two unique sets on the Thursday and Saturday nights.

Architects, Evanescence, Disturbed, Placebo, Parkway Drive and Ghost are also billed to perform at the event, set for 8–11 June at Donington Park in Leicestershire.

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DreamHaus CEO Matt Schwarz has spoken to IQ about the company’s “hugely successful and record-breaking” festival summer.

Having launched in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Berlin-based promoter waited almost two years to clock in for its first festival summer and even then, it wasn’t business as usual in Germany.

“Rock am Ring and Rock im Park were the first two major festivals of the season in central Europe after two years of Covid-19 related cancellations,” explains Schwarz.

“By March we still didn’t know if we could host the festivals due to Covid-19. Almost everything happened at the last minute, including the introduction and implementation of new features such as cashless payment for both editions, new festival apps and much more.”

In addition to the time crunch, the promoter had to deal with a slate of prevailing challenges including “lack of specialised personnel, increased production costs, and inflation and recession due to the geopolitical situation and the world being upside down”.

Despite the numerous hurdles, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park went ahead between the 3–5 June at Nürburgring race track and Zeppelin Field and sold a record 90,000 and 70,000 tickets respectively.

“[Rock am Ring] was the most successful festival stream ever in Germany”

“We were all the more relieved that the festivals turned out to be a huge success with record-breaking attendances and Rock am Ring being broadcast live/live in its entirety,” says Schwarz. “Streaming numbers exceeded any expectations making it the most successful festival stream ever in Germany.”

The festival was livestreamed via German streaming service RTL+, with fans around the world able to watch performances from the likes of Green Day, Muse, Volbeat, Placebo and Måneskin – free of charge.

In addition, the festival partnered with TikTok to bring the ‘Rock am Ring experience’ to the worldwide community through hashtag campaigns, live programmes, official playlists and backstage content with popular creators.

This year marks the first time DreamHaus has organised and programmed the twin festivals (along with eventimpresents) and for Schwarz, it’s a full-circle moment.

Rock am Ring was founded by Marcel Avram and Marek Lieberberg’s Mama Concerts in 1985, while Rock im Park took place for the first time in 1995 under Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur (MLK).

Schwarz was formerly VP of touring and festivals at MLK, before becoming MD and COO of Live Nation GSA when Lieberberg sold MLK to Eventim’s live music subsidiary Medusa Group in 2015. From 2016, the CTS-owned festivals were co-promoted with Lieberberg, now CEO of Live Nation GSA.

“I pondered a lot about what it would be like to work on The Rocks again”

Schwarz resigned his position at Live Nation GSA in February 2020 and in October of the same year, DreamHaus was launched with scant details and the ominous message “If you know you know”.

At the same time, it was announced that Schwarz would return to work on Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, but this time as head of eventimpresents (the company formerly known as MLK).

In February 2021, CTS Eventim acquired DreamHaus and it was announced that, under the Eventim Live umbrella, the promoter would be responsible for organising and programming the festivals from 2022, along with eventimpresents.

“Beforehand, I pondered a lot about what it would be like to work on The Rocks again,” Schwarz tells IQ. “Honestly, it felt like getting back on the bike – you never forget how to do it.”

While the DreamHaus CEO says that working on the marquee festivals was his highlight of 2022, the promoter has plenty of milestones to pick from.

This year also saw DreamHaus join forces with FKP Scorpio and Loft Concerts for a brand new Berlin-based festival, Tempelhof Sounds.

“Our new heavyweight domestic act Apache 207 sold over 60,000 tickets in seconds blowing out five arenas”

Touted as “an inclusive and cosmopolitan festival,” the three-day event saw the likes of Muse, The Strokes and Florence and the Machine perform on the grounds of Tempelhof Airport between 10–12 June.

On the touring side of the business, Schwarz says DreamHaus has promoted hundreds of concerts this year – mainly on the club and theatre level – and sold approximately 750,000 tickets in 2022.

“Our new heavyweight domestic act Apache 207 [German rapper] sold over 60,000 tickets in seconds blowing out five arenas,” says Schwarz. “We’re also very pleased with the ticket sales for Måneskin, Kid Cudi, Muse, Sam Smith, Lewis Capaldi and Tenacious D.”

Among Schwarz’s personal highlights for 2022 was a rescheduled concert from German superstar Marteria at the open-air concert venue Berlin Waldbühne (cap. 22,290).

“It got cancelled just minutes before doors due to a massive thunderstorm,” he says. “Luckily, we were able to return to the venue a few days later when Marteria caught up on the show and delivered a terrific concert.

“Another highlight was the beautiful James Blake show at Verti Music Hall, booked by Pana [Ioannis Panagopoulo] from our team. He is one of my favourite artists and it was such a special night.”

DreamHaus’ touring numbers are all the more impressive given Germany’s fractured and sluggish reopening, which has seen the market trail behind its European counterparts.

“2023 is going to be an uphill battle; the worst is yet to come”

“There was a lot of uncertainty around the varying Covid restrictions in the individual federal states,” says Schwarz. “And when a lot of the western world opened up, we still had to deal with these restrictions. This certainly had an impact on the potential ticket buyers who are still wary.

“People tend to wait and buy their ticket much later in the campaign and closer to the show date for most of the tours unless it’s blockbuster content. Outdoor shows are getting more popular.”

Schwarz expects that consumer trepidation will continue next year, prolonging the business’ full recovery.

“Everyone thought 2022 to be the transition year after the pandemic,” he says. “Now it turns out that 2023 will be the transition year. We will have to face inflation and recession which have an impact on how and what people will spend their money on. It’s going to be an uphill battle; the worst is yet to come. Our modus operandi, therefore, is “less is more” in regard to show count and risks.”

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