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New metal festival to launch in the Netherlands

A new two-day heavy metal festival will debut in the Netherlands next year, it has been announced.

South of Heaven will take place in Maastricht on 31 May and 1 June 2024, promoted by TIRR Music Agency, Muziekgieterij Maastricht and Doomstar Bookings.

The event will feature two stages and 21 bands, with the first acts, venue and ticket sale details to be confirmed “very soon”.

“South of Heaven is committed to a strong programme with mainly internationally celebrated metal bands”

“South of Heaven is committed to a strong programme with mainly internationally celebrated metal bands, a good old-fashioned atmosphere, a top location in Maastricht, delicious food and drinks and a relatively low ticket price,” says a statement from organisers.

The Association of Dutch Music Venues and Festivals’ (VNPF) recently published Poppodia and Festivals in Figures 2022 report showed the Netherlands’ live business has experienced a post-pandemic resurgence, although concerns remain over rising costs.

Venues and festivals received a total of 7.6 million visits last year, compared to 883,000 in 2021 and 8.6m in the last pre-Covid year of 2019, despite an “abnormal” year for the business, with corona restrictions not lifted until three months in. The study results are based on responses from 48 music venues and 55 festivals.

 


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Dutch concert revenue up 25% in 2019

New figures have shown that over 2.9 million people attended large concerts (over 3,000-cap.) in the Netherlands in 2019, a 16 % rise from the year before, with Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome recording the highest footfall of any venue in the country.

The findings, presented by research agency Response and the Association of Events Makers (VVEM) at Eurosonic Noorderslag last week, show revenue generated by live music events equalled €165 million in 2019, a 25% rise from the year before.

According to the VVEM, the revenue increase is due in part to a 7% growth in the number of large concerts in the Netherlands last year, “regular price increases” and a rise in the tax levied on live event tickets from 6% to 9%. Ticket prices rose on average by 7% in 2019, to €56.60.

The 17,000-capacity Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam was the most-visited concert venue, welcoming over one million fans in 2019

The 17,000-capacity Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam – the city that took 75% of the national large concert market share – was the most-visited concert venue, welcoming over one million fans in 2019. Afas Live (6,000-cap.) offered 80 live events over the year, the highest number of any venue, and reported the second highest number of visitors at 412,000.

Mojo Concerts, which celebrated its 50th year in 2018, remained the “most important” concert promoter according to the report, with Amsterdam-based Friendly Fire recording the most growth.

Dutch singer Marco Borsato sold the most tickets of any artist, attracting 240,000 fans, with André Rieu’s concerts at the Vrijthof in Maastricht and Guus Meeuwis’ shows in Eindhoven also proving popular with 150,000 and 135,000 tickets apiece.

Photo: Shirley de Jong/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

 


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André Rieu’s Amore makes cinematic history

Classical superstar André Rieu has once again broken records with the 2018 edition of his Maastricht concerts, taking £1.66 million at cinema box offices in the UK and Republic of Ireland and becoming the all-time most successful concert screened in cinemas.

The Dutch violinist, known as the King of Waltz, grossed a then-record £1.45m with his 2017 Maastricht concerts, held annually in his hometown in the south-eastern Netherlands.

Cinemagoers attended showings held at more than 500 locations across the British Isles on the weekend of 28 and 29 July, grossing £1,608,000, according to comScore figures, with selected encores the following weekend pushing the figure to £1,667, 790.

On its opening weekend, Amore – My Tribute to Love reached no5 in the UK box-office chart, behind summer blockbusters including Mission Impossible: Fallout, Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again and Incredibles 2.

For the second year, the concerts were produced and distributed by Piece of Magic Entertainment, a company co-founded by Rieu himself in July 2017.

“We are extremely proud that in Piece of Magic’s second year we broke the record for the biggest music concert in cinemas of all time”

Caspar Nadaud, the company’s CEO, comments: “We are extremely proud that in Piece of Magic’s second year we broke the record for the biggest music concert in cinemas of all time. We are looking forward to continuing to build audiences for André and to diversify the genre with new strands of content.”

“André Rieu continues to resonate and demonstrate true affinity amongst a loyal and growing audience for event cinema content. Each year, his performances exceed the last in terms of box-office takings,” Grainne Peat, managing director of the Event Cinema Association, adds.

“As an association we are seeking how we can better harness the excitement of this category to appeal to and attract a wider audience profile.”

Upcoming Piece of Magic Entertainment events include several esports events, including the League of Legends European summer finals live from Madrid (9 September) and League of Legends world championship final live from Seoul Korea (November), and Rieu’s new year’s concert in Sydney (5–6 January 2019).

 


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André Rieu breaks own record with £1.5m concerts

Dutch violinist André Rieu has made concert history with two concerts in Maastricht, grossing almost £1.5m by streaming them into 586 cinemas in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

The total gross from the weekend – £1,447,086 – is a new UK box-office record, breaking the previous record, also held by Rieu, of £1,408,251, generated by his 2016 Maastricht shows.

Both the 22 and 23 July live shows and the broadcast, dubbed Andre Rieu’s 2017 Maastricht Concert, were produced by Piece of Magic Entertainment (POM), a production and distribution company founded earlier this month by Rieu (pictured), his son Pierre and Caspar Nadaud.

The concerts will also screened at a further 700 cinemas in countries across Europe – including the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Spain and Poland – and Israel, with a second wave of screenings planned for France, Germany, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil later this year, bringing the overall total to more than 1,500 cinemas.

“We are very proud that POM managed to increase both box office and amount of cinemas across Europe considerably from last year”

CEO Nadaud comments: “We are very proud that POM managed to increase both box office and amount of cinemas across Europe considerably from last year. This is a great sign that exhibitors have strong trust and belief in our marketing and bespoke campaign strategies, especially introducing local hosts for all key territories.

“We are looking forward continuing building the André in Cinema brand and to use our experience and know how to work with other artists and organisations in the near future.”

André Rieu’s 2016 tour was the 52nd highest-grossing of the year, earning US$32.1m.

 


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