Bulgarian promoters sell out two major live events

Bulgarian promoters Pan Harmony and Blue Hills successfully produced two major live events at the Plovdiv Antique Theater in Bulgaria last weekend (18 and 19 September).

German heavy metal artist Udo Dirkschneider delivered a two-hour show on 18 September, while a small orchestra – arranged by Tomislav Baynov and conducted by Yordan Kamdzhalov – performed the music of Bach and Mozart during the following evening.

The venue was permitted to operate at 50% of its 1,480 capacity and both events sold out at the maximum legal limit.

“Even though heavy metal passions run high and deep, the exhilarated audience was very respectful of the situation and kept their distance from the band and the crew,” says Boyan Robert Pinter of Pan Harmony.

“No intervention was necessary on behalf of security. We established a good perimeter between the audience and the stage but we didn’t even need barriers. Everybody was on their best and most responsible behaviour. It was certainly a historic event for us.”

“It was certainly a historic event for us”

Stefan Popov of Blue Hills says: “Besides being even better organised than usual, we’re very lucky to be able to work at all.

When it comes to international shows, Bulgarians are generally quite sceptical about whether the artists will show up, so when we posted a photo of Udo and the band from Sofia Airport, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and local ticket buyers were even more confident.

In the European Union’s poorest country, this just adds to a long list of factors that we have to consider.”

Though social distancing and mask-wearing are not mandated in outdoor venues, visitors were asked to wear masks and disinfect their hands upon entry.

Bulgaria went into lockdown in March and measures were eased from June. Bulgaria has a relatively low infection rate with 18,863 reported cases and 761 reported fatalities of Covid amongst a population of around seven million.

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Concerts return to Kenwood House after five years

Outdoor concerts will return to London’s Kenwood House next summer, after an absence of five years.

English Heritage and promoter Giles Cooper Entertainment (GCE) say the Heritage Live Concert Series will take place across two weekends in June, with capacities of 10,000 each day. Acts announced so far are Kris Kristofferson on June 22 and Movie Themes by John Williams with The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra the next day. Further artists will be announced in the coming weeks.

The venue in Hampstead hosted concerts almost continuously since 1951, but in 2014 previous promoter Rouge Events pulled out of a deal after suffering poor ticket sales the year before.

People have been asking us for ages when the concerts would return

Sam Cooper, English Heritage’s general manager at Kenwood, said: “We are thrilled to be bringing back the summer concerts to Kenwood. People have been asking us for ages when the concerts would return and while at this stage it’s for one year only, we’re hopeful that this will become an annual event.”

Promoter of the concerts GCE is also organising concerts at two other English Heritage properties: Wrest Park in Bedfordshire (cap. 10,000) and Audley End (10,000) in Essex.

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