Having hosted both the Olympic Games and Paralympics this year, the city of Paris has not seen its usual packed summer of live music activity, but with those sporting tournaments now confined to glorious history, the French capital has emerged with a new arena and a renewed vigour after its televised global showcase.

The music industry enjoys an enviable relationship with government in France, with subsidies available to venues and guaranteed wages for performing musicians, supporting a healthy marketplace and the capital city’s nighttime scene benefitting as a result.

While there is a plethora of small venues and clubs to provide stage time for emerging talent, chief executive of Blue Line Productions, Naïma Bourgaut, who runs two small venues – the 300-capacity FGO-Barbara and the 200-cap Les Trois Baudets – notes that in the 500-1,500 capacity, the city still lacks choices.

At the top end, Paris La Défense Arena director general, Raphaëlle Plasse, notes that the demand for the 45,000-capacity indoor stadium has been so strong that the sports side of the business has become secondary to live events. “We’re up to 70 events in the calendar, and we can host shows year-round because of our roof, so we’ve hosted some of the biggest artists in the world, as well as being one of the main venues for the Paris Olympics,” she says.

And with the Olympic Games also delivering the new Adidas Arena, the top end of the venues business has never been better-served, although the promoters who ply their trade in the city argue that there is still need for additional large-scale buildings.

Across the city at the 20,000-capacity Accor Arena, the calendar is similarly packed. “From our perspective, we proudly meet a unique demand for large-scale venues in Paris, which is also true for the three venues operated by Paris Entertainment Company,” says Nicolas Dupeux, who is now director general for the Accor Arena, Adidas Arena, and Le Bataclan.

“We provide artists with support that follows their growth and evolving demands”

“Adidas Arena meets a capacity need that was previously unavailable in Paris: with a seating capacity ranging from 6,000 to 9,000, and with the 1,600 seats at the Bataclan, the venues of the Paris Entertainment Company offer an unprecedented complementarity in France and even in Europe. We provide artists with support that follows their growth and evolving demands, covering the full spectrum of live venues and meeting all their needs.”

At the top of the stack of the city’s promoters are, unsurprisingly, AEG Presents and Live Nation, while the Parisian nightlife also provides work for a whole host of independent operators, including the likes of Lagardère, Öctöpus, Alias Production, Le Rat Des Villes, Radical Production, Gérard Drouot Productions, Corida Group, Take Me Out, Opus Live, Allo Floride, Vedettes, Astérios Spectacles, Pedro Booking, and Saloni Productions, to name but a few.

Servicing those promoters are ticket companies such as Fnac, FIMALAC, Ticketmaster, and France Billet, in which CTS Eventim recently announced it had increased its shareholding to 65%. And at press time, AXS was establishing its new French HQ in Paris, adding another level of ticketing choice for the venues and promoters working in France.

On the festival front, Paris boasts an eclectic array of gatherings to entertain fans. The choice includes Lollapalooza Paris, We Love Green, Pitchfork, Villette Sonique, Chorus Festival, Slam Dunk, Ideal Trouble, and Closer Music Festival, while in the suburbs, FBLO Festival is a regular in nearby Fontainebleau and Rock en Seine is held in Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, west of the capital.

And with the French authorities making Paris the star of this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, it’s anticipated that tourism numbers in the city will climb even higher in the years ahead, giving the city’s live music business opportunities for further growth as visitors search for holiday entertainment.

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The French touring scene is in “the best of health” despite a summer overshadowed by the Paris Olympics, according to local music insiders.

Hosting the sporting competition may have resulted in fewer major concerts taking place in the country in 2024, but a busy autumn is in store for the indoor circuit, which will host acts such as Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Childish Gambino, Slipknot, Jonas Brothers, Justice and Melanie Martinez.

“The live entertainment market is in the best of health,” says Nicolas Dupeux, CEO of Paris Entertainment Company, which runs the Accor and adidas arenas in the French capital.

Accor Arena is one of France’s key venues, with a capacity between 15,000 and 20,000, while the company’s brand-new adidas arena has a capacity of 8,000-9,000. Speaking in IQ‘s 2024 Global Arena Guide, Dupeux notes that rising ticket prices do not appear to have impacted attendance.

“The evolution of the average ticket price is clear evidence: in our venues, in France, the post-Covid period is marked by a gradual increase in prices,” he says. “All styles and artists are affected, but international artists – who are increasingly performing in our venues – stand out significantly. For example, tickets for Madonna’s concert at Accor Arena in November 2023 reached exceptionally high price levels, up to €386.50. Nevertheless, we continue to fill the venues – a sign of strong demand.”

“We have had a record year in the number of concerts hosted while having the Olympics using the venue for six months”

Separately, the multifunctional Paris La Défense Arena, which served as another key venue for the Olympics, has welcomed more than 1.2m spectators over the past year. The venue has increased its maximum capacity from 43,000 to 45,000 and aims to further expand in the near future.

“We have had a record year in the number of concerts hosted while having the Olympics using the venue for six months, with major international acts such as 50 Cent, Black Eyed Peas, Taylor Swift and French local legend Michel Sardou,” reports booking director Raphaëlle Plasse.

“Our goal is to host 100 events per year in the upcoming years. To achieve that, we are planning to invest in solutions to optimise load-in and load-out times, reducing costs for the promoters, and increasing the number of days available to book additional events.”

Meanwhile, Paris’ 7,000-cap Le Zénith celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2024. Upcoming gigs include Moby, Girl in Red, Nas, London Grammar, Deep Purple, Nas, Fontaines D.C. and Jacob Collier.

“The last two years have been very good ones for the performing arts, with a very strong lineup of French and international artists, particularly for those performing in large and very large venues, with generally good attendance figures, a clear breakthrough for rap artists, and a strong comeback for electronic music/techno nights,” says director Lily Fisher.

French electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre will open and close the Paris 2024 Paralympics Closing Ceremony on 8 September

France’s biggest indoor arena outside of Paris, the 16,000-cap LDLC Arena in Lyon, opened last year to provide another boon for the market, and renowned promoter Salomon Hazot brought further positive news, praising the “absolutely magnificent” sales for Ed Sheeran’s 2025 French stadium dates in an interview with IQ.

Hazot is staging the singer-songwriter’s +–=÷× (Mathematics) Tour concerts at Marseille’s 70,000-cap Orange Vélodrome Stadium (6-7 June) and Lille’s 65,000-cap Decathlon Arena (20-21 June) next year via his partnership with AEG Presents France.

Elsewhere, it has been announced that French electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre will open and close the Paris 2024 Paralympics Closing Ceremony at the Stade de France on 8 September.

Domestic singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer’s will also play three concerts at the 90,000-cap stadium on 27-28 September and 1 October. Farmer was originally due to perform at the venue last year only for the dates to be rescheduled due to the French riots.

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The European leg of the Eras Tour is off to a record-breaking start, with Taylor Swift smashing attendance records in France and Sweden.

The 34-year-old kicked off the European jaunt on 9 May with four dates at La Défense Arena in Paris, France, which drew a total of 180,000 fans.

This turnout set a new record for the arena, which had increased its capacity from 40,000 to 45,000 per show.

The AEG Presents-promoted outing continued to Sweden, where the superstar rewrote the history books at Friends Arena in Stockholm.

On 17 May, the star set a new record for the highest number of tickets sold for an event at the arena, which was trumped the following night and the one after, resulting in a new attendance record for a single concert at Friends Arena with 60,243 people.

The 34-year-old kicked off the European jaunt on 9 May with four dates at La Défense Arena in Paris

Across the three Stockholm dates, which were promoted by MTG, AEG Presents and All Things Live Sweden, Swift drew 178,679 people and smashed the previous audience record for a single artist.

The record sees Swift unseat Bruce Springsteen who attracted 167,160 people to his three concerts at the arena in 2013.

Swift’s record-breaking streak in European venues is expected to continue, with AEG being granted permission to extend capacities on various venues.

Edinburgh’s Murrayfield has already announced that the Eras Tour concerts will be Scotland’s biggest-selling stadium shows after the city’s council agreed to increase Murrayfield’s capacity by 8.73% from 67,130 to 72,990.

The concerts will see Swift unseat previous record holder Harry Styles, who performed to more than 65,000 fans at the same venue in 2023. Prior to that, Styles’ band One Direction held the title for selling 64,000 tickets there in 2014.

The Eras Tour, the highest-grossing tour of all time, is set to continue tonight (24 May) at Estádio Da Luz in Portugal.

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Sum 41 have unveiled a unique ticketing offer for their European swansong.

The Canadian rock band have announced they will perform their final concert in Europe at Paris La Défense Arena in France on 23 November 2024.

The presale for the show, promoted by AEG Presents France, starts this Monday 26 June at 4.41pm CEST, with 4,141 standing tickets available at €41 for 41 hours. The general sale will then take place on Wednesday 28 June 28 from 12:41 pm.

Paris La Défense Arena is Europe’s largest indoor arena with a scalable capacity from 10,000 to 40,000.

The gig will mark the climax of the European leg of Sum 41’s When the Sum Sets farewell tour, with further dates still to be announced.

Last month, the group revealed they would be splitting up at the end of the tour after nearly 30 years together

Last month, the group, whose international agent is Wasserman Music’s Geoff Meall, revealed they would be splitting up at the end of the tour after 28 years together.

“Being part of Sum 41 since 1996 brought us some of the best times of our lives,” they said at the time. “We are forever grateful to our fans, both old and new, who have supported us in every way. It is hard to articulate the love and respect we have for all of you and we wanted you to hear this from us first.

“Sum 41 will be disbanding. We will be still be finishing all of our current upcoming tour dates this year and we’re looking forward to releasing our final album Heaven :x: Hell, along with a final worldwide tour to celebrate. Details will be announced as soon as we have them.”

The five-piece are also set to bring their Let the Bad Times Roll Tour with The Offspring and Simple Plan tour to the US for 24 dates this August and September.

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The European Arenas Association (EAA) is adding Paris La Défense Arena (cap. 38,000) to its membership.

The arena is the fourth new member to join the association since the easing of restrictions began for live events, and boosts EAA’s membership to 37 arenas across 20 European countries.

Inaugurated in October 2017 in a location 15 minutes away from downtown Paris, the arena is touted as Europe’s largest multifunctional venue with a capacity of 10,000 to up to 38,000 for concerts, sports events and corporate events.

Raphaëlle Plasse, booking and operations director La Défense Arena, says: “La Défense Arena is very pleased to join the EAA. The last 10 years have been more demanding than ever for the venues. All across Europe, venues are facing challenges; sharing these challenges, talking about them and working together to resolve them, are the best way to take control of our actions and development.

“The EAA has always been at the forefront of our sector’s progress. Becoming a member of the EAA means being part of our sector’s development and being able to work together to be the best at what we do.”

“Becoming a member of the EAA means being part of our sector’s development”

Olivier Toth, president at EAA, adds: “We are delighted to welcome Paris La Défense Arena into our association as we continue to embrace new members and to share our collective expertise.

“Our recently published figures are a stark reminder of the devasting impact Covid has had on the live events sector with an average audience reduction of 73% in 2020 and a further 23% reduction in 2021 making it even more important for us to strengthen our membership and work together on our recovery.”

As a result of the Covid-19 closures, the latest EAA research reveals total attendance for member arenas in 2020 fell 73% from 19 million to 5.1m. Last year saw further falls of 23% to 3.9m. The total number of live events fell 59% from 2,915 in 2019 to 1,181 in 2020, although they registered a slight increase of 2% last year to total 1,202.

In 2020, music events accounted for 48% of total events compared to 23% for sports events. At the end of last year, sport accounted for 52% of total events compared to 25% for music events, although music still made up 50% of total audiences compared to 33% for sports.

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