DEAG’s summer festivals to attract crowds of 800k+
DEAG is on course to attract a record number of visitors to its festivals this summer, with crowds set to soar past 800,000 across its core markets of Germany, the UK & Ireland, and Switzerland.
The company has expanded its portfolio over the past few years with acquisitions such as Regular Music, tickets.ie. platform, Indian Spirit, Classic Open Air and Airbeat One, and is anticipating a 40% year-on-year increase in visitors in 2023.
German electronic dance festival Airbeat One attracted 70,000 people to its 20th anniversary last weekend, which featured headliners such as Charlotte de Witte, Hardwell, Steve Aoki and Fritz Kalkbrenner at the airfield in Neustadt-Glewe in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Before that, more than 400 DJs thrilled the electronic dance fans at
Elsewhere, in Switzerland, the Sion sous les étoile festival featured artists including Soprano and Joss Stone from 12-16 July and set a new attendance record of almost 60,000 visitors.
In the UK, DEAG’s Kilimanjaro Live staged Kew the Music with the likes of Bastille and Jools Holland at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, near London. The previous weekend, stars such as The Lumineers, Rod Stewart, The Who and Dermot Kennedy drew more than 50,000 visitors to six sold-out shows at Regular Music’s Castle Concerts in Edinburgh, Scotland.
“DEAG’s festival segment is showing fantastic growth across all genres of music in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and Switzerland”
“DEAG’s festival segment is showing fantastic growth across all genres of music in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and Switzerland,” says DEAG CEO Peter Schwenkow. “The outstanding response from audiences points the way for us to new formats, new locations and a gratifying further development of this extremely interesting music festival field.”
Other successes included Rave the Planet and the Kessel Festival in Stuttgart at the end of June, along with the sold-out Legends at the Sea in Büsum. In addition, the UK’s biggest retro festival series Let’s Rock, attracted around 100,000 fans to 10 locations.
Upcoming DEAG festivals include the Sylt Open Air 2023 at the end of July with Sarah Connor and Scooter, Summer Nights in Glasgow; the Wider Than Pictures Series in Dublin; Germany’s Nature One at the beginning of August with over 70,000 fans expected; Indian Spirit in Eldena as well as the new PennFest in Buckinghamshire, England, as well as the established Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival” in Scotland.
For the first time, around 75% of the tickets for DEAG events were sold, some exclusively, via DEAG’s own online ticket distributors, myticket.de, myticket.co.uk, gigantic.com and tickets.ie.
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DEAG sees high demand for corporate bond placement
DEAG has successfully completed the placement of its corporate bond 2023/2026 with an issue volume of €50 million, which was oversubscribed by “significant margin”.
The Berlin-based company considers the demand, which was driven by institutional and private investors from Germany, Europe and overseas, to be “validation” of its growth strategy. Proceeds from the issue will be used to refinance the corporate bond 2018/2023.
The volume tendered for exchange amounts to around 30% of the outstanding bond and will be allocated at approximately 65%.
“DEAG’s operational strength, its strategy and our company’s positive prospects have convinced investors,” says DEAG CEO Peter Schwenkow. “I am extremely satisfied with the success of the bond placement, for which national and international demand was extremely high.
“We will continue our growth course and I am convinced that we will soon be welcoming new companies to the DEAG family”
The German live entertainment company says it is in advanced conversations for potential acquisitions. It is hoping to conclude a number of deals in the second half of 2023, with a focus on further strengthening its ticketing activities and expansion into new European markets.
“We will continue our growth course and I am convinced that we will soon be welcoming new companies to the DEAG family, opening up more new markets and thus further expanding our strong market position in Europe,” says Schwenkow.
DEAG revenue in the 2022 financial year increased 258.3% to around €325 million, compared to €90.7m in the previous year and €185.2m in the pre-corona year 2019. The firm expects group revenue to again top €300m in 2023, and anticipates further improvement in EBITDA, which was around €31m last year.
“We would like to thank all investors for the confidence they have shown in DEAG. The response from Germany and abroad was equally high. This bond offers investors an attractive investment opportunity and at the same time secures an attractive financing instrument for DEAG as part of our capital mix to finance additional growth in the years ahead,” adds Roman Velke, CFO of DEAG.
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Euro festival bosses upbeat ahead of 2023 season
European festival bosses tell IQ they are approaching the 2023 season with positivity as a mixed picture emerges of the sector’s fortunes.
Download’s Germany spin-off was cancelled yesterday, with organisers citing production issues caused by the “massive number of open-air events”. The event joined a number of other major festivals including 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) in not returning this year.
FKP Scorpio CEO Folkert Koopmans, meanwhile, recently laid bare the post-pandemic financial struggles faced by the scene, reckoning that only 20% are still profitable. However, more encouraging reports have surfaced elsewhere in the marketplace.
DEAG chief Peter Schwenkow tells IQ the business is “on track with our business plan” for the summer ahead. The Berlin-headquartered company added Germany’s electronic music-oriented Airbeat One and psychedelic trance festival Indian Spirit to its portfolio last year, and also runs outdoor events such as the UK’s Live at Chelsea, Kew the Music and Belladrum through its Kilimanjaro Live subsidiary.
In its Q1 report last week, DEAG revealed more than 500,000 tickets have already been sold for its open-air festivals, and Schwenkow describes demand as “strong and late”, adding that cost control is the circuit’s overriding concern.
“Frankly, it’s a challenge to navigate rising costs while keeping the ticket prices as low as possible”
Also in Germany, FKP Scorpio MD Stephan Thanscheidt has a similar viewpoint when it comes to the biggest challenge facing the business.
“That would be, without a doubt, the rising production costs, which averaged across all sectors are over 40% higher than before the pandemic,” he tells IQ. “The reasons for this are the long-term consequences of the pandemic and the terrible war in Ukraine, which have made energy in particular more expensive. This effect is, after all, felt in all sectors of the economy and had in the meantime made itself felt in Germany with the highest inflation in 70 years.”
Thanscheidt continues: “In this climate, we have to finance every single item of our major events ourselves: Every metre of construction fencing, the entire technical infrastructure such as stages, sound, lighting and video technology, but also tent structures, sanitary facilities, space rentals, rapidly rising personnel costs and artist fees, GEMA, insurance, cleaning, innovation as well as sustainability.
“This incomplete list alone makes it clear that a very large part of our turnover is spent on covering these enormous costs. At the same time, we do our utmost to pass on only a fraction of these costs to our guests, as the comparatively moderate increase in ticket prices shows.
“Frankly, it’s a challenge to navigate rising costs while keeping the ticket prices as low as possible. So far, we’ve kept our prices on the lower end of the spectrum at our own expense, but we won’t be able to hold this up forever – the economy as a whole needs to go back to normal.”
“Advance sales for this year have started with record sales in 2022, and the overall demand is still strong”
Speaking to Radio Eins, Stephan Benn from German cultural association Liveinitiative NRW estimates that festival ticket prices have risen by 30% on average in the country (albeit tickets for several 2022 events were frozen at 2020 prices).
Tickets for Nuremberg’s Rock im Park are priced at up to €300 – an increase of around €70 on last year – necessitated by rising costs of 45% “in many areas”, according to spokesperson Carolin Hilzinger. Elsewhere, metal institution Wacken Open Air sold out in five hours after raising its admission price from €239 to €299 and adding an extra day, while Lollapalooza Berlin increased prices by €10 but has sold more tickets than at the same time last year.
Thanscheidt says that ticket sales for FKP’s festival season got off to a record-breaking start, and remain healthy. Its flagship Hurricane and Southside events will welcome the likes of Muse, Die Ärzte, Kraftklub, Placebo, Billy Talent, The 1975 and Queens Of The Stone Age next month.
“Advance sales for this year have started with record sales in 2022, and the overall demand is still strong,” says Thanscheidt. “The fact that our festival brands like Hurricane and Southside are among the very few major festivals in Germany heading for a sell-out this year is a great result in view of the overall economic situation and increased costs everywhere. We’re thankful and happy, although margins are very slim to non-existent – even with a fully sold-out festival.”
“Squeezing festivals and their clients with exploding artist fees is not a sustainable development for the entire industry”
In Switzerland, Paléo Festival booker Dany Hassenstein is toasting a record-breaking sellout for the Nyon event, which will host artists such as Rosalia, Indochine, Martin Garrix, Black Eyed Peas, Sigur Ros, Alt-J, Aya Nakamura and Placebo.
“We are observing increasing general demand from all generations,” Hassenstein tells IQ. “Festivals’ social and environmental responsibility is more and more important. Support from festival for social media content creation by visitors is a must.”
Nonetheless, Hassenstein points out issues regarding “general inflation, overall rental costs and lack of qualified staff”, as well as rising artist fees.
“Squeezing festivals and their clients with exploding artist fees is not a sustainable development for the entire industry,” he adds.
“Sales for 2023 are holding up well, with audiences choosing festivals as good value events that they want to attend”
John Rostron, CEO of the UK’s Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) tells IQ that sales are “holding up well” within the organisation’s membership, which reached 100 earlier this year.
“There are no plans for any Association of Independent Festival members to cancel their festivals,” notes Rostron. “Sales for 2023 are holding up well, with audiences choosing festivals as good value events that they want to attend. Lots of people are taking up payment plans too, paying a little every month, and that seems to be helping everyone make their way to their favourite events.”
Rostron points out, however, that a few member festivals have announced that this year will be their last event.
“There are some similar themes for each one choosing to come to an end: the rising costs of putting on an event – the fees artists are charging and the supply chain costs, which have risen by around 30% are the two biggest problems – have all increased what was already a risky business into something they no longer want to be involved in.
“Of course, the odd thing is that all of these events are either now sold out, or way ahead in terms of selling tickets, as everyone wants to make sure they go one last time. So at least they’ll all have a really good send off.”
Festival Republic MD Melvin Benn also offered his thoughts on the current state of play. Launching the company’s upcoming series of events in Dublin’s Marlay Park, Benn said the cost of putting on large events in Ireland is “not prohibitive yet” and doesn’t expect it to become so despite costs “going through the roof”.
“We work hard every single day to keep the prices at an economic level,” said Benn, as per the Irish Examiner. “I think we do that successfully which is why we have the equivalent of seven sold-out nights at Marlay Park. I think it’s a testament to how we work so hard to keep them down.”
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DEAG stays on course as revenue jumps 55% in Q1
DEAG boss Peter Schwenkow says demand for event tickets is at “an extremely high level” after the business revealed a 55% jump in revenue for the first three months of 2023.
The German-headquartered live entertainment group reported revenues of €48 million for Q1, compared to €31m in the same period last year and €25.5m in the pre-corona year of 2019. The firm says that EBITDA of €3.1m represents almost a doubling of operating profitability, as 2022’s Q1 figure of €2.8m included significant funds from subsidy programmes.
It credited the expansion of its event formats and a diversified event pipeline for the results, as well, in addition to the companies it has acquired over the past four years. DEAG purchases in that time have included CSB Island Entertainment, Fane Productions, Gigantic.com, C² Concerts, Scottish promoter Regular Music, Ireland’s tickets.ie. platform, and German festivals Indian Spirit, Classic Open Air and Airbeat One.
The group also includes Kilimanjaro Group (UK), Wizard Promotions (DE), UK Live, My Ticket (DE, AT, UK) and Belladrum Tartan Heart festival (UK).
“Growth of more than 50% is above our plan and indicates that we are on track for a strong financial year”
“We are very pleased with the start to 2023,” says Schwenkow. “Growth of more than 50% is above our plan and indicates that we are on track for a strong financial year 2023. After the first quarter, we see ourselves on the way to achieving our annual targets of more than €300 million in revenue with a further improvement in EBITDA.”
Ticket sales reached four million, with successful productions including sold-out concerts with Ed Sheeran and Limp Bizkit, hit productions Riverdance and Disney on Ice, plus the “Christmas Gardens,” which drew two million visitors across 19 locations, and international literature festival Lit.Cologne, which pulled in 105,000 attendees.
Tens of thousands of tickets were also sold for Rammstein singer Till Lindemann’s winter 2023 European tour within the first 48 hours. DEAG has also reported strong demand for tickets for concerts in its new hip-hop and rap music segment, with 25,000 tickets sold for concerts by the likes of Samra, Tream and Jazeek – a double-digit percentage increase year-on-year.
“We have again seen demand for tickets at an extremely high level in the first three months,” notes Schwenkow. “We intend to continue developing our ticketing platforms and expand into new markets. We are in advanced discussions with potential companies and are confident that we will soon be able to announce further partners to the DEAG family. Together, we will grow, expand our event formats and bring enjoyment to visitors beyond their everyday lives.”
“One focus will be on the area of ticketing and expansion into new European markets”
DEAG is aiming to sell more than 10m tickets for around 6,000 events in 2023, with upcoming concerts including Iron Maiden, Kiss, the Scorpions, Rod Stewart, The Who and Sam Fender. More than 500,000 tickets have already been sold for its open-air festivals.
The company adds that its growth strategy continues to include the implementation of further acquisitions in the second half of the year, with several deals currently in the pipeline.
“One focus will be on the area of ticketing and expansion into new European markets,” states the report. “Due to its good operating performance and very solid financial basis, DEAG has already been able to arrange attractive financial terms for financing further business expansion in recent months.”
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DEAG posts record-breaking revenue for 2022
Deutsche Entertainment (DEAG) is hailing “enormous recovery and growth” after reporting the highest revenue and EBITDA in the company’s 45-year history.
The German live entertainment company saw revenue in the 2022 financial year increase 258.3% to around €325 million, compared to €90.7m in the previous year and €185.2m in the pre-corona year 2019, according to preliminary figures.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) surged 40.3% to around €31m, compared to €22.1m in the previous year and €14.1m in 2019.
DEAG attributes the strong performance to a number of factors including the recovery of live entertainment, the expansion of its event pipeline, successful M&A activities and the further expansion of ticketing.
In addition, the companies acquired by DEAG since 2019 – such as Regular Music, tickets.ie. platform, Indian Spirit, Classic Open Air and Airbeat One. – also made a “significant contribution” to the good performance for the first full year.
Group revenue before consolidation amounted to approx. €352m in financial year 2022, compared to approx. €97m in the previous year and approx. €197m in financial year 2019.
The company has also considerably increased its ticket sales, having sold nine million tickets in the financial year 2022, compared to around five million in the years prior to the pandemic.
“The enormous recovery and growth in revenue and EBITDA well above the level of the last comparable financial year 2019, a rock-solid balance sheet and a consistently implemented growth strategy characterised the year 2022 for DEAG,” says Professor Peter L.H. Schwenkow, CEO of DEAG.
DEAG says it is expecting 2023 to be another record-breaking year in the company’s history
“Our expansion measures, which we continued unwaveringly during the corona caesura, are bearing fruit. We will continue to move forward along this path. We sell ‘the little slice of happiness’ even in economically difficult times and have always seen particularly high demand, especially in recession years.
“With an increasing number of their own branded and thus also high-margin event formats, an organisation and crew created for growth and ticketing that is growing steadily and with good margins, we can be confident for the years ahead. With the tailwind of strong annual figures and a very positive operating performance, we also see ourselves very well prepared for the upcoming refinancing of our corporate bond as well as the further consistent implementation of the corporate strategy.”
DEAG says it is expecting 2023 to be another record-breaking year in the company’s history. With more than 6,000 events in the pipeline, the company is aiming to sell around 10,000,000 tickets.
Since the beginning of this year, the company has already promoted sold-out events such as Ed Sheeran at The O2, Disney on Ice, events with award-winning filmmaker and bestselling author Quentin Tarantino, the international literature festival lit.COLOGNE and the world’s most successful dance show Riverdance.
DEAG says several acquisitions are in the pipeline and that it plans to intensify its M&A activities in the second half of 2023, with a particular focus on the ticketing segment.
The Berlin-based promoter and ticket agency has interests in Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Ireland and Denmark. Its group includes Kilimanjaro Group (UK), Wizard Promotions (DE), UK Live, My Ticket (DE, AT, UK) and Belladrum Tartan Heart festival (UK).
Other acquisitions in the last two and a half years include CSB Island Entertainment, Fane Productions, Gigantic.com and C² Concerts.
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DEAG to take a ‘consolidation break’ in 2023
DEAG has announced a “consolidation break” in 2023 after acquiring 15 companies in the last two and a half years.
The Berlin-based live entertainment group’s recent purchases include Scottish promoter Regular Music, Ireland’s tickets.ie. platform, and German festivals Indian Spirit, Classic Open Air and Airbeat One.
“We have always been very careful not to take on anyone who has their backs to the wall,” DEAG CEO Peter Schwenkow told Tagesspiegel.
“We have bought 15 companies in the last two and a half years, some of which we have wanted to acquire for a long time. Covid has helped us in that some felt the pandemic was easier to endure in a group than alone. This is how we were able to grow and now have 47 companies in the DEAG Group.”
“For now, we are now taking a little consolidation break,” he added. “I still expect growth because the new holdings are making their contribution and because individual events are being rolled out further.”
“Covid has helped us in that some felt the pandemic was easier to endure in a group than alone”
DEAG’s acquisition spree came after it accepted a takeover offer from its largest single shareholder, Apeiron Investment Group, and its Malta-based subsidiary Musai Capital, in 2021.
The deal, which saw DEAG delist from Frankfurt’s Xetra stock exchange after 23 years as a public company, would provide the company with greater resources for future acquisitions, CEO Peter Schwenkow told IQ at the time.
“We have huge financial support from our investors for future acquisitions, and this support is much, much bigger than any money we could collect from the capital market,” Schwenkow explained. “So, on the one hand it gives us the freedom to do the right decisions, and on the other it gives us deep pockets.”
DEAG’s other acquisitions in the last two and a half years include CSB Island Entertainment, Fane Productions, Gigantic.com and C² Concerts.
The company produces and promotes live events in Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Ireland and Denmark, selling more than five million tickets are sold annually for more than 5,000 events. Last year, DEAG reported a record year with sales of around €300 million.
The company’s group includes Kilimanjaro Group (UK), Wizard Promotions (DE), UK Live, My Ticket (DE, AT, UK) and Belladrum Tartan Heart festival (UK).
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DEAG acquires Scotland’s Regular Music
German powerhouse DEAG has further expanded its international promoting network and enhanced its UK activities by acquiring a majority stake in Scotland’s Regular Music.
Edinburgh-based Regular is the country’s longest established independent music promoter and has staged concerts by acts such as REM, Oasis, Tom Waits, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Lana Del Rey. CEO Mark Mackie will remain a shareholder in the company and will continue to manage the firm in the long term.
Regular Music is also a key partner of Scottish talent including The Proclaimers, Primal Scream, Garbage, The Jesus & Mary Chain and Mogwai.
“We admire the achievements of Mark with Regular Music in Scotland and are excited about the opportunity to support the business in the future whilst creating synergies between all of our UK companies including Belladrum,” says DEAG CEO Peter Schwenkow. “DEAG’s success is based on entrepreneurship and Mark will be a valued addition to our group of entrepreneurs. DEAG‘s presence in the UK and Ireland will be significantly strengthened through this new partnership and it fits extremely well with our strategy to further grow our business in our core markets.”
“It’s clear that DEAG care deeply about local identity and autonomy and with Stuart Galbraith and his team at Kili it has been proven to work”
Regular also produces the award-winning annual Summer Nights at the Bandstand series of concerts in Glasgow, which has featured the likes of Brian Wilson, The National, Pixies, Patti Smith, Van Morrison and Texas.
DEAG’s Kilimanjaro subsidiary already owns and operates Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, Scotland’s largest camping festival and the acquisition of Regular will add significantly to the Group’s footprint in Scotland.
The Belladrum Inverness office and the Regular Edinburgh office will now liaise extensively together.
“Lots of my agent friends have been telling me for years I needed more of a global presence but until I met with DEAG I had never felt comfortable enough with anyone to form such a partnership,” says Mackie. “However, it’s clear that DEAG care deeply about local identity and autonomy and with Stuart Galbraith and his team at Kili it has been proven to work so I’m delighted to be joining up with a like minded group of people moving forward.
“I have personally known Stuart for more than 35 years, since we both started out in the business and am very much looking forward to working closely with him and the Kilimanjaro gang.”
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DEAG acquires Ireland’s tickets.ie platform
DEAG has grown its ticketing business by acquiring a majority stake in Oshi, operator of Ireland’s tickets.ie. platform.
Tickets.ie, which has provided ticketing solutions to the Irish live events sector since 2004, is the leading independent provider of fully outsourced ticketing services in Ireland.
The deal was completed through DEAG’s UK subsidiary MyTicket Services Ltd and will complement its existing myticket and gigantic.com platforms. Oshi founder and MD John O’Neill will remain a shareholder and continue to manage the firm in the long term.
“We see this deal with DEAG, Kilimanjaro and Singular Artists as bringing our relationship to the next level, of partnership and collaboration,” says O’Neill. “That, to us, is very appealing and exhilarating as we’ll be working closely with them to ensure that all their great artists reach the maximum audience possible.”
“Ticketing is DEAG’s fastest growing business area and an important earnings driver”
Berlin-based DEAG launched in Ireland in 2020 in partnership with veteran concert promoters Fin O’Leary, Brian Hand and Simon Merriman. Through its UK subsidiary Kilimanjaro Live, it established Singular Artists, a new company that will organise concerts in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
In the coming years, DEAG aims to distribute more than eight million tickets per year via its own ticketing platforms and to further expand its position as an established distribution channel in its core markets.
“Ticketing is DEAG’s fastest growing business area and an important earnings driver,” says DEAG CEO Peter Schwenkow. “Especially after the corona pandemic has subsided, we are experiencing a massive increase in demand for tickets for physical events. We already have a strong international market position with our own platforms and are now expanding our position further.
“The ticketing market in Ireland is also showing strong growth rates. With myticket.ie, we have a strong independent third-party content platform here that is an excellent complement to our ticketing portfolio.”
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DEAG acquires majority stake in Indian Spirit fest
DEAG has acquired a majority stake in the German’s Indian Spirit, which is billed as one of the biggest psytrance festivals in Europe.
Featuring leading psytrance (psychedelic trance) DJs, the event has been held in Eldena, near Ludwigslust in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, since 1999 and attracts around 20,000 visitors every year.
The announcement comes days after DEAG expanded its interests in the family entertainment sector by signing a cooperation agreement with Dresdner Weihnachts-Circus.
“We have a strong international position and a well-balanced portfolio, which we are continuously expanding in a rapidly growing market”
“Indian Spirit is an excellent addition to our current range of music festivals,” says DEAG founder and CEO Peter Schewenkow. “We have a strong international position and a well-balanced portfolio, which we are continuously expanding in a rapidly growing market. Indian Spirit will provide further impetus for our growth and drive our expansion. We are very much looking forward to working with Sebastian Eggert and his team in greater depth.”
Berlin-headquartered DEAG’s ticketing platform myticket has already started advance sales for the 2023 festival as the exclusive ticketing partner of Indian Spirit. In addition, DEAG says it expects to gain “synergy effects” in the live entertainment business from the deal, both in terms of purchasing and artist acquisition.
Last month, DEAG enhanced its presence in the classical and jazz market with the acquisition of classical music festival Classic Open Air. Earlier this year, the Berlin-headquartered group reported the most successful summer in its 44-year history, with more than three million tickets sold for its events.
Its event portfolio now comprises more than 30 multi-day and one-day festivals in its national markets of Germany, the UK, Switzerland and Ireland. These include the electronic festivals Nature One, Mayday, Ruhr-in-Love and Airbeat One, as well as open-air events Sion sous les étoiles and Belladrum Tartan Heart.
Festival founder Rolf Eggert and service provider Music Eggert will continue to run Indian Spirit as a shareholder, together with his team led by MD Sebastian Eggert. DEAG has been working with Eggert since
In July 2022, DEAG took over the majority of the electronic festival Airbeat One and has been working successfully with Eggert ever since acquiring a majority stake in Airbeat One last July.
In view of the current economic climate, DEAG has revealed it is also examining various possibilities for refinancing its 2018/2023 bond and has mandated IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG with examining the option of issuing a new unsecured bond.
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DEAG expands family entertainment portfolio
German live giant DEAG has expanded its interests in the family entertainment sector by signing a cooperation agreement with Dresdner Weihnachts-Circus (DWC).
The partnership includes multi-channel ticketing sales for multiple events, with DEAG’s Myticket platform becoming a DWC ticketing partner with immediate effect.
DWC, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, is one of the largest Christmas circuses in Germany, with 70,000 visitors each year.
“The ticketing collaboration is an initial important step in our partnership, which we intend to expand by acquiring a stake in the future”
“We expect to have a strong fourth quarter, which will be significantly influenced by our Christmas business,” says DEAG founder and CEO Peter Schewenkow. “We are very pleased to be able to cooperate with Dresdner Weihnachts-Circus with another top-class event. The ticketing collaboration is an initial important step in our partnership, which we intend to expand by acquiring a stake in the future.”
DEAG has operated Christmas circuses in Essen, Hanover and Regensburg for several years and expects to further strengthen its festive business. The agreement with DWC includes a right of first refusal on all business shares of Dresdner Weihnachts-Circus.
Last month, DEAG enhanced its presence in the classical and jazz market with the acquisition of classical music festival Classic Open Air. Earlier this year, the Berlin-headquartered group reported the most successful summer in its 44-year history, with more than three million tickets sold for its events.
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