FEST Team founder and CEO Stefan Elenkov has told IQ that the Bulgarian market is open for international stadium shows.

Founded in 2012, the Sofia-based full-service promoter organises festivals such as the Sofia Solid series, Hills of Rock Festival, and Spice Music Festival, and has worked with artists including Arctic Monkeys, Iron Maiden, Tom Jones, Lenny Kravitz, Franz Ferdinand, Editors and Pantera.

This year, FEST Team realised a long-standing ambition of expanding into stadium shows with international artists, promoting concerts with the likes of Ed Sheeran and Andrea Bocelli at the National Stadium in Sofia.

In the past decade or so, Bulgaria has hosted just a handful of stadium concerts by international acts such as Imagine Dragons (2023), Roger Waters and Bon Jovi (2013) and Guns N’ Roses (2012) but FEST Team has been determined to make the country a viable tour stop for A-list artists.

“Bulgaria is an undervalued market,” Elenkov tells IQ. “Many people think that in Bulgaria you cannot sell tickets at decent prices because the economics is bad but we’ve proved otherwise. People have decent incomes and they can afford to pay good money for quality entertainment.”

There was no better proof of concept than Sheeran’s first-ever performance in Bulgaria in August, which sold 60,000 tickets and drew an audience comprising 98% Bulgarians. FEST Team also hailed “great success” with Andrea Bocceli’s show, which took place two weeks later at the same stadium.

“People have decent incomes and they can afford to pay good money for quality entertainment”

“I believe that, now, more and more artists will see that the Bulgarian market is ready for big artists,” Elenkov tells IQ.

Until now, Sofia’s National Stadium has been the only viable venue for international stadium shows but it has lacked the infrastructure needed to seamlessly host big tours, according to the FEST Team CEO.

“You could not drive a big truck inside of the stadium, which is a big logistic problem that usually delays tours,” explains Elenkov. “It’s why we missed out on hosting Coldplay because they didn’t have time to load in and out, outside the stadium.”

But in a massive win for FEST Team, the stadium and its associated stakeholders have agreed to construct a new tunnel to allow trucks to enter and leave the premises.

“We are at the stage where the architects are done with all the calculations and we’ve submitted all the documentation to the municipality and the Ministry of Sport for approval,” he says. “The actual reconstruction work will probably start at the beginning of February and it’s estimated to be finished by the beginning of the summer season which would be great.”

With a clear run at summer 2025, FEST Team has already confirmed its first stadium show for next year and is in the process of confirming another two.

“This has been our biggest year ever as a company and next year will be even bigger”

Elsewhere, construction has also started on a new 16,000-capacity stadium in Sofia, which is expected to be complete by spring 2026.

Though the venue will primarily be used by Sofia’s professional football team, it could open up further opportunities for stadium tours, says Elenkov.

As the stadium-level market develops, FEST Team is also expanding to accommodate healthy demand for mid-tier acts.

The company recently took over and refurbished the 7,000-capacity open-air Sofia Velodrome, where acts including The Smile, Bruce Dickinson, Five Finger Death Punch, Megadeath and Corey Taylor performed this summer.

Meanwhile, the company’s festival portfolio has expanded with the acquisition of urban city festival Sofia Live, and the launch of a new EDM festival called Aura.

And with an offer placed to purchase Eastern European promoter, talent buyer and artist agency Charmenko, it’s perhaps no surprise that 2024 has been a historic year for FEST Team.

“This has been our biggest year ever as a company and next year will be even bigger,” says Elenkov.

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Local, independent promoters have spoken to IQ about how they’re breaking ground in their markets with record ticket sales for Ed Sheeran’s 2024 European tour.

The European leg of Sheeran’s + – = ÷ x (Mathematics) Tour is due to kick off on 8 June 2024 in Italy, making 20 stops at a mix of stadiums and festivals across the continent.

The first stadium stop on the AEG Presents promoted-outing will be at Ta’ Qali National Park (cap. 30,000), marking the 32-year-old’s first-ever concert in Malta.

According to one of the show’s local promoters, Nigel Camilleri at NNG Promotions, the 26 June 2024 concert has broken “all records” in the island country.

“The number of tickets in an hour, total number of ticket sales in one day, as well as total gross amount of ticket sales in an hour and in a day,” lists Camilleri, who is promoting the gig alongside AEG and Greatt.

“Hopefully, this will open more doors which were previously closed or only ajar”

“The adrenaline rush when the ticket sales opened was indescribable,” he continues. “It’s not often, at least in Malta, that one gets to promote a concert of an artist who appeals to such a wide-ranging audience.”

Camilleri says hosting a star of Sheeran’s size helps to put Malta – which is isolated from mainland Europe – on the map for other blockbuster tours.

“It is a great triumph for us because we have proven that the Maltese market can sustain an A-level artist such as Ed Sheeran,” he adds. “We have been working towards and building up to this moment for many years and admittedly there was an element of luck with the stars aligning for it to happen.

“As a company, it is a major feather in our cap and hopefully, this will open more doors which were previously closed or only ajar.”

Bulgarian promoter FEST Team is also hoping the success of Sheeran’s show at Vasil Levski Stadium in Sofia (31 August) will be a calling card for other A-list artists.

“[We hope] more prominent artists will acknowledge Bulgaria as a substantial market with tour potential”

“Our aspiration is that the success of this event will encourage more prominent artists to acknowledge Bulgaria and the Balkan region as a substantial market with tour potential,” FEST Team’s Stefan Elenkov tells IQ.

The Sofia-based full-service promoter sold all 60,000 tickets to the Bulgaria date in the first 24 hours of the on-sale. It beat the previous record set in 2009 by Madonna who sold 19,000 tickets in the first 24 hours for a 55,000-capacity show.

“This indeed is a truly remarkable achievement,” says Elenkov. “It is important to mention that a show of this magnitude hasn’t taken place in Bulgaria since 2009.”

Staging the biggest-ever concert in Bulgaria, which is yet to be included in the Schengen Area, hasn’t been without its challenges but Elenkov says his team has been “excited to embrace them”.

“After dedicating eight months to negotiations and detailed planning, we managed to successfully overcome various infrastructural and logistic challenges associated with the venue,” says Elenkov.

“Ticket Station Bulgaria is handling a show of such magnitude for the first time and has met the tour’s criteria”

“Anticipating Bulgaria and Romania’s inclusion in the Schengen area, we expect even fewer logistical challenges, making future tour planning considerably more structured. The routing Budapest – Bucharest – Sofia – Athens—would essentially become practically borderless.”

Another source of pride for FEST Team is the reported absence of tickets for Sheeran’s Bulgaria date on Viagogo.

“This demonstrates our success in implementing stringent security measures, ensuring that only real people have bought tickets for the show,” adds Elenkov. “This marks an important milestone – Ticket Station Bulgaria is handling a show of such magnitude for the first time and has precisely met the tour’s criteria.”

Sheeran’s team has long taken an aggressive stance against the secondary ticketing market, opting to use 100% mobile digital ticketing technology to keep tickets in the hands of fans.

The tour’s local promoters in Lithuania also have a lot to celebrate after sales for Sheeran’s two 2024 dates in the country broke “all previous entertainment sales records” across the Baltic states.

“By selling the most tickets of any artist in the Baltics, Sheeran has set yet another record”

According to L Tips Agency – which is organising Sheeran’s concerts in the Baltics for the third time – the first concert sold out in just over 24 hours the second is already more than 50% sold out, nine months in advance.

Provided both dates in Lithuania sell out, Sheeran will perform to 90,000 fans across the 3 and 4 August at Darius and Girėnas Stadium in Kaunas.

“In 2019, he set the record for the most visited international artist show of all time in Latvia with an attendance of approximately 50,000 people,” says Gints Putnins, owner of L Tips Agency. “Now a new record has been set for the whole of the Baltics!”

The Agency, which is one of the largest independent promoters in the Baltic States, is promoting the concert alongside FKP Scorpio.

Folkert Koopmans, founder & CEO of FKP Scorpio, adds: “By selling the most tickets of any artist in the Baltics, Ed Sheeran has set yet another record. We’re proud and happy to be promoting the shows and couldn’t have done so without the support of all local stakeholders and our partner agencies. L Tips Agency’s work has been invaluable in making the second-ever music concert in Kaunas stadium possible. We’re already looking forward to seeing everything coming together in August 2024!”

The 32-year-old’s forthcoming Dubai concerts could become the best-selling shows in UAE history

Sheeran’s record-breaking streak doesn’t stop at independent promoters, nor does it stop in Europe. As previously reported in IQ, the 32-year-old’s forthcoming Dubai concerts could become the best-selling shows in UAE history, according to All Thing Live Middle East CEO Thomas Ovesen.

The British singer-songwriter is due to play the Sevens Stadium from 19-20 January 2024 in what are being called the largest open-air concerts ever to take place in Dubai.

The dates, which will see Sheeran perform “in the round”, will be his first in the Middle East since playing at the city’s Autism Rocks Arena in November 2017, which attracted a sell-out 23,272 crowd.

Last month, Sheeran concluded the North American leg of his Mathematics tour, with the final date on 28 October at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Sheeran is represented by Marty Diamond and Ash Lewis at Wasserman for US and Canada, and Jon Ollier at One Finiix Live for the rest of the world.

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