Family entertainment is the new rock & roll
A raft of new and forthcoming venues, huge investment in live entertainment, and the opening of the Saudi market means family entertainment is big business in the Middle East. What’s the key to success? IQ investigates.
Interest in the Middle East as a touring region has grown significantly in recent years. New venues have opened, and there are many more in the pipeline, not least in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is investing heavily in culture. And while concerts often steal the limelight, it’s family entertainment and other non-music shows that are among the top attractions.
The growth potential of the countries and the new venues coming on-stream has resulted in massive interest from promoters and producers, leading to increasing competition.
Rebekah Shearer is director of arts and entertainment at Live Nation’s Middle East operation. Alongside the company’s music shows, she says the comedy scene in the UAE has experienced significant growth, pointing to sold-out performances by the likes of Zakir Khan, Bill Burr, Andrew Schultz, and Trevor Noah. There are also up-and-coming comedy festivals, scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which further highlight the increasing popularity of comedy in the region.
Shearer says the market for touring entertainment has “shown significant growth and potential. This extends beyond music to encompass a diverse array of offerings such as live theatre productions, comedy shows, Arabic content, musical theatre, and children’s content. This expansion reflects the evolving preferences and demands of audiences in the region, as well as the efforts of promoters to cater to these preferences.
“It is a continuous growing economy with vast infrastructure development, cultural exchange, and a growing emphasis on local talent development”
“It is a continuous growing economy with vast infrastructure development, cultural exchange, and a growing emphasis on local talent development.”
A longstanding company in the region, SESLive! is the exclusive promoter of Disney on Ice, Disney Live!, Marvel Universe Live!, and Jurassic World Live Tour, thanks to a partnership deal with Feld Entertainment. It alsorecently promoted Cirque du Soleil’s CRYSTAL across the region. “Every year, we try to add a new market or return to a market we haven’t been to for a few years,” says business development director, Alison Goldsmith. “We aim to make these shows touring prospects, whereas they used to be fly in, fly out. We’re adding more cities every year, so the tours get bigger.”
Goldsmith notes that over many years working in the region, she’s noticed that demands for exclusivity have decreased, meaning shows can hit more cities.
“All the markets have developed sufficiently to the point that exclusivity is no longer seen as a necessity. That demand was previously driven by tourism authorities who sought to bring in regional visitors. Now the tourism authorities’ focuses have shifted into different areas. The only time exclusivity is important is if the markets are geographically close, such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and that’s a business decision.”
MAC Global has seen success across the region with ‘film with orchestra’ productions. “We recently worked with our clients at the Royal Commission of Riyadh City to present the city’s first Film Music Festival with titles such Harry Potter and Star Wars, which sold around 6,000 tickets across five days,” says co-founder and CCO, Daniel Goldberg. “We’ve been presenting these titles in the region since 2017 and usually engage the UK’s National Symphony Orchestra, who are versatile and proficient enough to handle a variety of performances and titles in a short space of time.”
He adds: “There’s huge demand for immersive experiences, location-based entertainment, and IP aimed at families.
70% of the Saudi market is under 30 years old, it’s a very young and dynamic market. There’s also a large concentration of families seeking affordable experiences, so the demand is huge.”
“The core market hasn’t increased in line with the amount of content. It’s a much more competitive market than it was before”
Thomas Ovesen has been promoting in the region for years. Currently CEO at All Things Live in the Middle East, his company mainly promotes concerts but is seeking to increase its family content offer.
“Generally speaking, the one common denominator when it comes to shows that can sell tickets region-wide is family content,” he says. “Considering the differences in the GCC countries and indeed in the markets across the MENA region, it is really only family content that can play well in all markets. Some of our markets still don’t really embrace song-style shows, but family shows are welcomed.
“This trend of being the safe bet when it comes to programming will only continue as many new projects and precincts pop up, in particular across Saudi Arabia.”
One of the key challenges is getting the shows to the region. Although things are changing rapidly, it’s still not a regular stop for all touring routes. However, Goldsmith says SESLive! has been making inroads with cross-border logistics, reducing the various challenges of moving these tours between territories, making regional tours even more viable.
“In the past, it was challenging to bring touring productions here from a financial and logistical point of view. It’s tricky to bring things out here because we weren’t really en route to anywhere. The time and cost to bring 45 shipping containers worth of equipment here and then between cities is significant. We’re working with partners to understand those logistical challenges.
“The other challenge – and it’s a good thing – is there are now many more operators in the market; there’s so much more content because there’s such an interest in this part of the world and it’s flooded with new content. But this remains a collection of small countries with limited numbers of people and a limited number of people who have disposable income to spend on entertainment. It’s wonderful that we have all the venues in this space where we can have multiple shows happening at the same time. But the core market hasn’t increased in line with the amount of content. It’s a much more competitive market than it was before.”
“By offering shows in multiple languages, we can ensure that a wider audience can enjoy and engage with the content”
However, she welcomes the competition. It’s “what the market needed,” she says. “It raises the bar for everybody and means we all have to deliver to a higher standard.”
Live Nation’s Shearer says family content holds significant importance in the Middle East. “Families often seek out entertainment options that they can enjoy together, creating cherished memories and bonding experiences. We continue to see success across this part of the business.”
Accordingly, Goldsmith says family entertainment is one of the most important genres in the market. “Disney shows are always very popular because they’re cross-cultural. Everybody has a memory with Disney, and it’s not as limited by language and cultural barriers as some other content. Everybody understands it, and it’s suitable for all ages. You can bring your grandmother and your daughter to the same show, and everybody can have a night out.”
She says Arabic content is also big business, whether that’s singers or plays, as well as Russian content, which has grown owing to an increasing number of people from the country, who moved there since Russia invaded Ukraine.
With such diverse audiences, Goldsmith says productions where language isn’t central to the performance are particularly effective at crossing cultural boundaries. “A product like Cirque du Soleil speaks to people on a different level, because you don’t need to speak the language to understand the storyline; the spectacle in itself is something that works across multiple cultures.”
Offering shows in multiple languages is another route to success, says Shearer. “The success of dual language shows like Brainiac Live! underscores the importance of inclusivity and catering to the linguistic diversity of the Middle Eastern audience. By offering shows in multiple languages, we can ensure that a wider audience can enjoy and engage with the content, particularly when it comes to educational, family-oriented entertainment that appeals to children and their parents.
“This approach aligns with the region’s cultural diversity and the desire to offer entertainment options that resonate with different communities and language groups. By embracing this diversity and adapting offerings to meet the needs and preferences of various audience segments, we can continue to foster a vibrant and inclusive entertainment landscape in the Middle East.”
“With a significant population of expatriates, demographics can shift rapidly, impacting consumer preferences”
The large number of different cultures and languages in the region requires a skilled approach to the marketing, as Shearer explains: “One key challenge is catering to a broad audience with diverse tastes. To address this, our marketing approach must be highly focused and targeted.
“The transient nature of the market, characterised by the changing demographics, poses another challenge. With a significant population of expatriates, demographics can shift rapidly, impacting consumer preferences. To stay ahead, we employ continuous monitoring mechanisms to track evolving tastes and demographic shifts.
“By maintaining a keen focus on audience preferences, leveraging real-time data insights, and strategically timing our marketing efforts, we adeptly navigate the challenges of our market, ensuring sustained engagement and relevance in an ever-evolving landscape.”
Ovesen sees a bright future ahead. “The buying power of our region and the need for great content and programming is so significant that I think some of the global family entertainment brands will be doing great future business here by developing and licensing entirely new IPs – some that might never play elsewhere and some that will premiere in our region and go on to tour the world afterwards.
“We will work with and for whoever has the right content, and while our own promotions are likely to be with touring shows in established venues and at ticketed events, I think we will naturally also be working with clients that need our events- and show-producer skills, as well as contacts to content providers and owners to develop their own show and event IPs.”
MAC Global has licensed and delivered many successful IP events such as The Friends Experience and Stranger Things in multiple cities. The firm was acquired by the Sony Masterworks Live network in 2022 and has since started to tap into a wider IP portfolio to expand and build upon its business base of live music concerts. “We’re in active discussions with multiple territories about some of these IPs,” says Goldberg. “We’re also developing our own Indian and Arabic immersive IPs to service the demand in our region, with a view to touring and distributing that back to the US and Europe to service the Indian and Arab diaspora. We’re trying to create a two-way product flow rather than simply importing content.”
“If you come in thinking that you can charge what you want and that ticket sales will go through the roof, that’s not the truth anymore”
The prospect of a more equitable exchange of culture between the Middle East and the rest of the world is on many promoters’ and producers’ minds. Many of the region’s markets have matured significantly in the past decade, meaning the early model of near-unlimited budgets, subsidised by government organisations, no longer applies.
Goldsmith wants to bust the myth that coming to the Middle East is a land of unlimited money. “We’ve been here long enough to see the changes in the way things operate. Some companies have the expectation that this is an easy market to come into, charge a fortune, and walk away. But that’s not the case. We’ve been very fortunate in the past, and we are still very fortunate that there’s a lot of support from the local governments, the tourism authorities, and the development agencies that have invested heavily in building the culture and infrastructure in certain areas. They’re very generous in the way that they work with partners to bring the content that they want. But that’s not in every market.”
She says to make the tour budgets balance, some territories end up being more profitable than others, and in some places the numbers just don’t stack up.
“The expectation from some companies [that lack experience in the region] is that you can charge whatever you want, and the money will be there. But that’s not the case. We’re business operators just the same as everywhere else. If you come in thinking that you can charge what you want and that ticket sales will go through the roof, that’s not the truth anymore. We need to be competitive. We need to set our ticket prices to make them appealing. We need to keep our costs to a level that makes a show viable. There’s a ceiling to what’s manageable in a small population country.”
And she advises any companies seeking to bring content to the region to have a good local partner.
“Having a local partner who has the connections, the accounts with the relevant licensing bodies, and so on is essential to be able to deliver anything in this part of the world”
“We’re very proud to work in this region. This will be our 12th season of delivering live entertainment in multiple countries here, and we’re still doing it because we’re proud of the work that we can bring in, and we love working in the countries that we do.
“We want a chance for everybody to be able to bring content to the region. It’s about coming in with eyes open and embracing the culture, history, and the traditions, and doing everything with respect. It’s important to be part of the communities, the cultures, and to give something back.
“Every country has its own individual identity. Each has its own rules and regulations, and it can take quite a long time to understand exactly how those things work. So having a local partner who has the connections, the accounts with the relevant licensing bodies, and so on is essential to be able to deliver anything in this part of the world.”
One of the drivers of growth in the region is the recent increase in venues, from Abu Dhabi’s 18,000-cap Etihad Arena and Dubai’s 17,000-cap Coca-Cola Arena to Bahrain’s 10,000-cap Al Dana Amphitheatre and the 5,000-cap Arena Kuwait.
There’s also much excitement about forthcoming spaces coming on-stream in the coming years, particularly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where ASM Global is building the 20,000-capacity Jeddah Arena Airport City at King Abdulaziz International Airport. There are also rumours that Madison Square Garden boss James Dolan is in talks to build a Sphere in Abu Dhabi.
“With ongoing infrastructure development projects all across the region, including the construction of new venues, the capacity to host touring entertainment will increase,” says Shearer. “This expansion will attract more international entertainment and facilitate a wide range of productions.
“Continued investment in nurturing and showcasing local talent will contribute to the sustainability and growth of the entertainment industry in the Middle East. Supporting emerging artists, fostering creativity, and providing opportunities for skill development will ensure a steady pipeline of talent for future touring productions.
“As promoters we will continue to be innovative and evolve with the region.”
“Rather than us feeling like we’re isolated and away from what’s happening in Europe and the US, there’s an audience here that wants to have access to that same advanced storytelling”
MAC Global has strong links in Saudi Arabia, and Goldberg says the demand for family IP is huge in the kingdom. “We have already been involved in the first Riyadh Jazz Festival and the Riyadh Opera Festival. We also helped deliver the Film Music Festival, so our work there has already been more diverse than our traditionally promoted rock and pop content in the UAE.
“We now plan to introduce more immersive and location-based content, working with our colleagues in Dubai at Sony Music. This involves gaming, e-sports, and anime, which we also have in our wider portfolio. Entertaining families with affordable and accessible experiences is very much at the forefront of our minds right now.”
Goldsmith says audiences are getting more sophisticated, and technology is changing people’s access to content and information. “Kids know what’s cool, they know what their friends are into, and they tell us what they want. They want to see us finding the innovators who are telling stories in new and accessible ways, whether that’s immersive storytelling or using digital technology, puppetry, or something unique. Rather than us feeling like we’re isolated and away from what’s happening in Europe and the US, there’s an audience here that wants to have access to that same advanced storytelling.”
More venues, more content, more promoters, better transport connections: the future looks bright, and there’s a lot of confidence in the market. “Family entertainment might just be the new – or you could say ‘real’ – rock & roll for the Middle East,” concludes Ovesen.
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The big business of touring entertainment
It’s boom time for touring entertainment as people seek out social activities that bring them closer to their favourite TV shows and films, opportunities to learn in an interactive way, or ways of treating three generations of their family.
Touring entertainment is big business right now. As Nicolas Renna, whose company Proactiv Entertainment has been in the sector for 35 years, says: “When I first went to ILMC maybe 15 or 16 years ago, promoters that worked with family entertainment were in the minority. Feld was there, and a few others, but that was about it. Now, although we’re not equal with the music promoters, this segment has become more and more interesting for people, even the rock and pop promoters.”
Indeed, rock and pop promoters have increasingly been getting in on the action. No longer content to promote shows such as Disney on Ice, companies are increasingly creating or acquiring their own touring product. DEAG-owned Kilimanjaro Group acquired musicals producer Flying Music in 2017 (the firm behind West End production Thriller – Live and The Rat Pack Live From Las Vegas) and is opening an exhibitions space in London this year. Last year, CTS Eventim-owned FKP Scorpio announced it was starting a new business dedicated to theatre and family shows, called FKP Show Creations. As well as promoting shows across Europe, it’s launching an arena touring production of beloved opera Aida.
Denis Sullivan, vice president, international tours at Feld Entertainment, has spent years in this sector. He says: “This is an evergreen industry; people don’t take time off to make a record and can tour every month of every year.”
He says the growth in demand for what can loosely be called ‘family entertainment’ is illustrated by the fact that Feld – one of the biggest firms in the business with products such as Disney on Ice, Monster Jam, Marvel Universe Live! and Jurassic World Live Tour – has a rehearsal facility that can set up two full-size arena shows side-by-side, and they both are constantly in use. “There’s something going on in them every single time. The number of products we put out ourselves is significant, and we will continue to do [so] because the audience is there.”
“The sector is growing because there’s something for everybody in our shows”
With over 12 years’ experience in the events industry, Ticketmaster’s VP client development Alex Berti spearheaded the company’s Ticketmaster Attractions segment. “We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of immersive art events, as the digital mapping and projection technology that powered these events became more accessible and more portable,” he says. “This meant producers could secure rights to an amazing piece of content and tour it around the world. That’s been a key driver to growth in this sector. For us, it’s meant supporting producers in multiple markets across a product’s lifespan and ensuring the client and the customer get the same experience in every market.”
Creating a market
Often, family show producers are pioneers – the first to go into markets that are yet to fully open to the worldwide touring entertainment industry. For many young children, a Disney on Ice show or an interactive moving dinosaurs exhibition is their first experience of live entertainment. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that family show producers are helping create the concert-attendees of the future.
What these companies are doing is giving people their first taste of an experience that cannot be replicated online, on TV, or on any other platform. They’re showing the children who come to see shows that going to see something live, at a venue, is cool.
If there is such a thing as a positive to come out of the pandemic, it’s that the growth of the sector has been accelerated by the ending of lockdown restrictions. While the concert industry is reporting being busier than ever before with the sheer number of shows on sale, demand for entertainment as a family group has been accelerated by the fact that people were kept apart for so long.
“The sector is growing because there’s something for everybody in our shows,” says Sullivan. “The shows might be predominantly targeted towards kids but mums and dads are going to go and have a great time because there’s something in it for them, too. Every successful Disney movie, for example, has something for the whole family unit.”
“Covid was a creative catalyst in our industry, producing a rapidly changing environment, which led to new models of collaboration”
And that’s not restricted to the live entertainment sector. Touring exhibitions are also seeing a boom time, reports Manon Delaury of Touring Exhibitions Organisation (TEO). “The touring exhibitions business was growing significantly before Covid, but the pandemic accelerated that,” she says. “But we’ve also seen expectations change. For example, people are craving very social experiences – people want to experience things together as much as possible. The multi-generational aspect has also become very important. And, of course, social media is a key factor.”
The other upside of the enforced pause was that it enabled exhibition organisers time to reflect, collaborate, and share information. “That led to a boom of new productions being developed and announced, and new collaborations between the private and public sectors, between entertainment and educational. That’s generated new experiences with a multi-layered, enriched approach,” she says. “These have triggered new ideas for engaging with audiences, and there are new, interesting approaches for bringing generations together to have the social moments we’ve all been craving.
“I think Covid was a creative catalyst in our industry, producing a rapidly changing environment, which led to new models of collaboration.”
Christoph Scholz is director of SC Exhibitions – an arm of long-time German music promoter Semmel Concerts. He is calling for more data reporting for the sector. “We all feel the market has grown, but there’s no data. So we need to be careful with claims about the amount of growth we’re seeing. I urge the exhibition industry to stand up and to share data on things such as ticket sales and ticket prices, because it will benefit us all.”
Scholz says 2023 is shaping up to be SC Exhibitions’ busiest year to date, with a new exhibition Disney 100 just opened at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and a second unit at the Olympic Park in Munich, a new Marvel exhibit which will be revealed in July, plus SpiderMan: Beyond Amazing, and Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes.
“For this segment, we have to create the audience from scratch”
At ILMC’s dedicated strand to this sector this year, Scholz told a panel that exhibition revenues have grown from 2% to 10% of the company total.
But for anyone thinking this is easy money, Proactiv’s Renna sounds a note of caution. “This is very different to rock and pop. We create demand for shows people don’t know about; we create new audiences. If you have an artist such as Coldplay or Madonna, people know them and will come if they like the act. For this segment, we have to create the audience from scratch.”
And let’s not forget the enormous upfront costs required to get a production or exhibition on the road. Semmel Exhibitions, for instance, invested €3.5m in the Marvel: Universe of Superheroes exhibition experience before a single ticket had been sold. GAAP, an agency specialising in booking theatrical shows, spent recent years developing a new exhibition called Sensory Odyssey, which merges digital art, cinema, interactive technologies, sensorial techniques, and cognitive sciences. It raised €4m in private capital for the exhibition, which debuted in Paris.
FKP Show Creations was launched last year by the pan-European promoter. It’s spearheaded by CEO Jasper Barendregt. “In this market, it’s a bit like the Wild West at the moment,” he says. “There’s a lot of gold- digging happening. There’s a lot of content in the market, and there’s a lot of promoters jumping on it.”
It’s no wonder with such huge demand for experiences and ‘immersive’ exhibitions. “Something that changed throughout the pandemic was people were watching a lot of Netflix and Amazon Prime at home, and suddenly they’re able to see it and experience it in cities. The pandemic has accelerated demand for these products,” says Barendregt.
“Being entertained while learning, playing, and participating is the new normal”
To illustrate demand for family entertainment, he says FKP Scorpio was promoting a Paw Patrol tour before the pandemic and sold “a lot of tickets,” but it was halted by the lockdowns. Of course, by the time things opened up again, the children of the people who had bought tickets had out-grown Paw Patrol, so they had to sell the tour again to a new audience. “And we did. What we’ve done is we sold a Paw Patrol tour twice. There’s a huge amount of people who want more and larger shows for really young kids.”
And Liz Koravos, managing director of Kilimanjaro Group’s new UK exhibition and cultural venue The Arches at London Bridge, says: “There has been an obvious shift in the market, likely influenced by the immersive ‘unicorn’ experiences of Van Gogh and the likes of Secret Cinema, but this can be seen through all disciplines, as the lines between exhibition, film, show, performance continue to be blurred. Being entertained while learning, playing, and participating is the new normal. With thrilling new content and the recovery of tourism following Covid, we think there is a very healthy exhibition market, and the demographic is widening.”
Ups and downs
As with concerts, demand for family entertainment can go in waves. With over 20 years’ experience at one of the most established companies in this sector, Maria Maldonado, Feld’s vice president – Latin America & Mediterranean Europe, says there have been other boom moments before things returned to a more ‘normal’ level of business: “We’ve had peaks and valleys as leaders in this industry. So, we had years in the mid- 2000s where we got High School Musical and Disney Live! on the road, or more recently when we had Frozen or Encanto out, and they were huge. We’ve seen quite a bit over the decades, and this is a growth moment.”
Barendregt says: “In the next seven or ten years, I think the big brands are going to get bigger, and there will be more demand for them to be on the road. That’s a good way to go because the marketing money was spent on the television show, television series, and so on. So going on the roll with it is fantastic.People don’t want to stay in front of their televisions, they want to experience it in real life. Especially if it’s not too expensive – somewhere between €20-€35 is where most tickets are sold at the moment.
“That’s why experiences work fantastically, because a lot of people might not be able to go on holidays, so they think, ‘If I’m not going to go on holidays, I’m going to see Jurassic World or Monet’s Garden’. Because it’s affordable; it’s more expensive than cinema, but you also get a lot more than cinema – it’s a whole experience.”
“We’re also seeing a live music component brought into exhibitions, to give them an immersive environment for the visitors”
Future perspectives
The current wave of experiences has been driven by a combination of creativity – partly inspired by technological advances, partly by demand from people to want to get closer to the action. But what does the future hold?
Proactiv’s Renna says the trend for more people producing their own content will continue. “There might be maybe less IP-driven content, because the IPs will be fewer but more powerful than before. However, events such as the Christmas Garden we do with DEAG will continue to do well. It’s about right venue, right partner, right promotion.
“Exhibitions are something we will continue to develop. It’s a large investment up front, but once you get started, it can run for many years, and it can go to many markets.”
Delaury is noticing an increasing interest in creating exhibitions dedicated to music and popular culture, such as exhibitions about the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and others. “There’s definitely a trend of bringing music experiences to travelling exhibitions, focusing on an artist, a trend, or a movement, but we’re also seeing a live music component brought into exhibitions, to give them an immersive environment for the visitors.”
It’s certainly a boom time for touring entertainment, and as more and more innovative concepts travel, it can only be
a good thing for this part of the business. Technology and creativity are working hand-in-hand to drive forward experiences that people will remember for years to come. It’s a risky business, often with huge upfront costs, but get it right and you can keep the show on the road for years without needing to take a break.
All that said, the most important thing, as Feld’s Sullivan says, is: “We want everyone happy at the end of the day and to send them home with a smile.”
The Touring Entertainment Report 2023 is available exclusively to IQ subscribers in print, as a digital magazine or online at our dedicated minisite here. Subscribe now and view the full report.
A preview version of the Touring Entertainment Report 2023 is below.
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Touring Entertainment Report 2023 out now
The Touring Entertainment Report (TER) 2023, a new resource puts the global business of touring theatre, shows and exhibitions in focus, is out now.
From theatre productions and family entertainment shows to exhibitions, the new report is the first of its kind to delve into this multi-billion dollar sector of the live entertainment industry.
Available to subscribers of IQ, it explains the key things to consider when creating or promoting family entertainment, as well as introducing the producers of top shows and outlining what’s available to book through our invaluable directories.
“You’ll find in-depth looks at key segments of this booming sector of the live entertainment industry”
“You’ll find in-depth looks at key segments of this booming sector of the live entertainment industry, featuring interviews with top producers and promoters worldwide, plus a directory listing hundreds of shows and contacts for the people behind them,” says TER editor James Drury.
The inaugural Touring Entertainment Report includes:
- A comprehensive overview of touring product
- Business critical information about each sector
- Critical insight through interviews with top industry figures
- Q&As with leading producers and creatives
- A spotlight on the most successful and promising new productions
- Directory of producers
The Touring Entertainment Report 2023 is available exclusively to IQ subscribers in print, as a digital magazine or online at our dedicated minisite here. Subscribe now and view the full report.
A preview version of the Touring Entertainment Report 2023 is below.
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