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tickets – people were really looking forward to this one.” And the fans were not disappointed. “The show is genuinely spectacular – there were standing ovations: it was a sonic and visual feast,” says McHale.

But he isn’t surprised. “I go back a long way with Oliver and Christoph from Semmel Concerts, and I’ve promoted Hans Zimmer with them many times. They know how to put a great production team together and always find ways to improve on previous productions. Hans always finds the best musicians for his shows – stunning virtuoso players, every one of them.”

Another contributor keen to applaud the producers is Bülowius at Captured Live. “They’ve done a really good job: everything they did in advance to make sure that all these shows were going to happen the way they are – that was a lot of work. We’re showing everybody that it is possible, again, to just do it: to tour all over Europe,” he says.

That’s music to the ears of Rosenwald. “Hans Zimmer Live is a much bigger show and it’s been more challenging for everyone,” he notes. “People have fallen out of their routines because they haven’t done the stuff they were doing in the last few years, at least not in the in the way they’d done it before.” However, he notes that morale is high. “The entire feedback that I’ve had from the production side has been really good,” he tells IQ.

And that’s one of the reasons people are so happy to buy into Rosenwald’s hygiene concept. “As local promoters, we have a duty of care to Hans, his band, orchestra and crew to look after them when they come visit and keep them safe and healthy so they can continue to tour,” says McHale. “With over 250 people in the backstage area, everyone bought into our safety plans – everyone from the local crew to riggers to caterers and all production and venue staff wore masks all day, kept a safe distance, and continually used the sanitisers.”

A Monster in Paris

At IQ’s press time, the tour had loaded out of its three triumphant back-to-back shows at the Accor Arena in Paris and was on its way back to Germany for a date in Munich.

Rosenwald comments, “I’m very proud that we managed to sell-out two nights at The O2 Arena in London, at the Hallenstadion Zürich, and at the Ziggo Dome in the Netherlands, but I’m even happier that we’ve sold out three nights at the Accor Hotels Arena in Paris!”

Friendly Fire promoter Rense van Kessel sold out the Ziggo Dome dates. He tells IQ, “We got so used to rescheduling things in the past two years that we all have become kind of experts on it. But we have been working so closely with the venue, ticketing company, our own staff, etc, on so many [events], that we worked out a very good functioning script [to communicate with ticket holders] which makes it all very smooth.”

Unfortunately, a positive Covid test ruled van Kessel out from seeing the show himself. However, he reports that everyone involved with the Amsterdam dates was buzzing with excitement. “It is a great show of power from the Zimmer and Semmel teams that they managed to pull off a tour of this magnitude, production, number of people on the road, etc, in such challenging times,” he says. “Many would have pulled the plug, but they did everything they could to stay positive and do everything to get it on the road. And they succeeded. That is very impressive.”

By the end of the tour, the production will have played 30 dates to more than 300,000 fans across 15 nations, giving Hans Zimmer the undoubted title of biggest international tour since the pandemic closed venues more than two years ago.

Plans for the next part of Zimmer’s live career are still unconfirmed, but Los Angeles-based CAA agent Chris Dalston has been tasked with securing future dates. “The idea is to get the US tour, East Coast, on sale after the European tour finishes in June,” Dalston tells IQ, explaining that major cities like Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington DC, Montreal, Toronto, Atlantic City, Boston and New York are in the reckoning.

He reveals that further legs of the tour are being considered for Australia and Asia “at the end of ‘22 or early ‘23,” while a West Coast jaunt for North America could also be scheduled around that.

Beyond then, promoters, producers and fans alike are already waiting in anticipation of what one of the greatest composers of our time will do next. “Hans has changed the entire genre of film music,” says Scholz. “It’s not the typical orchestra sitting in front of a screen and playing music to a film and the classic conductor. It’s a rock band, presenting the biggest film scores on Earth in a rock-pop show.”

The last word, however, goes to the maestro himself.

“I try to write music in the studio that can live without the film, because I owe it to the director,” says Zimmer. Talking of the current tour, he states, “I don’t show a single frame of film because I am arrogant enough to believe that the music can stand on its own two feet.”

And noting that he shares the stage with musicians who are political refugees from South Africa and Venezuela, as well as the Ukrainian orchestral members, Zimmer concludes, “This orchestra is precious. It’s important that we get to go across the world with these people because it will remind you of all the times that art and artists are there to bring peace to this world.”

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Proactiv Entertainment sets its eyes on the international market after wrapping up a memorable 2021 full of accomplishments and records

In the entertainment world, making it through the first year is a hard accomplishment: three decades is an even bigger feat. Succeeding through the last years and overcoming a pandemic that endangered the entertainment industry was a complete utopia. Proactiv Entertainment has accomplished this against all odds and with flying colors.

This year, the live shows, exhibitions, and music concerts promoter founded by Horacio Renna in Barcelona in 1987 will reach the 35-year milestone. This will be the culmination of a dream that started back in the day in a small office, and that has now materialised as Spain’s leader of the entertainment industry.

“It was my vision that if I were to start my own professional venture, I had to accomplish a series of objectives, and without a doubt one of the most important was to make our audiences feel.” With this premise, Horacio Renna founded Proactiv Entertainment in 1987 and that same principle remains the company’s motto and driving force today – ‘Generating Emotions’.

Despite the difficulties, these emotions have been growing exponentially. Last year, for example, Proactiv Entertainment sold more than 700,000 tickets across several events. This gargantuan effort included the simultaneous delivery of three Christmas Gardens in Barcelona, Valencia and Malaga, and the exhibitions Meet Vincent Van Gogh and Barça The Exhibition in Madrid and Dubai respectively.

In past decades, licences of international prestige such as Disney On Ice, which will return to Spain in 2023, celebrating 30 years with Proactiv Entertainment; Harlem Globetrotters; Monster Jam; WWE, or Walking with Dinosaurs helped solidify the company as the leading events promoter in Spain. The way 2022 and 2023 are shaping up, it doesn’t seem that these emotions will stop growing any time soon. Now, the company faces a bright horizon full of new challenges under the helm of Nicolas Renna, Managing Director.

“It is very clear to me that this new phase will be founded on the pillars of top-tier licences from renowned IPs, globally recognised music artists and the creation of new concepts,” says Nicolas, who since stepping up as managing director opened the Middle East regional office in the UAE in a clear statement of intentions at an international scale, and completed several agreements with entities like FC Barcelona and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Moreover, on 5th of April, the company proudly broke the attendance record for the WiZink Center in Madrid with Maluma’s 360º music concert.

These are some of the steppingstones that are constantly leading the company to a new dimension at a global scale and ensure that we’ll be seeing Proactiv Entertainment’s logo attached to some of the world’s most exciting projects in the years to come.

ARABIAN NIGHTS

As one of the first regions to re-emerge on the live touring circuit, the Gulf States is undoubtedly the number-one growth spot on the planet right now – thanks in no small part to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s interest in live events. Adam Woods reports.

Garrix, and David Guetta played and a reported 180,000 attended the opening night, represents the new face of live music in the Gulf.

That same month, the kingdom also hosted the Formula One Grand Prix, with music from Justin Bieber, Jason Derulo, and A$AP Rocky. Chris Brown, Black Eyed Peas, James Blunt, Wyclef Jean and Craig David are also recent visitors, courtesy of MDLBEAST’s MDLBEAST Presents arm, which has rapidly built a reputation as the market’s leading provider of musical talent.

“I don’t play for politicians, I play for people,” Guetta told a Soundstorm press conference, side-stepping the criticisms of the regime that remains the main stumbling block to the international performing community’s guilt-free acceptance of the Saudi riyal.

That stumbling block is seemingly getting smaller these days, partly due to the billions at the disposal of a Saudi regime that is investing in entertainment, not only to conjure tourism, but to keep its free-spending domestic audience from travelling abroad in search of fun.

“I would assume that the kingdom is the biggest buying market in the world right now,” says veteran Middle East promoter Thomas Ovesen,

Exactly two years ago, at the very moment IQ was producing its last market report on the live market of the Gulf, not to mention gathering the live music community in London for ILMC, the pandemic closed in, and the world shuddered to a halt. We all know what happened next: lockdowns, calendars in the bin, plenty of pain and an ever-extending timescale for the return of concerts.

Every market suffered, and the Gulf was no exception. In the final analysis, the UAE was only fully locked down for around four months and

Saudi Arabia for a little over a year, but the hit was a hard one and some restrictions linger on.

Nonetheless, due to a unique set of circumstances, this may also be one regional market that has emerged from the whole mess looking sharper and shinier than when it went in.

In 2022, the Gulf boasts new live venues, new touring connections and, in Saudi Arabia, a booming new territory that has shifted the centre of the region and – albeit not without controversy – greatly boosted the appeal of the region to international acts.

The second edition of MDLBEAST’s Soundstorm festival in Riyadh, a four-day “rave in the desert” last December, where Tiësto, Martin MAP KEY ● Promoter ● Agent/Promoter ● Venue ● Festival

BAHRAIN

● Al Dana Amphitheater QATAR

Doha

● Alive Entertainment ● Aspire Logistics ● Liveworks ● Aspire Dome ● Jazz at Lincoln Center ● Qatar International

Exhibition

UAE

Abu Dhabi

● Flash Entertainment ● Vibe Events ● du Arena ● du Forum ● Etihad Arena ● Etihad Park Stadium ● Zayed Sports City

Dubai

● Broadway

Entertainment Group ● Chillout Productions ● Dubai Opera ● EarthBeat Events ● GME Events ● Live Nation Middle East ● Sport & Entertainment

Solutions ● The Artist Network ● T.O.P. Entertainment ● Al Wasl Plaza ● Caesars Palace Rotunda ● Coca-Cola Arena ● Dubai Media Centre

Amphitheatre ● Dubai Opera House ● Dubai World Trade Centre ● Madinat Jumeirah ● Media City Outdoor

Amphitheatre ● The Palladium Dubai ● The Rotunda ● Desert Groove ● Emirates Airline Dubai

Jazz Festival ● Fiesta De Los Muertos ● What’s On Party in the Park

Sharjah

● Sharjah Media Centre OMAN

Muscat

● Alive Entertainment ● Royal Opera House

SAUDI ARABIA

Jeddah

● King Abdullah

Economic City ● MDLBEAST

Riyadh

● Diriyah Gate

Development Authority ● General Entertainment

Authority ● MDLBEAST ● Rotana ● T.O.P. Entertainment ● Diriyah Arena ● Granada Center ● King Fahd Cultural

Centre ● King Fahd Stadium ● Victory Arena ● Soundstorm

KUWAIT

● The Al-Abdullah

Al-Jaber Al-Sabah

International Tennis

Complex ● JACC ● Kuwait Arena ● Live Nation Magazine 75

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