Index In Brief

IN BRIEFINDEX

The concert business digest

FEBRUARY

Portugal’s music festivals look into the possibility of restricting entry to ‘bubbles’ of vaccinated fans as a way of enabling events to go ahead safely this summer.

Goldenvoice’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and Stagecoach Festival will no longer take place this April after being issued with a cancellation order by local authorities.

French festivals meet with minister of culture, Roselyne Bachelot, as concern mounts over the impact of France’s ongoing state of emergency.

The Netherlands’ A State of Trance (ASOT) sells all 55,000 tickets for this September’s festival.

PRS for Music amends its controversial tariff for small-scale live-streamed shows, to exempt artists performing their own material.

The Competition and Markets Authority orders the partial unwinding of the $4billion (€3.3bn) merger of Viagogo and StubHub, which must sell its international business. German scientists release the results of the most positive study yet on whether detection dogs are able to reliably sniff out Covid-19 infection.

Canada’s live music industry offers its venues, staff and logistical expertise towards the country’s vaccine rollout.

Dutch dance promoter ID&T hires Rosanne Janmaat as its new COO, capitalising on her 14 years of experience in the organisation.

Fieldlab, the organisation spearheading the Back to Live test series in the Netherlands, reveals details on the open-air festival pilots.

The Swedish government reveals plans to launch a digital coronavirus vaccine passport by this summer.

EEMA, one of India’s industry associations, has sharply criticised the government for making no provisions in its most recent budget for the live entertainment sector.

Altin Gün are the most popular European Talent Exchange Programme act of the year so far.

Dutch festivals push back spring editions following the government’s pledge to provide cancellation insurance for events taking place in the second half of 2021.

Montreux Jazz Festival will stream all future editions of the festival through Stingray’s Qello Concerts as part of a hybrid model.

Slovakian organisations offer assistance towards its government’s vaccination programme.

Live Nation will sue insurer Factory Mutual for failing to cover its “unprecedented” losses as a result of the nearly year-long concert business shutdown.

South Coast Events Forum, a new industry association based on the south coast of the UK, launches.

Switzerland and Denmark become the latest European markets to call for a strategy that will pave the way to the festival summer.

The UK live industry urges the chancellor of the exchequer to keep the lower rate of VAT on tickets until after the business restarts.

StubHub and Viagogo will work with UK regulators to “implement the agreed-upon remedy” of selling off StubHub outside North America. The Norwegian government commits NOK350million (€33m) to a cancellation insurance fund for festivals.

Radiohead bassist, Colin Greenwood, becomes the latest high-profile British artist to make the case for free movement for musicians in Europe.

Rapper 50 Cent and DJ Steve Aoki perform at Super Bowl parties where there are no masks or social distancing.

One Fiinix Live, Jon Ollier’s new booking agency, has made its first hire, recruiting ex-Paradigm agent Jess Kinn.

LIVE publishes an infographic showing country-by-country entry requirements for British musicians and crew.

Jukebox, a music PR agency, unveils its new-for-2021 brand identity, co-created with creative agency Muuv.

A French Covid expert says the risk of contamination in cultural places is lower than in home, work and school environments.

DEAG founder and CEO Peter Schwenkow says the return of outdoor and smaller indoor concerts in Germany is possible by July.

TEG acquires a majority stake in Handsome Tours, a Sydneybased boutique tour and events promoter.

Yourope calls for clear guidelines, a financial bailout plan, and proportionate measures to enable the ‘21 festival season.

Ticketmaster launches global streaming platform Ticketmaster Livestream.

Event Management Forum

presents Manifest Restart, a proposal that details a uniform approach to the safe reopening of events in Germany.

Universal Music Group and K-pop label YG Entertainment invest in live-streaming company KBYK Live.

UTA signs Nathan Evans, who found fame on TikTok for his rendition of the whaling ballad Soon May the Wellerman Come.

Wales’ best-known festivals band together to create free online event, Gwˆyl (Festival) 2021.

Australia and Iceland announce plans for digital health passports that will show citizens’ Covid-19 vaccination and test status.

New York stadiums and arenas with a capacity of 10,000 upwards are allowed to reopen at 10% capacity from 23 February.

Brendan Biesen, ex-assistant to Erik Selz and Tom Windish at Paradigm Talent Agency, launches new agency Field Booking.

Pearle* publishes a new edition of its Map of Europe, which presents updates on the resumption of venues and live events across Europe. A research project by two British universities is awarded funding to investigate the monetisation of live-streaming concerts.

Post Malone will headline a virtual concert celebrating 25 years of Pokémon on Pokémon Day, 27 February.

#SaveOurStages launches in Korea with an eight-day, five-venue benefit concert in aid of grassroots venues in Seoul.

The Flemish government designates a total of €60million to help the region’s organisers kickstart preparations for this summer’s festival season.

BDKV chief Jens Michow reveals that the German federal government is planning to postpone its insurance scheme for event organisers.

French festival associations express concerns about a controversial new security bill that would allow offduty police to carry weapons.

K-pop platform, Universe, records 2.6 million views for its first online show.

Norwegian festivals benefit from the government’s latest round of compensation, amounting to more than NOK120m (€12m).

The French minister for culture says the upcoming test concerts will admit participants who tested positive for Covid-19 before the event.

The European Music Managers Alliance says European performance rights organisations cannot act unilaterally in imposing new tariffs for livestreamed shows. Latin music star Gilberto Santa Rosa plays three back-to-back, soldout shows in Florida, in some of the state’s first concerts of 2021.

Italy prepares to host The Last Concert? campaign to highlight the increasingly uncertain future of music venues.

London-based Various Artists Management promotes Rebecca Dixon to head of marketing and promotions.

The Technical University of Berlin publishes a study showing that the risk of Covid-19 infection is very low in cultural places.

More than 60,000 people apply for the 1,500 tickets available for the two experimental festivals being organised as part of the Netherlands’ Back to Live initiative.

Byron Bay Bluesfest is set to go ahead at around half its capacity after the government of New South Wales approves its Covid-19 safety plan.

Lights for Live, a fundraising initiative, raises more than €50,000 for Belgium’s live music industry after selling out the Antwerp Sportpaleis.

LIVE (Live music Industry Venues and Entertainment), the new body serving as the collective voice of the UK live music business, officially launches.

Four professionals are sentenced, following the collapse of a stage at a Madonna concert in France that killed two people in 2009.

Bergen Live and Øya Festival form part of Norway’s newly formed working group charged with the safe reopening of festivals this summer. A popular Brazilian singer is arrested after playing an unlicensed, non-socially distanced concert in a school.

Up to 2,300 companies in Finland’s live sector expect to permanently close in the next six months if financial support isn’t quickly provided.

CTS Eventim acquires a majority stake in new Berlin-based promoter DreamHaus and appoints Matt Schwarz as CEO and managing partner.

The French industry reacts to the government’s new festival framework, which restricts festivals to 5,000 seated guests.

The EAA’s Arena Resilience Alliance launches its manifesto outlining the next steps required for the safe return of live events across Europe.

The supreme court of Austria finds more than 40 clauses of Viagogo’s general terms for buyers and sellers are illegal.

Erich Zawinul, a concert promoter, booker and tour manager, who was a fixture of the Austrian live music scene for three decades, dies after contracting Covid-19.

Industry veteran Glen Rainsbury joins Ticketek as general manager for Australia and New Zealand.

Barcelona records six consecutive nights of street protests, following the jailing of Catalan rapper, Pablo Hasél.

British prime minister Boris Johnson unveils four-step roadmap, which may allow indoor performances to return to music venues across England towards the end of May.