Index In Brief

IN BRIEFINDEX

The concert business digest

FEBRUARY

Russian regions, Kemerovo and Novosibirsk, are the first to remove restrictions and allow venues to host concerts at 100% occupancy.

Health experts in Germany create a set of guidelines to enable the gradual return of audiences to cultural and sporting events.

UK festivals including Reading and Leeds, Slam Dunk, Black Deer and Wide Awake plot comebacks as optimism grows.

Matt Bates, director of Primary Talent International, is named head of international and head of Europe for ICM Partners.

Roqu Group CEO details Health Passport Worldwide, a secure platform that combines mobile technologies with official Covid-19 tests and vaccinations.

Dutch DJ Luuk van Dijk is announced as the first-ever DJ to play a live set in Hotel Hideaway, the virtual hangout from the makers of Habbo.

Canadian venues, festivals and other live music organisations adopt the Safe Travels stamp, a mark that their events meet certain safety and hygiene standards. 2021 event, cancelling its planned 20th-anniversary celebration for a second year in a row.

Michael Rapino predicts a huge 2022 as shares in Live Nation Entertainment reach an all-time high of $91.18 (€71.45).

Australian singer-songwriter Tash Sultana promotes their newly released album Terra Firma with a new Fortnite map based on its cover art.

Reading Festival, Creamfields and Boomtown in the UK sell out their 2021 editions.

MARCH

Jools Holland, Sir Cliff Richard and Robert Plant are among those that call for a governmentbacked insurance scheme for live entertainment in the UK.

Festival Republic confirms the cancellation of Download Festival 2021.

Michael Gudinski, founder of Frontier Touring, and one of the best-known figures in the Australian concert business, passes aged 68.

AEG joins forces with Japan’s Avex Entertainment to launch AEGX, a joint venture that aims to create new opportunities in both the Japanese and global live music markets.

Primavera Sound calls time on its The premier of Victoria, the home state of Michael Gudinski, announces they will hold a state funeral for the late promoter.

UTA acquires Obi Asika’s Londonbased Echo Location Talent Agency.

Event Management Forum

condemns the German government for its phased reopening strategy, which offers ‘no perspective for the event industry.’

Flemish minister-president Jan Jambon says he will wait as long as possible to make a decision on whether domestic festivals can take place this summer.

Live Nation Concerts promotes Amanda Moore to lead the residency business for Live Nation Las Vegas.

The Beat Goes Live, a 48-hour livestreaming event, unites many of the world’s leading electronic music venues in support of the industry.

Leading European cashless payment companies Weezevent, based in Dijon, and Playpass, headquartered in Antwerp, merge.

Spanish indie-pop band Love of Lesbian announce a non-socially distanced show for 5,000 fans at Barcelona’s Palau St Jordi arena.

Oak View Group appoints three women to senior marketing, sales and partnership roles at Co-op Live, the upcoming arena in Manchester, UK.

Thousands of Dutch residents take part in the latest Back to Live test events in Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome (cap. 17,000).

Claire Mas, the former head of digital for Island Records, joins UK-based live-streaming business Driift as chief operating officer.

Dutch rock band Di-rect sells more than 14,000 tickets for their latest concert live stream, held at the Omniversum cinema in The Hague.

Love Supreme Jazz Festival

(UK), the largest greenfield jazz, funk and soul festival in Europe, announces its debut Japanese edition for May.

Denmark’s ‘restart team’ submits a catalogue of recommendations on the reopening of the cultural and sports sectors to the ministry of culture.

Italy’s music industry is allocated €50million by the government following ‘The Last Concert?’ (L’ultimo Concerto?) campaign.

The Republic of Ireland announces €50million of new funding for the live entertainment sector.

French festival-goers are unwilling to attend seated festivals, finds a survey from Eurockéennes de Belfort.

Some of Germany’s biggest music festivals, including Eventim Presents/DreamHaus’s Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, are called off for a second year running.

Ticketing and music discovery company Dice launches Merch on Dice, a direct-to-fan merchandise sales platform for artists.

UTA appoints Geoff Sawyer as an agent in the video games division to foster collaborations between the agency’s music clients and the gaming industry.

Israel holds its first concert since reopening, with entry restricted to those who have had two doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

Broadwick Live announces that UK festival Field Day will return to its original home of Victoria Park in 2021 as part of a tie-up with All Points East.

American rock band Kings of Leon generates more than $2million (€1.7m) from ‘NFT Yourself,’ a collection of non-fungible tokens.

The Dutch government announces the trial of a new app that displays the results of Covid-19 tests at the Back to Live pilot festivals.

Seasoned industry professionals, Sylvia Caldas-Roberts and Mariana Brandão, launch Embrace Music Management.

German promoter Goodlive cancels the 2021 editions of Melt!, Splash!, Full Force and Heroes.

Cruïlla, one of Barcelona’s three major international music festivals, plans to go ahead as normal with rapid antigen testing. Struggling concert halls in the US will receive additional aid, thanks to a $1.9billion (€1.6bn) stimulus package, signed into law by president Joe Biden.

The O2 in London will reduce its carbon emissions by installing ten wind turbines on-site in Greenwich.

The National Audit Office finds that just over half of the grants and loans awarded as part of the Culture Recovery Fund have been paid out as of February.

Major UK events, such as the Brit Awards and FA Cup final, may be run as ‘pilot’ events.

An EU-wide vaccine passport, which could replace the piecemeal approach currently being pursued by individual member states, is put forward.

New Zealand band Six60 announce the world’s largest concert since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, for 50,000 people.

The Grammys delivers 32 live and pre-recorded performances from Megan Thee Stallion, Haim, Dua Lipa and more, after a year of no concerts.

Belgium’s festival season depends on the results from a test event planned for the spring, says Flemish prime minister Jan Jambon.

Independent UK booking agency Runway Artists hires Steve Backman, formerly of Primary Talent International, as its first agent appointment.

The Danish government announces a DKK 500m (€67.2m) safety net for festivals and major events.

Australia announces its first concert series featuring international artists since the lockdown of March 2020.

The Netherlands’ Lowlands festival unveils the first slate of artists for its 2021 edition. Rock Werchter, one of Belgium’s biggest and most important music festivals, is called off for the second year in a row.

Sally Dunstone, formerly of X-ray Touring, joins London-based Primary Talent International as an agent.

Swiss festivals Paléo Festival Nyon, Greenfield Festival and Rock the Ring cancel their summer events.

The Ontario Festival Industry

Taskforce announces a concert that is said to be the first major event in Canada to use rapid screening.

Ron Bension, the long-time president of Live Nation’s House of Blues Entertainment, has joined ASM Global as president and CEO.

Dan Owens, a former senior assistant at WME in London, has launched Loud Artists, a new booking agency specialising in punk, rock, metal and alternative music.

The Estonian government announces a €42m aid package for the cultural sector, which includes a €6m ‘risk fund’ for large-scale events.

Paradigm Talent Agency confirms it will sell its music business in North America to Casey Wasserman’s Wasserman Media Group.

Live music streaming company Stabal Media Group hires Joe Clegg, founder of production company Artclub Live.

Graham Martin, Diony Sepulveda and Kimberly Schon launch Grandview Music, a new artist management company based in California.

Crew Nation, a global Covidrelief fund set up last year by Live Nation, raises $18m (€15m) for touring and venue crews impacted by the pandemic.

Brussels concert hall Ancienne Belgique unveils a new virtual and interactive concert hall, christened Nouvelle Belgique. In the UK, City of Wolverhampton Council appoints AEG Presents to manage the city’s Civic Hall, which is due to reopen in early 2022.

Firestarters, ‘the virtual festival of conversation,’ assembles some of the music industry’s key players.

The UK will gain a number of new outdoor music venues from June, signalling growing optimism among promoters.

Facebook rolls out its paid online events functionality, which enables creators to charge for entry to live streams, to a further 24 markets.

The Swiss federal government will now subsidise event cancellation insurance for major events, according to a newly amended article in its Covid 19 Act.

The British Music Embassy, South by Southwest’s venue for hotly tipped UK artists, hosts 35 artist showcases during SXSW Online.

A new 10,000-capacity event is set to be ‘the largest standing festival in Australia since the beginning of Covid-19.’

Live Nation France announces The French Touch Tour, a new series of live-streamed concerts designed to raise funds and provide work, for French artists and crew.

Neuland Concerts and Funke Media, Hamburg-based promoters and former competitors, join forces, with immediate effect.

The Danish government publishes a reopening plan, which fails to provide concrete answers about whether large events can take place this summer.

Famous Madrid flamenco club Villa-Rosa closes its doors after 140 years, due to a year of no shows and a lack of government assistance.