IN BRIEF INDEX The concert business digest
APRIL Hamburg’s Barclaycard Arena prepares to open its doors for the first time in a year to host the Restart concert series, organised by Hamburg Concerts. The US Small Business Administration is forced to close the portal for Shuttered Venue Operating Grants before a single application is received. AmazeVR, the LA-based startup, raises $9.5m (€7.9m) in new funding to accelerate the company’s growth in the world of virtual reality concerts. Brussels venue KVS plans to open its doors on 26 April, defying current restrictions, in a bid to increase pressure on the Belgian government to reopen the cultural sector. Frontier Touring announces the second edition of Music from the Home Front, a special Anzac Day concert spearheaded by the late Australian industry icon Michael Gudinski. Live Nation and Veeps equip more than 60 venues around the US with a permanent live-streaming set-up.
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Denmark’s Smash!Bang!Pow! hires one of the country’s most experienced concert promoters, Xenia Grigat. Norway’s biggest rock and metal festival, Tons of Rock, is the first major Norwegian festival to cancel its 2021 edition. Ken Watts, a much-loved tour director for the likes of George Michael, Duran Duran, Natalie Imbruglia, Bond, Blues Brothers, Jamiroquai and Duran Duran, passes away. Fieldlab, the Dutch initiative behind the Back to Live series, receives permission from the government to scale-up its forthcoming test events. Dutch DJ Don Diablo sells what is thought to be the first-ever fulllength concert NFT (non-fungible token) for cryptocurrency to the value of $1.2million (€1m). Stagehand’s Covid-19 relief fund is bolstered by a £75,000 (€11,000) donation from PPL, the UK’s music licensing company for performers and recording rights holders. Ten historic independent venues in the US, as well as NIVA, will benefit from more than $200,000 (€165,343) raised through a ‘golden ticket’ NFT fundraiser.
Working guidance for UK festival organisers is updated to provide “support and strategic direction” in the planning of events ahead of the ERP. Fieldlab’s largest test event yet, the 10,000-capacity 538 Koningsdag festival in the Netherlands, receives more than a million applications. Finland’s 2021 festival season shrinks dramatically with the cancellations of major festivals such as Ruisrock, Ilosaarirock, Provinssirock, and Sideways. Switzerland’s cultural industry welcomes the federal government’s decision to allow audiences at concerts again amid a wider rollback of restrictions. iconic UK venue, Forum Birmingham, which previously welcomed artists ranging from Bob Marley to Ed Sheeran is set to open its doors for the first time in a decade. The organisers of a surprise AJ Tracey gig are fined £10,000 (€11,503) after huge crowds gathered in a park in Manchester to see the rapper perform.
ASM Global signs on to comanage operations, run the commercialisation, and oversee the development of a new entertainment and sports arena in Cantù, Italy. Sefton Park in Liverpool will host a new music festival, simply called the Sefton Park Pilot, as part of the British government-backed Events Research Programme. 5B Artists and Media, the international music management company that is home to hard rock/metal acts, hires artist manager James Vitalo. Color Sound, the long-running Italian booking agency, sells a “significant stake” in the company to Milan-based record label and music distributor Artist First. Live Nation Spain president Pino Sagliocco galvanises celebrities for a benefit campaign supporting the music industry. Fieldlab’s 10,000-person test event, 538 Koningsdag, is cancelled by local authorities. FKP Scorpio joins forces with Berlin-based booking agency Area One to form new agency business FKP Area One.
