● Reeperbahn restructures and launches new company

“Producing the festival through two companies with separated teams caused a lot of wasted useless energy”

Photo: Fynn Freund

Alexander Schulz CEO RBX GmbH

Reeperbahn Festival stated earlier this year that it will combine its September major event with its digital activities under the newly formed Hamburg-based firm RBX GmbH.

Reeperbahn Festival, which began as a club festival in 2006, has grown into one of the top venues for emerging musicians, pop culture in general, and a renowned music industry conference for fans, artists, industry professionals, and the media.

Reeperbahn Festival GmbH and Inferno Events GmbH & Co. KG formerly developed and operated business sectors, but the new firm, RBX, founded earlier this year, unites them into one corporate body.

VIP-News has talked with CEO Alexander Schulz about the changes and the future for the popular showcase festival.

Q1

Reeperbahn Festival GmbH and Inferno Events have been restructured into the formation of RBX GmbH, what is the vision behind the restructuring of the companies?

Producing Reeperbahn Festival in the old structure through two companies with separated teams caused a lot of useless wasted energy. Not only because of parallell operating administration units, but also in several operational units, such as production, ticketing, marketing, etc. The operational parts responsible for the entire event of both companies are now joined together in the new RBX GmbH and have been given a completely new team-structure. Inferno Events and Reeperbahn Festival GmbH are the two shareholders of RBX GmbH.

Q2

Does the event still receive the same level of financial support from Hamburg City and the German government?

Yes, it does. But the federal government would have stopped its grants from 2022 onwards if we had not undergone the transformation into one new company, that would only produce the supported actions around Reeperbahn Festival. The new company should not provide any other businesses, in order to receive governmental support.

Q3

You used to run a joint leadership with Detlef Schwarte, who is now no longer part of the management, why has this changed?

Detlef and I have known each other for more than 30 years and were working together at Inferno for about 20 of those years. In order to be appointed into the management of RBX GmbH, I had to leave Inferno, where Detlef remains CEO. One cannot act as CEO of the operational company at the same time as being CEO of the shareholder-company for legal reasons. Detlef works additionally as head advisor for the conference sessions program.

Q4

The last 2 years have been tough on the whole Live Music Industry including Reeperbahn Festival, what have been your biggest challenges in the return process?

Audience Development and setting up human resources for the production of the event. We can see a big gap in comparison to 2019 (the last pre-covid edition) in the ticket-sales of both the public audience and music professionals for Q4/2021 and Q1/2022, which will not be filled in the remaining weeks. Stage-hands, riggers, stage-managers, backliners, front of house staff etc have vanished forever due to the pandemic. With about 60 venues in four days to be equipped and simultaneously managed, this year’s event is extremely hard to set up.

Q5

What are your expectations for this year’s Reeperbahn conference and what are the highlights in this year’s programme?

This year’s program for international music-professionals consists of e.g.: • About 130 conference-sessions, with main-topics:

Challenges and expectations for live-entertainment,

Pop in autocratic systems (w/Pussy Riot, Alyona Alyona, Igor Levit, etc.)

• Focus Country USA: As a pioneer of innovation, creativity and diversity, the USA has always been an inspiration for Reeperbahn Festival and its drive to make a difference. That is why we are very delighted to welcome the USA as our partner country of Reeperbahn Festival 2022. We invite artists and music business leaders from the

U.S. to enter into dialogue with representatives from all submarkets of the European music industry at the

Reeperbahn Festival and offer curated One-On-One

Match-makings w/A 2IM, AIMP, MMF US, US-Chamber of

Commerce, MusicBiz, etc. especially for music professionals from Europe.

• The Anchor International Music Award

• Over 50 Showcases, receptions, master classes to be presented through Music Companies, Export Offices, etc.

Q6

What will be the biggest challenges/tasks for you and Reeperbahn Festival in 2023 and the years to come?

Finishing the new team structure and making it workable and competitive and enlarging Reeperbahn Festival’s digital programme options internationally