Touring
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Live Nation has elected acting Kennedy Center president and Donald Trump ally Richard Grenell to its board of directors, according to a recent disclosure from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Grenell was appointed to run the federally owned performing arts center in February following a Trump-led shakeup that saw the President appoint himself chairman of […]
LONDON — Field Day festival has issued a new statement in response to controversy around their parent company and a lineup boycott. The festival is due to take place in Brockwell Park, south London this coming Saturday (May 24).
Field Day festival is one of a number of music brands operated by Superstruct Entertainment, alongside Sónar Festival, Boiler Room and more. Superstruct Entertainment is owned by global investment firm KKR which, per Mixmag, holds stakes in weapons manufacturing companies, the Coastal GasLink pipeline, and multiple Israeli corporations that operate in occupied Palestinian territories.
In an open letter, a number of artists including Massive Attack and Brian Eno called on the festival to distance itself from KKR’s dealings, and 11 acts removed themselves from the lineup in protest. Last week (May 15), the festival issued a statement regarding the ownership situation which acknowledged the people “hurt and angry,” but explained that partnering with Superstruct Entertainment helped secure the future of the festival.
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Field Day was first held in 2007 in Victoria Park, and in 2021 partnered with AEG’s Goldenvoice as part of All Points East Festival. In 2023, the festival was acquired by Superstruct Entertainment and moved to Brockwell Park in Brixton. This year’s event is headlined by Peggy Gou and also features James Blake and Jungle on the lineup.
Since the statement, however, fallout has continued with a number of acts continuing to withdraw from the bill, including Midland and Mall Grab. As of publication, over half of the artists booked have withdrawn from the lineup, with just 23 acts remaining of an original 42.
On Tuesday (May 20), the festival shared a new statement to their Instagram page, acknowledging that their initial message did not do enough to distance themselves from Superstruct’s parent company. “We are passionately opposed to KKR’s unethical investments in Israel,” it read, while calling for a “Free Palestine.”
The message continued: “We cannot control who owns our parent company but we promise to make our – and your – voices, and the ethical values we regard as non-negotiable, heard and understood at all levels.”
The run-up to the events in Brockwell Park have been disrupted by a protest by a group of local residents and uncertainty if the festival slate would move forward. Wide Awake, Field Day, City Splash, Mighty Hoopla, Across The Tracks, all operated by Brockwell Live, are set to take place over a three-week period beginning on Friday (May 23).
Last week a High Court ruled that Brockwell Live did not have the correct planning permission from Lambeth Council to host the events, and that the promoters had exceeded the amount of usage days of the public park. On Monday, however, the festivals confirmed they would be going ahead after applying to Lambeth Council “for a new certificate of lawfulness” which enables the events to move forward.
Field Day statement in full:
The statement released on Thursday did not explain in full the position of the Field Day team or directly address legitimate concerns about investments in Israel by KKR, the owner of Field Day’s parent company, Superstruct. We apologise and wish to put that right here by making our position very clear.
Last year, the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest court, ruled that Israel illegally occupies Palestinian territory, is in violation of the international prohibition on apartheid, and is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza.
We would like to say, clearly and directly, that we stand with the people of Gaza and support the peaceful aims of the Palestinian civil organisations and everyone working tirelessly to give them a voice.
This includes the artists and audience members who expect us to amplify their voices when it really matters, and who we failed by not addressing this earlier. We join them in calling for an immediate end to military action and occupation and the provision of vital aid in Gaza without delay.
We said previously that partnering with Superstruct secured the future of the festival and our creative and operational independence; that the Field Day team had no knowledge or influence in KKR’s investment in Superstruct last year; and that we retain the same deeply held values Field Day was founded on. All of this is true.
However, we are sorry we did not say earlier what we unequivocally say now:
We are passionately opposed to KKR’s unethical investments in Israel. We cannot control who owns our parent company but we promise to make our – and your – voices, and the ethical values we regard as non-negotiable, heard and understood at all levels.
Many of you rightly challenged our previous post. We’re grateful for your comments and we respect the artists who have taken a stance. To the other artists on our lineup, we welcome and support you using your platform to stand against all forms of oppression, discrimination and genocide.
We say with pride and determination that everyone is welcome at Field Day, regardless of nationality, race, religion, gender or sexuality.
We believe music is uniquely capable of bringing people together and providing a space to express ourselves freely without discrimination, and we hope you will join us in that spirit this weekend.
This is what we stand for, and we regret not making that clearer before. Free Palestine.
Despite U.S. consumer sentiment falling to its second lowest rating on record in May, new studies show that concertgoers have grown comfortable spending $300 a month on tickets — and that this summer they plan on paying even more.
A Bank of America survey examining the spending data of its 69 million consumer and small business customers in the United States found customers spent an average of $150 a month on entertainment — such as tickets to live events or amusement parks — between May 2024 and April 2025. When researchers looked at credit card holders specifically who spent money on live event tickets, those individuals spent an average of $300 a month last year. Asked if they plan to attend more live events this year than last year, a third of people surveyed said yes.
That’s good news for live event promoters. The world’s largest concert promoter and ticket company Live Nation reported sluggish revenues for the start of the year, and online ticket marketplace and resale company Vivid Seats reported lower consumer interest in live events. The first quarter before spring and summer festivals kick off is usually slow, but Vivid Seats executives warned that negative consumer sentiment and “uncertainty can impact how and when artists and rights-holders come to market.” For its part, Live Nation is still predicting double-digit profit growtht this year.
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Prices for concert ticket have risen by more than 32% over the past five years, with the average concert ticket costing $130.36 in 2024. Those numbers have been driven by post-pandemic demand and major acts adopting dynamic, or surge, pricing — in which demand can increase a ticket’s price in real time — according to Billboard Boxscore data.
While $300 would have been enough to score tickets to see Bad Bunny or The Rolling Stones last year — average ticket prices were $280.67 and $266.16, respectively — it likely would not have been enough for one of U2’s 38 shows at The Sphere in Las Vegas. Those tickets cost on average $367.13.
And prices continue to rise. This year, for example, Bad Bunny fans will have to dig deeper into their pockets to see one of his shows. A study by GIGAcalculator, an online platform that creates converters and calculators for different uses, found it cost an average of $354 to attend his residency at Coliseo de Puerto Rico, but it could be argued that the reggaeton superstar gives a lot of bang for the buck. His 135-minute, 33-song shows average out to a cost of $2.62 per minute, almost a dollar cheaper than Charli XCX, whose shows are the most expensive at $3.55 per minute.
The soaring price of tickets is one reason more young concert goers report going into debt to see shows, according to a study from Cash App, the digital wallet company owned by Block.
More than half of Gen Z concertgoers, who were born after 1995, reported using buy now, pay later services to cover the cost of tickets or related expenses, such as travel to a show, overnight accommodations, or clothes to wear to the concert, according to the study. (Can’t imagine putting concert outfits on layaway? Coachella fashion inspiration boards, including those by artists like Ludmilla and Victoria Monet, were a big hit last year on Pinterest, a popular shopping tool among Gen Z.)
According to Cash App, one in five Gen Z concertgoers reported spending beyond their means to attend concerts in the past two years, and yet 65% of the roughly 2,000 adults in the survey overall said they would spend more in 2025.
Gen Z respondents paid an average of $2,100 on concert tickets over the past two years, according to Cash App.
While the top 100 tours grossed more than $10 billion in 2024, including Taylor Swift’s record-setting Eras Tour, only a handful of acts can charge more than $200 a ticket and sell out, Billboard Boxscore data shows.
Nonetheless, more than 75% of Gen Z respondents in Cash App’s study said they were willing to pay a premium on resale platforms if that’s what it takes to see a show.
Bad Bunny is set to break records across Latin America, Europe and Australia with his Debí Tirar Más Fotos tour after generating hundreds of millions of dollars from 2.6 million tickets sold, according to data provided to Billboard by promoter Live Nation.
“Bad Bunny is having incredible success without crossing over [musically]. In fact, it’s the audience — millions of people across the world, who are crossing over [to] him,” says Hans Schafer, senior vp of global touring for Live Nation, which is co-promoting the 54-date tour with Rimas Nation. Schafer notes that the superstar will be the first Spanish-language artist to perform a stadium concert in seven of the countries he’s visiting on the tour, which kicks off Nov. 21 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and ends July 22 in Brussels, Belgium.
The new tour is set to break the records Bad Bunny first broke in 2022 when he became the first Latin act to earn the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Year-End Boxscore Top Tours chart, grossing $373.5 million from 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows.
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Thanks to a massive demand for tickets, what began as a 24-date tour early last week has blossomed into a 54-show run across 18 countries. Bad Bunny expanded his Mexico City visit from two shows at Estadio GNP to eight shows. In South America, he grew his stops in Medellin, Colombia; Santiago, Chile; and Buenos Aires from one show to three shows in each market. And in Madrid, he expanded his plans for two shows to a staggering 10 concerts at the 70,000-person Riyadh Air Metropolitano Stadium.
Bad Bunny is playing two-night engagements at almost every stop on his tour and is breaking new records in nearly every market. He is the first and only Latin act to sell out a stadium concert in Australia and became the only artist in Colombia’s history to sell out three stadium concerts in 24 hours. He broke the record for the fastest-selling concert in the history of Costa Rica, and in Mexico, he broke the record for the most tickets sold in a single day by any artist.
The superstar now holds the record for the most tickets ever sold by a Latin artist in France, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Sweden. And with 12 stadium shows booked for Spain — including two in Barcelona — he now holds the record for the biggest concert run ever for an artist in the country with 600,000 tickets sold.
He’s also become the top-selling Latin artist in the U.K., breaking the record previously set by Karol G.
“Bad Bunny is a true global artist and this tour is testament to his power as an international superstar,” Schafer says. “We’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
Elegance. Showmanship. Unmatched flair. Rauw Alejandro made his triumphant return to New York City on Monday night (May 19), kicking off a three-night takeover at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center as part of his Cosa Nuestra tour.
For the Puerto Rican singer, these performances carry deep significance, blending his personal story with the cultural legacy of the city’s Nuyorican community.
“Rauw Alejandro performing Cosa Nuestra live, where it all began, here in the city of New York,” said the man of the night while commanding the stage with superstar swagger. “New York is very special to me, it’s my second home. It’s where my father was born. My grandfather — they came here to work hard, to earn money for their family. Cosa Nuestra was created right here in New York. Tonight is special. This concert is a little bit different from the others.” And he was absolutely right about that.
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The energy in the arena was electric, with fans dressed to the nines per Rauw’s “dress code” for the night — a glam celebration that felt more Broadway than your typical Latin music show. And Rauw’s performance delivered high-octane drama in four acts, crafted like a theatrical masterpiece, at times invoking West Side Story, in others Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” video, to his own arsenal of hits from his new album — “Revolú,” “Déjame Entrar,” “Mil Mujeres” — and even some Rauw classics such as “Tattoo,” “Todo De Ti,” “Desesperados” and more.
The show was filled with imagery that depicted New York’s iconic landmarks and its Latin roots, with the Brooklyn Bridge and the city skyline as a backdrop. With his impeccably tight choreography, tailored and glitzy wardrobe and the vintage muscle car in one notable scene, his homage to the Boricua diaspora was heartfelt and unapologetically vivid — a tribute to resilience, culture and identity.
“New York is a special place, especially for this show, for Puerto Rican culture — for me being Puerto Rican from New York,” said an attendee who looked dapper in vintage-looking slacks and a flat cap. “There’s a lot of history here, a lot of culture, and it’s good to see all the people come together for a special event like this that celebrates us.”
The city is also the cradle of Puerto Rican salsa, the birthplace of the late ‘60s and ‘70s Latin music revolution defined by legends such as the Fania All Stars. That golden era of big-band artistry sparked the vision for Rauw’s Cosa Nuestra album and the theatrical brilliance of the night’s performance — a seamless fusion of tradition and modernity that felt like a love letter to New York’s Puerto Rican roots.
Rauw’s Cosa Nuestra topped Billboard‘s Best Latin Albums of 2024 (Staff Picks), and reached No. 1 on the Top Latin Albums chart, where it remained at the top for six weeks.
His next stops include Atlanta, Orlando and several dates in Miami before wrapping up his U.S. tour with a four-night series of shows at the iconic Coliseo de Puerto Rico. This summer, he’ll take his Cosa Nuestra tour to Europe.
“To finally be the headliner and not the maid of honor or the freakin’ bridesmaid?” Cyndi Lauper says with a laugh over Zoom. “It was pretty good.” The Brooklyn-born pop/rock legend is talking about her first-ever headlining show at New York’s Madison Square Garden last fall, part of her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour. These goodbye shows — an invigorating blast of rock energy, pop balladry pathos and vivid art – have been met with rave reviews from fans and critics alike. After overseas legs in Europe, Australia and Japan, Lauper is bringing her tour back to the States (and Canada) this summer for 24 final North American dates, kicking off July 17 in Mansfield, Mass.
Selling out arenas like MSG was a huge part of the reason Lauper – who will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this fall – wanted to do this farewell tour in the first place. While wrapping up mastering on a soundtrack companion to her 2023 career-retrospective documentary Let the Canary Sing, Lauper says that “everybody turned around and said, ‘Why don’t you do a farewell tour?’” The Grammy, Emmy and Tony winner was into the idea, but with a condition: “If I’m leaving, I would like to headline these places,” she recalls telling her team. “I don’t want to play theaters – I’m in theaters anyway,” she notes, tipping to the fact that she’s spent much of the last 15 years working in musical theater, between Broadway’s Tony-gobbling Kinky Boots and a long-gestating musical adaptation of the 1988 film Working Girl she’s still crafting with Theresa Rebeck.
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Now, for the tour’s North American swan song this summer, Lauper wants the chance to reconnect with fans in places she missed last fall. “I didn’t get to Philadelphia [last year]. I’m going to leave and not go to Philly?” she asks rhetorically ahead of a July 20 date in the City of Brotherly Love. “I wanted to say goodbye to everybody. I really do. That’s the end of this chapter.”
The final North American dates of her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour will feature some changes – including a setlist swap thanks to a famous fashion designer. Apart from alterations to the staging to accommodate outdoor venues, the Billboard Hot 100-topping singer is adding in some dance music for her fervent LGBTQ fanbase. “I am going to switch one song, because Christian Siriano said, ‘The gays want glamor.’ On Instagram, somebody wrote, ‘The gays love glamor, but they also love to dance. Would you mind just putting in a dance song from [the 2008 album] Bring Ya to the Brink?’ I thought that was really funny,” she admits. “So I said okay, fine.”
While it’s hard to quibble with an injection of upbeat dance music (just imagine if she sang “Sex Is in the Heel” from Kinky Boots? A stan can dream!) to the setlist, the show’s standout moments often come during her peerless ballads. “Time After Time” has found her duetting with guests like Sam Smith and Lucinda Williams, while “True Colors” and “Sally’s Pigeons” are staged in a way that’s as much performance art as pop music (Daniel Wurtzel’s “air fountain” factors heavily into those).
Lauper says it’s impossible for her to pick a standout moment from the shows, though – and she means that literally. “Once I step out there, I’m not there anymore because I’m in it,” she insists. “I used to work at Belmont walking the horses. I feel like one of those racehorses – you’re in it but you can’t think. You have to have one foot in reality and one foot in someplace else, and that place is where things come through you.” She once had a conversation with Prince about this very topic, which he likened to turning off a third eye. “He was like, ‘Part of you, you go out of your mind a little bit [on stage]. You’re not there. You can’t be, because if you are, then you have a third eye. And all of a sudden, whatever magic, otherworldly door it is that you’re knocking on is not going to open.’”
Accidents, however, can test that tenuous connection. Lauper describes one such incident during this tour’s “Sally’s Pigeons,” which features a white sheet undulating through the air thanks to an assortment of crisscrossed fans (not the flesh-and-blood type). “It’s so beautiful, right? Gorgeous. One time I saw that big sheet, it went right up — I had to look away because I was going to start laughing – it fell right on top of somebody. I saw everybody scrambling,” she chuckles. “It’s live, right? You don’t know what the heck (will happen).”
Mostly, however, she’s able to stay in the magic zone – though she admits to fighting some serious nerves prior to that first headlining MSG show. “Before I went on stage at Madison Square Garden, I was thinking, ‘You idiot. You had all your friends come here, and if you fall flat on your face, everybody and all your friends are going to see.’ Then I said to myself, ‘No, be positive. Do not think like that.’ I was like, ‘You know, it’s only rock n’ roll, but I like it. Whatever.’”
Lauper did not, for the record, fall flat on her face, literally or metaphorically – I was there, and it was one of the best concerts I’d seen in years, both performance-wise and conceptually. Much of the tour’s aesthetic traces to Lauper’s love for art, museums and eye-popping fashion; the tour boasts original collaborations with Wurtzel, Siriano, Geoffrey Mac, Brian Burke and Yayoi Kusama. “When you’re moving and you have all that color, it’s like a painting,” Lauper says in her gloriously unrepentant Brooklyn accent – a tone one doesn’t typically associate with a hifalutin arts discourse. “[Kusama] wore her art, and for me in the ‘80s, that’s kind of what I was doing,” she says of the Japanese artist whose distinct polka-dot palette broke through globally around when Lauper catapulted onto MTV and the Billboard charts. “I could kick myself for not knowing in the ‘80s – I had no idea about Kusama. But I was on the hamster wheel and peddling so fast that I did not go to museums (back then), which was sad for me.”
While the 71-year-old icon makes time to experience art in her life these days, it’s hard to escape the sneaking suspicion that, unlike many musicians who can’t keep away from the grind, it’s the hamster wheel that’s following her.
Prior to the tour’s next leg kicking off in July, Lauper is still tinkering with the music for Working Girl. “I am short four songs that I gotta do before the tour, but I think I can do it,” she sighs. “June is pretty full. My God, everything happened at once,” she says, noting that she also needs to start prepping for her induction. “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is on the eighth (of November), and (Working Girl) opens on the ninth. Wow. So, kill me now, right?”
Schedule overload notwithstanding, Lauper sounds honored to join many of the legends who inspired her in the Rock Hall’s ranks. “It’s a community of people, rockers that have changed the world,” she muses. “Here’s the thing: I still believe that rock n’ roll can save the world. I just want people to remember that we did make a difference. We can make a difference if we band together. We must come together as a community and make light and bring people together to make change, to do the good work.”
For Lauper, sharing her story in her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour is part of that. “I wanted to have people know who the hell has been singing to them all this time so they would have a connection. And maybe they would be inspired to look at their history, to understand themselves,” she opines. “Everybody has a different perspective. When you tell your story, it makes human beings closer. It makes communities. That’s very important. In the darkest time, remember – you write the chapters, you make light.”
LONDON — Events firm Brockwell Live have confirmed that a series of festivals set to take place in south London’s Brockwell Park will go ahead as planned.
On Friday (May 16), a high court in the capital ruled against Lambeth Council’s decision to approve events including Field Day and Mighty Hoopla over planning permission concerns.
The legal case originated with local residents group Protect Brockwell Park, which challenged regulations stipulating that festivals can only use public parks for 28 days annually without additional planning permission. Campaign leader Rebekah Shaman argued that the planned Brockwell Live events would occupy the park for 37 days in 2025.
Protect Brockwell Park raised over £40,000 ($53,589) last month for a judicial review of the approvals they called “unlawful.” They contended that yearly festivals keep the park closed for too long. They also called for “full public consultations, evidence-based impact assessments and proper evaluation of the long-term impact on the park.” The campaign was also backed by Oscar-winning actor Sir Mark Rylance.On Monday (May 19), however, Brockwell Live announced that the festivals will take place, insisting that the aforementioned ruling only dealt with “a particular point of law and whether an administrative process had been carried out correctly.”
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Wide Awake, the first event in the Brixton park this year, is scheduled for Friday (May 23). In a statement posted to Instagram, Brockwell Live said: “We wish to make it clear that no event will be cancelled as a result of the High Court’s decision.
“We take our stewardship of Brockwell Park seriously. As we prepare to deliver these much-loved, culturally significant events, we remain fully committed to its care, upkeep, and long-term wellbeing. With setup nearly complete, we look forward to opening the gates and welcoming festival goers later this week.”
In a further update this morning, Lambeth Council explained that an application for a new certificate of lawfulness had been submitted following the High Court ruling. A spokesperson said: “Summer Events Limited has applied to Lambeth Council for a new certificate of lawfulness, for 24 days, following the High Court ruling last week on the previous certificate. The council is urgently considering that application. That consideration does not stop the events proceeding.” Summer Events Limited manage the Lambeth County show, using infrastructure from Brockwell Live.
Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap will headline Wide Awake, before the program of events continues with electronic festival Field Day on May 24. Cross The Tracks, City Splash and Brockwell Bounce take place on May 25, 26 and 28 respectively.
Mighty Hoopla will take place over the weekend of May 31 and June 1, with Ciara, Kesha and JADE booked to perform. The Lambeth Country Show will round out the programme, with the festival taking place from June 7 until June 8.
Most cruise ships clear their top decks to fit as many passengers as possible in the pool, but on the Norwegian Gem, that valuable real estate is sacrificed for something a little more sacred: the blues.
That’s because the 965 foot-long vessel, part of the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) fleet, is currently the home of the Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea X cruise — a sold-out annual expedition for which the ship’s theaters, lounges and swimming pool are all repurposed for hi-fidelity performances of guitar-driven rock, rhythm and blues.
On the Norwegian Gem, what was once a swim-up bar and pool is now drained and filled with monitors, rigging and enough staging to accommodate a full-scale live show built for theaters and performing arts centers. On Keeping the Blues Alive, contemporary blues legend Joe Bonamassa headlines a lineup of more than a dozen artists that also includes Grammy-winning duo Larkin Poe; rock and blues veteran Big Head Todd and the Monsters; Grammy winner Christone “Kingfish” Ingram; and blues guitarist Eric Gales. Launching out of Miami with stops in Belize and Cancun, Mexico, the cruise is facilitated by the Atlanta-based company Sixthman, a subsidiary of NCL since 2009. This year, the five-night voyage is accommodating about 2,500 diehard Bonamassa fans who have spent approximately $2,500 per cabin to hit the seas with the blues legend and the rest of the lineup, curated by Bonamassa and manager Roy Weisman.
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Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea
Will Byington
“Initially, I was not interested in doing a blues cruise — I had done one before and hated it,” explains Bonamassa, cigar in hand, speaking on the open-air deck of his top-level suite aboard the Gem. “And then I got a call from Sixthman in 2015 and was pitched on an experience that was more artist-friendly and didn’t require me to be in it so much. So we tweaked my schedule a bit, gave it a shot and I just saw how much fun everyone was having. Not just the fans, but the interactions with the other bands.”
Each artist on the Keeping the Blues Alive cruises is paid a festival rate and contracted for three appearances: typically two large stage performances and then a smaller, more intimate engagement. For Bonamassa, that means two main stage performances and a live session of his podcast Welcome to Nerdville.
This edition of Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea, a nod to Bonamassa’s non-profit of the same name, sold out months in advance. When the cruise hit the seas on March 20, the blues man already had two more sold-out Sixthman cruises on the books, including one to Alaska that departs from Seattle.
“Our model is that we focus on passionate communities, and this is one of the most passionate communities out there,” says Jeff Cuellar, who has served as Sixthman’s CEO since Jan. 17. Prior to that, Cuellar worked at festival company AC Entertainment, founder of the famed Bonnaroo festival outside of Nashville.
Larkin Poe
Will Byington
Bonamassa fans are on the older side, averaging ages 55 to 60. Besides an affinity for Bonamassa’s live performances, they are generally interested in blues, rock and guitar-driven music. However, Sixthman and NCL’s music business goes beyond Bonamassa; the company services more than 35 cruises annually, with upcoming voyages planned for Creed, Lindsey Stirling, Michael Franti, and Coheed and Cambria. Sixthman has also seen success with non-music themed voyages, including several chef-driven food cruises, a true crime podcast cruise and a recently launched cruise celebrating the Hallmark Channel, which sold out hours after going on sale, breaking a company record.
Most cruises take off from Miami and by law are required to make one stop at a foreign port — for NCL, that typically means Nassau, Bahamas; Costa Maya, near Cancun; and Harvest Caye, a private island owned by NCL in Belize. Most cruises include all-inclusive food offerings — alcohol packages are sold separately, typically in advance — and a variety of amenities including outdoor basketball courts, rock climbing walls, full-service gyms, specialty restaurants and casinos with poker rooms that often feature appearances by talent.
Cuellar says Sixthman operates much like a traditional promoter: “For the longest time, music has been the core of what we do and will always be the core, but we have started to diversify and look at other passionate communities, whether it be [for baseball team] the Savannah Bananas or Jay and Silent Bob,” the cinematic duo from Kevin Smith’s cinematic universe. Prices for most cruises start at $1,172 per person for interior cabins and run as high as $2,937 per person for high-end suites with meet and greets. The Norwegian Gem has a total of 1,197 cabins, while larger ships like the Norwegian Encore boast 2,043.
Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea
Will Byington
“It’s a lot of inventory to sell, and while we can have conversations about VIP sales and merch sales, we want to dig even deeper,” says Cuellar. “We want to know where fans are talking about the artist. Is it on Reddit? Is it Facebook? Where are other conversations happening?”
That information becomes critical when it comes to selling and marketing cruises, Cuellar explains, noting that Sixthman heavily relies on the artist to help sell cruise packages. Drawing from data points like Spotify listens, merch and VIP sales, the Sixthman team creates an index for participating artists and then “put[s] out a couple of scores that we use for evaluation to determine how confident we feel that this engagement will be a success,” he says.
“We’ll actually survey a section of their audience so that we know who would be willing to participate,” Cuellar adds. “Sometimes, you get great responses, and we decide to book it immediately, and other times we find it’s not the experience fans are looking for.”
Sixthman’s success with Bonamassa is due to “his amazing connection to his fans,” Cuellar says. “When Joe talks about it, people respond. When he sends out an email, people respond because they know they’re going to get a top-quality experience.”
It’s an experience that Bonamassa and Weisman, his longtime manager and business partner, have spent the last 26 years cultivating, evolving Bonamassa’s live show into a global touring brand with around 100 performances a year. Bonamassa began his career in 1989 as a 12-year-old guitar prodigy opening for blues legend B.B. King and spent his early 20s working the blues nightclub circuit. Weisman, a longtime music executive whose father was Frank Sinatra‘s manager for the last few years of his career, met Bonamassa in 1999 and worked with the bluesman to elevate his live shows to theaters and performing arts centers.
Keeping the Blues Alive at Sea
Will Byington
Their company, J&R Adventures, is home to Bonamassa’s record label, artist management group and vertically integrated touring entities that promote, market and produce his live shows. Early on in their relationship, the men discovered the pathway to success “was super serving an underserved marketplace,” Weisman says. “The key was for us to approach the blues like we’re not afraid of it,” he adds. Instead of trying to mold Bonamassa into a AAA-radio-friendly artist, Weisman says he and Bonamassa had to “go into the blues like a house on fire. Walk right into it. Not be afraid or try to circumvent around it because there’s room as an independent to make a wave without being crushed by the majors.”
That means owning and controlling every part of Bonamassa’s business, from his label to concert promotion. J&R Adventures books the venues for Bonamassa’s tours, takes the risk on each show and handles everything from production to marketing. For Sixthman, Bonamassa’s familiarity and understanding of his audience make him a natural partner, says Cuellar. Bonamassa’s team books all of the support talent and helps curate some of the artist-to-fan activities, like poker tournaments, cooking demonstrations, fireside acoustic performances and meet and greets.
Neither Cuellar nor Weisman would say how much Bonamassa earns from the cruises, other than to note that the model is based on profit sharing and Bonamassa is one of the top-selling artists in the history of the company.
“And they give us this amazing suite,” Weisman says of his accommodations on the top floor of the 14-deck sea liner that’s located inside NCL’s luxury penthouse complex called The Haven, which is equipped with high-end furnishings, private balconies and a 24-hour concierge service, all roped off from the rest of the cruise.
“Norwegian makes it very easy for artists who are used to living out of a suitcase and a hotel room,” he continues. “Being on a cruise like this allows you to settle in a bit, even if it’s just for five days. The privacy and hospitality they facilitate makes a noticeable difference.”
YoungBoy Never Broke Again is getting back on the road once again. YB announced the 2025 MASA Tour (Make America Slime Again) on Thursday (May 15) as the Baton Rouge native regained his freedom after being released from federal prison in March. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and […]
Assembling a show for the technological mecca that is Las Vegas’ Sphere is a head-spinning process for any artist and their team. But CAA agent Ferry Rais-Shaghaghi and Sphere Entertainment vp of live Erin Calhoun worked side by side to help create the buzzy, boundary-pushing run by melodic techno artist Anyma, who became the first electronic act to play the venue when he kicked off a residency there in late December that ran through early March.
Booking an electronic artist had been a priority, particularly given that the right artist would, Calhoun says, “be able to leverage all of Sphere’s experiential technologies in a new, compelling way.” Anyma (born Matteo Milleri) had been on the Sphere team’s radar for years, and over time, it became clear that his international appeal, futuristic music and strong preexisting visual identity made the Italian American artist the perfect choice.
Rais-Shaghaghi says that for him and the rest of Anyma’s team, Calhoun became “the point person for us to navigate everything.” In the year or so it took to produce the show — titled Afterlife Presents Anyma ‘The End of Genesys’ — Calhoun and Rais-Shaghaghi formed, he says, “an incredible business relationship that became a friendship with someone we trusted and felt comfortable going to and having the difficult conversations we needed to have.”
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Through these conversations, the team created huge and viral moments, like the scene where a character falls through space, creating a wild, lightly dizzying effect for the audience. They also made a pair of cello-playing robots that helped bring Anyma’s melodies to life. Calhoun says such elements “highlighted the way technology combines with artistry to make for an unforgettable experience.” Milleri developed the visual feast of a show himself alongside Anyma’s longtime visual creative director/lead computer graphics artist Alessio De Vecchi and head creative Alexander Wessely.
Rais-Shaghaghi and his team leveraged their network and hype around the residency to book support acts — “We looked at them more as guests,” he says — for the run that included Peggy Gou, John Summit, Solomun, Amelie Lens, Charlotte de Witte and Tiësto, giving each night a mini-festival feel.
And when issues inevitably arose during production, Rais-Shaghaghi says Calhoun “would always help us in navigating it within her ecosystem and [figuring out] how we could get to the finish line. Erin is firm, but she knows how to get the results she needs without burning bridges. She’s also really good at being a team player, understanding the artist’s creative process and direction and being the voice between the artist and the owner of [Madison Square Garden] in finding that middle ground.”
“We were completely aligned on the overall goal here: to blow everyone away with stunning visuals, next-level sound and an unparalleled live experience,” Calhoun adds. “Every move we made was side by side, which is how we approach every artist playing our venue. The vision is led by the artist, and we do everything we can to make it happen. Ferry is so passionate and was hands-on throughout the entirety of the run.”
This shared mission was ultimately a huge success, with the 12-night residency drawing more than 200,000 fans from around the world. The first eight dates alone sold 137,000 tickets and grossed $21 million, although Rais-Shaghaghi says money is ultimately beside the point.
“Obviously, as agents, we have to look at how we make our clients win financially,” he says, “but more so, it’s about how we can do things where the promoter wins, the fans win and the artists feel that they created an experience that had a high impact.”
This show is clearly one such instance. “From the performers onstage to the fans in the crowd,” Calhoun says, “everyone wanted more, more, more.”
This story appears in the May 17, 2025, issue of Billboard.