State Champ Radio Touring
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On its surface, Cali Vibes seems like a normal music festival. In February, the three-day Long Beach, Calif., event held its third annual edition, welcoming 20,000 fans per day with a bill topped by Gwen Stefani, Stick Figure, Slightly Stoopid and Rebelution. But a closer look reveals quiet innovation. Attendees drink from reusable plastic cups instead of single-use ones. Solar panels power the artists lounge. Staff members posted at each garbage station advise guests on whether waste should be thrown away, recycled or composted. Excess food is donated to local shelters.
The festival is a fun time — and a testing ground for sustainability initiatives that may eventually be used throughout the live sector. In 2023, Goldenvoice parent company AEG Presents designated Cali Vibes as an incubator to pilot green measures with the hope of expanding them across AEG’s festival portfolio. Cali Vibes designed its program in partnership with Three Squares, a Los Angeles-based environmental consulting firm.
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“Environment is part of the DNA of the festival,” says Goldenvoice vp of festivals Nic Adler, who in his position oversees California festivals including Cali Vibes, Cruel World, Just Like Heaven, Portola, Camp Flog Gnaw and Goldenvoice’s other “non-desert” (i.e., not Coachella or Stagecoach) events, which all typically draw between 20,000 and 30,000 fans per day.
“Cali Vibes is definitely the greenest one,” says Adler, who also helps book the shows, which focus on reggae, roots rock and hip-hop. “It’s harder to do something on the scale of 125,000 people a day [like Coachella or Stagecoach] versus 30,000, so the festivals we oversee are testing grounds for our larger events.
“We’re all aware that bringing 50 truckloads of stuff and 50,000 people to a site is not sustainable,” he continues. “But there’s a way to go at it where everybody does better.”
Goldenvoice doesn’t promote Cali Vibes as a green festival — but it certainly could. That starts with how fans reach the festival grounds at Long Beach’s Marina Green Park. Cali Vibes promotes public transit use by offering attendees free or discounted rides through a partnership with L.A. Metro and electric scooter company Bird. (Scientists cite the emissions from fan travel as the single biggest challenge in greening concerts.) This year, most Cali Vibes transport vehicles were electric. While the festival can’t control how artists arrive at the site or how the event’s equipment is delivered, its “no idling” rule reduces emissions by requiring cars and gas-powered golf carts to be turned off when not in motion. Adler says the rule will likely be implemented at Coachella 2024.
Reusable cups from r.Cup were the rule.
Nicolita Bradley
Elsewhere, festival signage is made from wood so it can be reused, while thousands of square feet of plastic banners at stages are taken by upcycling company Rewilder after the event wraps and sewn into tote bags and backpacks sold at the following year’s merchandise stand. Unsold merch is refashioned into staff uniforms. This year, the festival’s reusable cup program, r.Cup, had an 81% return rate, which translated to the elimination of 300,000 single-use plastic cups. Water is served in aluminum cans, and refill stations are located throughout the event. Each ticket includes a $5 sustainability charge — Adler says it helps fans “feel like they’re participating” — which is split between greening festival operations and nonprofits including Surfrider Foundation and Plastic Pollution Coalition; Cali Vibes has donated $130,000 since the program’s inception.
Such forward-facing initiatives are crucial, Adler explains, because “festivals are inherently discovery-based in terms of new music, new people, new food” and can instill new habits that might stick with attendees. “We are an example,” he says, that could inspire fans to get their own reusable cup, learn to compost or go vegetarian.
Roughly 20% to 30% of food vendors at Goldenvoice festivals are vegan, with all vendors required to offer at least one vegetarian option. When Morrissey and Siouxsie Sioux headlined Cruel World in 2022 and 2023, respectively, both artists required that meat not be sold, resulting in roughly 80% vegan options — and demonstrating the power artists have to demand sustainability initiatives. Meanwhile, festival staff collect and compost food waste from vendors and divert excess food to local nonprofits and homeless shelters.
Beyond the solar-powered artists lounge — which Adler says has become a point of pride even if it isn’t “that great-looking” — the fest has shifted to clean energy in several areas, including solar-powered light towers in parking lots, merch stations and bathroom zones, and battery-powered LED lights in some locations. In 2023, the use of renewable diesel in generators and heavy equipment eliminated 43 tons of carbon emissions.
And since festival greening often means entering unknown territory, Adler says his team “spends a lot of the year going to random parking lots to meet someone to test a solar battery. We’ve seen more things we don’t like than things that will work, but that’s the process to find the right products.”
Staffers served as garbage station guides.
Juliana Bernstein
When it comes to green initiatives, Adler thinks the live sector is “crossing the threshold.” As sustainable technologies become more widely available and adopted, “the more prices are going to come down, so more festivals will want to use solar batteries or electric vans. The minute [the costs] start affecting the bottom line in a positive way, there’s going to be a full push for all of this.”
That hasn’t happened just yet, but even so, Adler can’t “recall a time in this business where it has been easier to use these alternatives.” He predicts that in five to 10 years, green energy tech will be established and affordable enough for producers to feel confident using it for large-scale stages and other major energy use points.
But for Adler, the goal is not necessarily to create a zero-emissions festival — “If you restrict it too much, people might not come back” — but instead an enjoyable, inspiring environment that implements and showcases ever-improving sustainability components and which vendors, artists and fans are happy to return to.
“You must create the opportunity for people to do the right thing,” he says. “That’s what our team is focused on the most: Have we created enough opportunities for people to participate in doing better?”
This story will appear in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
For decades, festivals have created weekendlong oases for music fans — and left a mind-boggling amount of waste in their wakes. But as artists and fans increasingly learn about their impact on the environment, eco-minded — and creative — organizers have started pushing to make festivals greener.
Whether headliner- (solar power) or supporting act-size (“Pee into tea,” anyone?), their ideas are making the live space more sustainable. Just imagine if they could all happen in one place. Below, Billboard digs into a look at the eco-friendly festival of the future.
Catch Some Rays
Illustration by Sinelab
Most festival stages are powered by generators burning diesel fuel, but advances in solar technology now make it possible to store and generate enough power to meet a major festival’s heavy energy needs. Late last year, Massive Attack announced Act 1.5, the first 100% solar-powered festival in the United Kingdom, with the help of solar panels and battery packs that store sufficient energy on site without needing diesel generators.
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It Takes a Village
Illustration by Sinelab
Tennessee’s Bonnaroo offers fans interested in sustainability a dedicated place at the festival to organize and learn about new green efforts proposed by its nonprofit division, Bonnaroo Works Fund. That includes the Roo Works cafe, where green entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas in a group setting; a nonprofit village where patrons can interact with green groups; a “learning garden” highlighting sustainable farming practices; and a volunteer program called Rooduce, Roouse and Roocycle.
Keeper Cups
Illustration by Sinelab
Single-use beverage cups are a major source of festival landfill waste. Companies like r.Cup have begun working with major promoters like Goldenvoice to switch to washable, reusable cups, which are collected each night and washed at a local cleaning center. In 2023, r.Cup’s program diverted 1.1 tons (roughly 30,000 cups per day) of waste from local landfills.
Plant Seeds of Change
Illustration by Sinelab
To offset the carbon dioxide emissions of large events, promoters are increasingly planting trees and creating forest reserves. Groups like the European Festival Forest focus their offset efforts in certain regions of the globe, like Iceland, while other organizers plant and restore forests at festival sites for future concertgoers’ benefit.
Making (Vegan) Concessions
Illustration by Sinelab
In 2022, Goldenvoice’s Cruel World Festival in Pasadena, Calif., launched the largest vegan and vegetarian dining pavilion for any festival west of the Mississippi, with 10 vegan and 20 vegetarian vendors offering items like maneatingplant’s vegan bao buns, dairy-free milkshakes from Monty’s Good Burger and plant-based sushi burritos from Oona Sushi.
Water Works
Illustration by Sinelab
Last year, Amsterdam’s DGTL festival launched an initiative to protect the site’s limited groundwater supply — it’s located within an industrial port in the city — by partnering with local sanitation companies to, well, “make tea out of pee.” By harnessing the same water purification technology that’s used to convert wastewater in space, DGTL created water reuse applications that will likely be expanded in the future.
Wipe Deforestation Out
Illustration by Sinelab
Festivals like Lollapalooza and Outside Lands have switched to bamboo-based toilet paper this year, not because of the material’s post-flush qualities but to help curb deforestation. Bamboo grows much faster than trees cultivated for paper products, and activists see it as a possible long-term solution to the developing world’s need for lumber, which is increasing in price as deforestation continues.
Start a Movement
Illustration by Sinelab
For its Music of the Spheres tour, Coldplay deployed a kinetic dancefloor, harnessing the crowd’s movement to activate LED lights and other visuals — and to generate electricity that was then routed to power elements of the production. On the tour, custom-made Energy Centers were also assembled in a circle for fans to generate energy by riding stationary bikes.
Wrist Watch
Illustration by Sinelab
Light-up wristbands are now common audience accessories on major tours (and at some festivals), though some activists worry about the waste they create. For its Music of the Spheres tour, Coldplay partnered with Canadian company Pixmob to make biodegradable light-up wristbands — the first of their kind — from compostable plant-based plastics. Now Pixmob only makes biodegradable wristbands, having done so for events like the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games and tours by Taylor Swift and Imagine Dragons.
This story will appear in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
On February’s Top Tours list, U2 is in the winner’s circle with monthly earnings of $56.5 million from 166,000 tickets sold.
February is U2’s first month at No. 1, after sitting at No. 2 in December of 2019 and 2023, both behind Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This marks the first Irish act to claim monthly honors.
Since launching in 2019, the monthly Boxscore recap has detailed touring breakthroughs, particularly in country and Latin music — highlighted by Morgan Wallen and Bad Bunny, respectively — as well as reporting quirks along the way, including Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s dual coastal ensembles during the holiday season. The latest oddity: U2’s recent domination makes the band the first act to lead Top Tours without actually going on tour.
The group’s haul north of $50 million comes from 10 shows, all at Las Vegas’ Sphere. The rock quartet christened the Sin City arena with the first show from its U2:UV Achtung Baby Live residency in September, and to date, is still the only act to play at the venue. Concert series by Dead & Company and Phish are scheduled for later on Sphere’s 2024 calendar.
Residencies at this scale – 40 arena shows in six months – are unprecedented. Prior to U2’s kickoff, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars were the only residency acts to crack the top 10 of Top Tours. The traditional Vegas model is for acts such as them to play sold-out theaters to roughly 5,000 fans each night, with the flexibility to charge extravagant prices for the opportunity to see an A-list artist in a more intimate setting.
U2 is playing by similar rules, with its $340 average ticket within 5% of Mars (No. 19), but expanded to an arena audience. Demonstrating the same intensity of demand as theater residencies but broadened to an audience three times as big, U2’s monthly victory, ahead of stadium tours at Nos. 2-3, is groundbreaking.
With all that activity from one arena, U2 also crown Top Boxscores, with Sphere reigning as the month’s top-grossing venue. Both victories were decisive, by a margin of more than 3:1.
U2’s recent run began on Jan. 26 and stretched through March 2, earning $84.7 million during that period. Dating back to opening night (Sept. 29, 2023, and through its close on March 2), the U2: UV Achtung Baby Live residency brought in $244.5 million and sold 663,000 tickets over 40 shows.
That is the lowest show count – by far – for any residency with a gross of $100 million or more. Mars and Billy Joel (Madison Square Garden) are the only others with a nine-digit gross and fewer than 100 shows.
Former chart-topper P!nk is No. 2 on Top Tours with a $48.3 million gross. Shows from the Australian leg of the Summer Carnival Tour sold 437,000 tickets in February, marking the highest attendance total of the month. This is P!nk’s third time at No. 2, following stints in April 2019 and August 2023, adding to her three months at No. 1 (March 2019, July 2019, October 2023).
Oceania brought in more revenue than North America or Europe on P!nk’s I’m Not Dead Tour (2006-07), the Funhouse Tour (2009) and The Truth About Love Tour (2013-14). Her recent leg, stretching through March 23, marks her first time in stadiums in Australia and New Zealand, having made the outdoor transition elsewhere on the Beautiful Trauma World Tour (2018-19).
Including her March dates, P!nk’s 20 continental shows grossed $104.3 million and sold 980,000 tickets, bringing the tour’s total to $361.8 million and 2.8 million tickets. With more dates scheduled in the U.S. and Canada, and Europe through November, the Summer Carnival will easily become P!nk’s first to cross $400 million. The Beautiful Trauma World Tour came agonizingly close when it wrapped in 2019 with $397.3 million.
Karol G follows at No. 3, leading a trifecta of Latin stars in the top 10. Luis Miguel sits just beneath at No. 4, and Bad Bunny rounds out the group at No. 10. Across shows in the U.S. (Bad Bunny), Mexico (Karol G) and South America (Luis Miguel).
Stars of the 21st century fill out most of the rest of the top 10, with Madonna, Depeche Mode, Blink-182 and the Eagles filling out Nos. 5 and 7-9, respectively. Ed Sheeran rounds out the top 10 at No. 6 as the last of six $30 million tours from February. Emerging from the slow winter months, the last time more acts crossed the $30 million threshold was August, when Beyoncé led P!nk, Metallica, Morgan Wallen, The Weeknd, Drake and the Jonas Brothers.
Behind Sphere as the month’s top venue, London’s O2 Arena and Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena bring the U.K. and Australia to the top of the heap at Nos. 2-3, respectively, peppered by Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena at No. 6 and Manchester’s AO Arena at No. 7.
A version of this story will appear in the March 30, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Madonna’s historic concert at Rio’s Copacabana Beach on May 4 will be produced by her long-time promoter Arthur Fogel and legendary Brazilian producer and promoter Luiz Oscar Niemeyer, Live Nation officials have confirmed to Billboard. Fogel is one of the most accomplished concert and tour producers in the world and serves as the chairman of […]
The Brooklyn Paramount, Live Nation‘s new 2,700-capacity venue in downtown Brooklyn, opens its doors Wednesday (March 27) with its first show: A headlining performance by Damian and Stephen Marley.
The concert kicks off an inaugural season at the venue that will bring artists including PinkPantheress, Oneohtrix Point Never, Waxahatchee, Norah Jones and Sting to its stage in the coming months.
For Live Nation, Brooklyn Paramount fills a gap in the New York market between the promoter’s two 1,100-capacity clubs, Manhattan’s Irving Plaza and Brooklyn’s Warsaw, and its 3,500-capacity outdoor venue, The Rooftop at Pier 17.
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“It was my journey for the last 10 years, finding this exact capacity within our pipeline of venues in New York City, because it was the one that we were missing,” says Stacie George, senior vp of Live Nation Northeast. “Now we have a home for artists in between those two stages [of development].”
The Brooklyn Paramount concourse.
Evan Joseph
The addition of Brooklyn Paramount to Live Nation’s portfolio allows the promoter to better compete with AEG and its regional affiliate The Bowery Presents, which operates three venues across the city — Webster Hall, Brooklyn Steel and Terminal 5 — that range in capacity from 1,500 to 3,000, as well as Madison Square Garden Entertainment’s Beacon Theatre (2,900 capacity). And, taken in conjunction with Live Nation’s Manhattan clubs Mercury Lounge and Bowery Ballroom, which hold about 250 and 600, respectively, Brooklyn Paramount now creates a clear path for an artist in Live Nation’s ecosystem from small rooms all the way up to the 5,000-capacity Central Park Summerstage, with which the promoter inked an exclusive booking partnership in late 2022.
“We want an artist, manager, agent to feel that we invest in their artist all the way from the beginning,” George says. “We want to grow with your artists and continue to give them amazing venues to play at. Your hope is always that you retain that relationship and that history.”
That doesn’t only apply to artists “on their way up” to the arena level but “on their way down”: “We want to be with them across their full journey and long musical career,” George says.
Brooklyn Paramount’s concert space from the back of its floor.
Evan Joseph
Brooklyn Paramount’s new chapter is just the latest in its rich, nearly century-long history. First opened in 1928, the venue hosted seminal artists including Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Buddy Holly throughout the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. Long Island University (LIU) purchased the space in 1954 and, shortly after, converted it to a gymnasium. Nearly a decade ago, LIU began working to renovate the dormant theater; the venue’s re-opening is the culmination of a five-year planning, design and construction process by Live Nation.
For George, one of Brooklyn Paramount’s strongest assets is its location, which is immediately accessible by several subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road. And she expects the venue’s fusion of old Brooklyn history — its Rococo ceiling is among the many design details the renovation preserved — and modern amenities to attract fans and artists alike. For the former, the venue offers multiple high-end cocktail bars and a VIP balcony and lounge (Ella’s, taking its name from Fitzgerald). For the latter, Brooklyn Paramount provides spacious artist accommodations with showers, a workout space and even a game room with Pac-Man and a pinball machine.
From a production standpoint, the theater has parking space for three buses. “In New York, that’s a luxury,” George says with a laugh. “Half the time the buses have to drive to, like, New Jersey to park at a Walmart, because they can’t park in front of the venue.”
Ella’s VIP lounge at Brooklyn Paramount.
Evan Joseph
In terms of booking, Brooklyn Paramount plans to continue to program a spectrum of genres in keeping with its initial calendar and to satisfy the diverse clientele it’s courting. While the venue was designed primarily as an all-general-admission space, some shows, like the multi-night runs by Jones and Sting, will be seated. Brooklyn Paramount has already announced more than 60 shows through October, and George says it has locked in an additional 50 that have yet to be unveiled.
Several hundred guests received a first look at the venue — “this beautiful masterpiece,” as George puts it — on Tuesday night at its re-opening preview party, with live music including a DJ set by St. Vincent in Ella’s. “Seeing people walk in and just have that ‘wow’ moment — that’s exciting,” George says.
Don’t get stressed out, heathens. Those hints of a potential Twenty One Pilots tour? They’re real. The duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun announced on Wednesday (March 27), that the band is hitting the road for its 59-date The Clancy World Tour in support of their upcoming album, Clancy. As if that weren’t enough to appease fans, Twenty One Pilots also dropped new song “Next Semester” and its music video from the upcoming release.
The 59-date tour kicks off Aug. 15 at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colo., before making its way around North America, with stops in Seattle, Phoenix and New York City, as well as Los Angeles, Chicago and hometown Columbus, Ohio, with the latter three getting two shows each.
After wrapping up the North American dates with an Oct. 12 show at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., Twenty One Pilots jet off for the international leg of the tour, starting with a stop in Auckland, New Zealand, on Nov. 17. The duo will also hit up Australia for shows the rest of the month. The tour picks up again in April in Germany, then hits Italy, Spain, France and more before wrapping up the lengthy tour with two shows at London’s 02 Arena on May 13 and 14.
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Presale tickets will be available beginning April 2 to fans in the U.S. and Canada; international presale begins the next day. General on sale kicks off April 5 at 10 a.m. local time. More information about the tour and tickets can be found on Twenty One Pilots’ website.
Also arriving with the news of the tour dates was “Next Semester,” the second single from Clancy. “The Next Semester music video is here. Cannot wait to sing this one with you,” the band shared on social media, along with a clip from the visual.
The music video — directed by Andrew Donoho — kicks off with the band rocking out in a tiny, packed club, and is interspersed with scenes of Joseph in the middle of a dark street as a vehicle races toward him.
Twenty One Pilots initially announced upcoming album Clancy on Feb. 29, and celebrated the news by dropping the first single “Overcompensate.” The track peaked and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 64 on the chart dated March 16.
Watch the video for “Next Semester” and see the full tour dates below:
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The Clancy World Tour dates:
August 15, 2024 Denver, CO Ball Arena
August 18, 2024 Salt Lake City, UT Delta Center
August 21, 2024 Portland, OR Moda Center
August 22, 2024 Seattle, WA Climate Pledge Arena
August 24, 2024 Oakland, CA Oakland Arena
August 25, 2024 Sacramento, CA Golden 1 Center
August 27, 2024 Los Angeles, CA Intuit Dome
August 28, 2024 Los Angeles, CA Intuit Dome
August 30, 2024 Phoenix, AZ Footprint Center
August 31, 2024 Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena
September 3, 2024 Austin, TX Moody Center
September 4, 2024 Houston, TX Toyota Center
September 6, 2024 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center
September 10, 2024 Duluth, GA Gas South Arena
September 11, 2024 Orlando, FL Kia Center
September 13, 2024 Raleigh, NC PNC Arena
September 14, 2024 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
September 15, 2024 Baltimore, MD CFG Bank Arena
September 17, 2024 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
September 18, 2024 Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center
September 20, 2024 Boston, MA TD Garden
September 25, 2024 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
September 27, 2024 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
September 28, 2024 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
September 29, 2024 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
October 1, 2024 Chicago, IL United Center
October 2, 2024 Chicago, IL United Center
October 4, 2024 Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
October 5, 2024 Columbus, OH Nationwide Arena
October 8, 2024 Indianapolis, IN Gainbridge Fieldhouse
October 9, 2024 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
October 10, 2024 St. Louis, MO Enterprise Center
October 12, 2024 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
November 17, 2024 Auckland, NZ Spark Arena
November 19, 2024 Melbourne, AU Rod Laver Arena
November 21, 2024 Brisbane, AU Brisbane Entertainment Centre
November 24, 2024 Sydney, AU Qudos Bank Arena
April 7, 2025 Hamburg, DE Barclays Arena
April 8, 2025 Berlin, DE Uber Arena
April 9, 2025 Lodz, PL Atlas Arena
April 12, 2025 Prague, CZ O2 Arena
April 13, 2025 Vienna, AT Wiener Stadthalle
April 16, 2025 Zurich, CH Hallenstadion
April 17, 2025 Bologna, IT Unipol Arena
April 21, 2025 Madrid, ES WiZink Center
April 22, 2025 Barcelona, ES Palau San Jordi
April 24, 2025 Lyon, FR LDLC Arena
April 27, 2025 Munich, DE Olympiahalle
April 28, 2025 Milan, IT Forum
April 30, 2025 Amsterdam, NL Ziggo Dome
May 1, 2025 Cologne, DE Lanxess Arena
May 2, 2025 Paris, FR Accor Arena
May 5, 2025 Glasgow, UK OVO Hydro Arena
May 6, 2025 Birmingham, UK Resorts World Arena
May 8, 2025 Belfast, UK SSE Arena Belfast
May 9, 2025 Dublin, IE 3Arena
May 11, 2025 Manchester, UK AO Arena
May 13, 2025 London, UK The O2
May 14, 2025 London, UK The O2
CTS Eventim, the German concert promoter and ticketing company, surpassed 2 billion euros in annual revenue for the first time in 2023. Revenue jumped 22% to 2.36 billion euros ($2.53 billion at the average exchange rate in 2023) while normalized earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) grew 32% to 501.4 million euros ($542.7 million).
Earnings per share increased by a third to 2.86 euros ($3.05) from 2.12 euros ($2.29) in 2022. In light of the record performance, the company’s executive board and supervisory board will propose at the annual shareholders meeting a dividend of 137.3 million euros ($148.7 million at the current exchange rate). The largest dividend payment in CTS Eventim history is equal to 50% of net income.
”These excellent results are proof that live entertainment is once again driving the arts and creative sectors,” said CEO Klaus-Peter Schulenberg in a statement. “We owe this primarily to the creativity of the artists who delight their fans around the world day in, day out. It is also thanks to the countless promoters who, with their boldness and entrepreneurial spirit, stage events and create unforgettable experiences. And last but not least, our team and our technologies ensure that live cultural events can thrive and that everyone involved can make a living from their work.”
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Live entertainment revenue rose 18.9% to 1.68 billion euros ($1.82 billion). The company experienced higher costs in 2023 and “partially” passed on those costs to the market, Schulenberg wrote in the annual report. As a result, normalized EBITDA dropped 1.8% to 117.0 million euros ($126.6 million). The company cited a boost it received from new North American partnerships with Mammoth and AG Entertainment, created to sign international acts for U.S. and global tours. Another collaboration, The Touring Co, a partnership with promoter Walter McDonald announced in December 2023, will help CTS Eventim’s expansion in North America in 2024.
In the ticketing segment, revenue rose 32% to 717.3 million euros ($776.4 million) and EBITDA jumped 47% to 384.4 million ($416.1 million). The number of internet tickets sold rose 19.6% to 82.9 million from 69.3 million in 2022. The company touted its ticketing platform’s reliability in handling heavy demand for concerts by Taylor Swift, Rammstein, Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Apache 207 and Paul McCartney. International expansion also provided a lift to ticketing growth: In 2023, CTS Eventim, along with Sony Music Latin Iberia, acquired ticketing companies Punto Ticket in Chile and Teleticket in Peru.
CTS Eventim’s annual results are further proof the concert business has been booming since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. The company’s total revenue was 63.4% higher than in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic temporarily halted the touring industry. Last year’s live entertainment revenue was 70.1% above 2019 and ticketing revenue was 48.9% greater. While CTS Eventim has grown by nearly two-thirds since before the pandemic, its growth rate is about a third lower than Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter and ticketing company, which grew revenue by 93.9% from 2019 to 2023.
In 2024, CTS Eventim expects “a moderate rise” in total revenue and believes EBITDA will remain at the level seen in 2023. Demand is “rising continuously,” wrote Schulenberg, and the company expects the recent decline in inflation to provide “new, consumption-driven impetus for growth in the future.”
Shares of CTS Eventim rose 5.1% to 77.50 euros ($83.96) on Tuesday (Mar. 26). The stock gained 5.0% in 2023, slightly below the 8.0% increase of the MDAX, an index of stocks traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Here is a recap of some financial metrics for CTS Eventim’s 2023 earnings results:
Revenue of 2.36 billion euros ($2.53 billion)
Normalized EBITDA of 501.4 million euros ($542.7 million).
Ticketing revenue of 717.3 million euros ($776.4 million) and EBITDA of 384.4 million ($416.1 million).
Concert revenue of 1.68 billion euros ($1.82 billion) and EBITDA of 117.0 million euros ($126.6 million).
The Kid Laroi is hitting the road. In celebration of his November album The First Time, the 20-year-old singer-songwriter has announced plans to embark on a North American tour, unveiling all 31 dates on social media Monday (March 25). The Australian musician will kick off the North American leg May 18 in Vancouver, B.C., after […]
UK indie promoters Communion Presents and FKP Scorpio UK have merged to form Communion ONE.
Communion was launched as a London clubnight series in 2006 by musicians Kevin Jones from Bears Den, Ben Lovett of Mumford and Sons and producer Ian Grimble. FK Scorpio was a UK affiliate of German concert promoter, founded by Folkert Koopmans in 1990.
Together, the two firms have promoted some of the biggest and most exciting artists from around the globe, from the likes of Ed Sheeran, Noah Kahan, Sam Fender, and Lewis Capaldi, to Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, TEMS, The War and Drugs and Laufey.
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Communion ONE will be led by a board including FK Scorpio UK’s Daniel Ealam, Communion’s Mazin Tappuni and Scott O’Neill. The non-executive leadership team is formed by Communion Music’s managing director Jamie Emsell, Jones and Lovett, FKP Scorpio’s Koopmans and the promoter Carlo Scarampi as a Partner.
Communion ONE’s senior staff will be rounded out by head of operations Carly Rocket, head of marketing Julie Morgan, head of ticketing Olly Goddard, head of production Rich Cheetham, head of finance Mike Werbowy and head of programming Jack Dedman. Sam Laurence’s promotion company imprint Dollop will also be included in the company, along with promoters Eve Thomas and Hayley Moss.
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“Bringing our two brilliant teams together and combining our shared experience, resources and perspectives is the most natural thing in the world,” company officials said in a statement. “In doing so, we believe that Communion ONE is creating an even more compelling proposition for our existing and future clients. We’ve all had amazing success so far, but in many ways, we’re only just getting started.”
Communion ONE will plug into FKP Scorpio’s European touring network, with offices in 11 European countries and one of the largest festival offerings across Europe. FKP Scorpio sold 4 million tickets across Europe in 2023.
Communion ONE will also be producing a new three-night event series at Bristol’s 15,000 capacity Queen Square beginning in 2025, and will continue to book tvg hospitality’s UK portfolio and its London affiliates Lafayette, Omeara, The Social, and their new partnerships with Village Underground and EartH. The company also plans to expand its outdoor portfolio over the coming year.
Communion Presents’ sister companies, Communion Records and Communion Publishing, will continue to operate independently of Communion ONE.
Another Planet Entertainment is opening a new 2,150-capacity venue in Sacramento in early 2025, company president of concerts & festivals Allen Scott announced today (March 20), establishing a foothold in one of California’s fastest-growing metro markets. Named Channel 24 because of both its proximity to the Sacramento and American rivers, and its location on 24th […]
