Touring
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Legendary concert promoter James “Disco Donnie” Estopinal is planning a new festival for central Texas, timed to coincide with a rare total solar eclipse that will be visible across North America next year.
Dubbed the Texas Eclipse, the celebration will take place April 8, 2024 in Burnet at Reveille Peak Ranch, located just 60 minutes outside of Austin.
“About a year from now, millions of people from around the world will be able to witness a once-in-a-lifetime bucket-list event,” Estopinal tells Billboard. “The Texas Eclipse is distinct from the events we normally create and will involve collaboration with various groups and organizations to produce a unique and collective event experience.”
So far, few details on the event have been released. A press release announcing the event explains “Texas Eclipse will be a nexus of cultures, passions and interests; bringing together a curated experience for all to encourage discovery, exploration, and participation. In addition to featuring multi-genre world class music talent, it will also feature the best of Central Texas culture, including interactive art installations and local food and craft vendors. Beginning the weekend before, attendees can camp on the stunning festival grounds to enjoy a host of family-friendly fun, including exciting music performances, mind blowing space exhibits and interactive technology activations ahead of the eclipse.”
Estopinal is partnering with event producer Mitch Morales from Texas event production company Probably Nothing — creator of Austin’s long-running Euphoria festival — for Texas Eclipse.
“Growing up in Central Texas, it’s been a dream of mine to help create an event that celebrates a once-in-a-life experience and brings people from around the world to enjoy the best of music art and culture,” Morales says. “The venue is unique and spectacular and I don’t think there’s a better venue to observe the 2024 eclipse. I’ve admired the team at DDP for a long time and am thrilled to be working with them to bring this dream to reality.”
The April 8 eclipse is expected to last 4 minutes and 20 seconds and will be seen across Texas and a large swath of North America as it heads east, with the first location in continental North America to experience totality being Mexico’s Pacific coast at around 11:07 a.m. PDT., according to an information page created by NASA. The eclipse is expected to be visible in Texas at approximately 12:23 p.m. CDT.
The 50,000 person event will be spread over the 1,200 acre Reveille Peak ranch, which provides 200 acres of camping grounds, 60 miles of trails and is decorated by beautiful lakes, winding creeks, wooded forests and rolling hills.
More at seetexaseclipse.com
Courtesy Photo
SBS Entertainment, the live event arm of Spanish Broadcasting Systems, and global venue development company Oak View Group (OVG) have inked a multi-year strategic agreement, the companies tell Billboard.
The deal, which has been in the works for two years, is described as an effort to “reimagine the live industry landscape” and an opportunity to reach new markets with Latin-focused music events.
Founded in 2015, OVG has grown to work with more than 400 venues worldwide. The deal with SBS marks the first time they’ve teamed up with a Latin company that focuses on producing and promoting large-scale live events. For 16 years now, SBS has produced L.A.’s Calibash, the best-known urban Latin festival in the U.S. that has boasted J Balvin, Daddy Yankee and Karol G as headliners over the past few years. It also produces the New York-based Mega Bash concert (presented by SBS radio station La Mega 97.9), which in December will take place for the first time at UBS Arena — marking the first event announced under the partnership.
Conversations about a possible partnership began when New York’s OVG-developed UBS Arena, which opened in November 2021, was still under construction. It was then that Mark Shulman, the facility’s senior vp of programming, invited the SBS Entertainment team to tour the grounds.
“When you look where [UBS] is located and [the] diversity nearby, Latin music should be a core of what this building is built on,” says Shulman. “I reached out to SBS, being such a leader in live events, and brought out their entire team so they could experience it from its early days. That began the explorations of what the possibilities might be. What started as a New York discussion quickly turned into a national discussion.”
But it wasn’t until last year that the national deal was sealed, and it happened when Francesca Bodie, president of business development at OVG, and Alessandra Alarcón, president of SBS Entertainment, met at Billboard‘s Women In Music 2022 event (both women were honored that year).
“I knew Mark had a relationship with SBS, but Alessandra and I just sat together at the event and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to work together?’ The fact that our venue in Palm Springs will do over 20 Latin shows this year, we thought, ‘This is not just a New York thing, this is going to be a nationwide opportunity,’” says Bodie. “We could’ve easily done a one-year commitment but doing a multi-year deal instead was a no-brainer. They have the team that can execute these marquee events and we have state-of-the-art arenas in the U.S and in the world. It was just a natural fit.”
“In our continuous dialogue with OVG about where to take the shows next, we suspect we’re going to be bringing our marquee shows to other markets,” says Christopher Martinez, director of business affairs at SBS. “We are focusing a lot on growing our heritage brands. There’s also a focus on regional Mexican and we’re planning on bringing one-off shows to Austin and also to Palm Springs. We’re definitely looking at expanding and not just focusing on reggaeton.”
The deal between SBS Entertainment and OVG comes at a time when Latin music continues to see global growth across multiple metrics, particularly in touring. The top 25 Latin tours of 2022 grossed $990.8 million and sold 8 million tickets (based on Billboard‘s Boxscore reporting period of Nov. 1, 2021-Oct. 31, 2022). Moreover, in 2022, Latin music outpaced growth in the overall industry with a 24% increase, totaling $1.1 billion in revenue, according to the newly-released RIAA U.S. Latin revenue report, which also highlights an all-time high in terms of market share for the genre at 6.9%.
“Companies like OVG are prioritizing the Latin space and now see the value of partnering with media companies like us because we are the general market now,” says Martinez. “We’re seeing people responding to what the new normal is [with] respect to Latin music.”
Adds Bodie, “As we look at the way we want to continue to anchor and prioritize [Latin], it is critically important that we have alignment with SBS.”
With OVG venues under development in the United Kingdom and Brazil, Bodie hopes to keep expanding their deal with SBS by developing Latin-focused content and activations in those markets. “We’ll definitely talk about what those opportunities will look like in the future.”
Sabrina Carpenter apologized to her fans in Portland on Tuesday (April 11) after the singer said she was forced to cancel Monday night’s show at Keller Auditorium unexpectedly. “Portland – I can’t tell you how much it breaks my heart, this is the last thing I wanted to do but due to unforeseen circumstances we will not be able to perform tonight,” she tweeted.
The “Nonsense” star promised that refunds would be available and then noted that the venue would be closed for the night.
Rolling Stone reported that Carpenter’s fans were asked to leave the Auditorium after a “credible security threat” was made to the venue that the singer was originally slated to perform at in the city, the Crystal Ballroom. “Employees with the Crystal Ballroom called after they received a phone call from an anonymous person claiming they were going to blow up the venue,” Portland Police Bureau Lt. Nathan Sheppard told RS.
Police said Carpenter previously announced she was upgrading to the larger venue, but even though she was no longer scheduled at the Ballroom, promoter AEG Presents and Sabrina’s team opted to scotch the show out of concern for her fans’ safety.
An AEG Presents spokesperson told the magazine that, “While the threat was not directed at Keller Auditorium specifically, Sabrina and event organizers agreed that out of an abundance of caution, the show be called off. Steps were taken to ensure that the audience exited the venue calmly, quickly, and safely.” Portland police said they sent out extra patrols around both venues due to the threat but found on explosive devices.
Before venue officials asked fans to leave the Auditorium an hour after Carpenter was slated to perform, they were reportedly able to attend Sabrina’s VIP soundcheck and watch opening act Spill Tab. Carpenter, who is on the road supporting last year’s Emails I Can’t Send album, performed in Seattle on Tuesday night, where the venue implemented a clear bag policy, seemingly in the wake of Monday’s incident. Her next scheduled show is on Saturday (April 15) at the Warfield in San Francisco
See Carpenter’s tweet below.
Sting‘s 2023 world tour is finally getting ready to touch down in North America. The Police singer announced on Tuesday (April 11) that he will be playing a series of dates across the United States and Canada starting in September.
The My Songs World Tour — which previously traveled to Asia, Africa and Australia earlier this year — will kick off in Toronto at the Budweiser Stage on Sept. 5, and will make stops in Boston, Phoenix, Vancouver, Los Angeles and more before concluding in Rogers, Ark., at the Walmart AMP on Oct. 12.
Members of Sting’s official fan club will be one of the first to score presale access to the tour starting on April 12 by visiting his website. Additional fan presale will roll out later through the week, with the tour’s general onsale starting on Friday, April 14, at 10 a.m. local time.
See the full list of North American concert dates for the My Songs tour below.
STING: MY SONGS 2023 NORTH AMERICA LEG 1 TOUR DATES
Sept. 5 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
Sept. 7 – Boston, Mass. – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
Sept. 20 – Morrison, Colo. – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Sept. 23 – West Valley City, Utah – USANA Amphitheatre
Sept. 29 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
Oct. 2 – Concord, Calif. – Concord Pavilion
Oct. 4 – San Diego, Calif. – Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU
Oct. 7 – Los Angeles, Calif. – Hollywood Bowl
Oct. 9 – Phoenix, Ariz. – Arizona Financial Theatre
Oct. 12 – Rogers, Ark. – Walmart AMP
SZA‘s 2023 just got busier. The “Kill Bill” singer revealed on Tuesday (April 11) that she’s extending of her S.O.S. tour, which will see her traveling across Europe and more cities in North America starting this summer.
The tour extension will kick off on June 1 with a stop at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. Throughout the month, SZA will play shows in Paris, Zurich, Berlin, London and more before concluding the European leg on June 21 in Dublin with a show at the 3Arena. “Escapism” singer RAYE will support SZA on the European leg, with the exception of the June 11 date in Cologne, Germany.
The 33-year-old will head stateside in September, starting with a show at Miami’s Kaseya Center on Sept. 20. The second North American trek will include stops in Nashville, Brooklyn, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and more before concluding in Phoenix on Oct. 29. The St. Louis-born artist plays her hometown on Oct. 11. The Philadelphia show on Sept. 26 serves as rescheduled date from SZA’s postponed S.O.S. tour stop in the city on March 2.
Fans looking to get presale access to tickets for Europe can do so staring on on Wednesday, April 12, at 10 a.m. local time. Remaining tickets will be sold in a general onsale that will take place on Friday, April 14, at 12 p.m. local time on szasos.com. North America dates go on presale via Live Nation on Thursday, April 13, at 10 a.m. local time. General on sale will begin on Friday, April 14, at 12 p.m. local time on szasos.com.
See the full list of tour dates below.
THE S.O.S. EUROPE TOUR DATES
June 1 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome*
June 5 – Paris, France – Accor Arena*
June 7 – Zurich, Switzerland – Hallenstadion*
June 9 – Berlin, Germany – Mercedes-Benz Arena*
June 11 – Cologne, Germany – Lanxess Arena
June 13 – Manchester, UK – AO Arena*
June 15 – Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro*
June 17 – London, UK – The O2*
June 18 – London, UK – The O2*
June 21 – Dublin, Ireland – 3Arena*
*With Support from RAYE
THE S.O.S. NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
Sept. 20 – Miami, Fla. – Kaseya Center
Sept. 22 – Tampa, Fla. – Amalie Arena
Sept. 24 – Nashville, Tenn. – Bridgestone Arena
Sept. 26 – Philadelphia, Penn. – Wells Fargo Center^
Sept. 28 – Baltimore, Md. – CFG Bank Arena
Sept. 30 – Boston, Mass. – TD Garden
Oct. 1 – Newark, N.J. – Prudential Center
Oct. 4 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena
Oct. 6 – Brooklyn, N.Y. – Barclays Center
Oct. 7 – Brooklyn, N.Y. – Barclays Center
Oct. 10 – Chicago, Ill. – United Center
Oct. 11 – St. Louis, Mo. – Enterprise Center
Oct. 14 – Houston, Texas – Toyota Center
Oct. 15 – San Antonio, Texas – AT&T Center
Oct. 18 – Denver, Colo. – Ball Arena
Oct. 19 – Salt Lake City, Utah – Vivint Arena
Oct. 22 – Los Angeles, Calif. – Crypto.com Arena
Oct. 23 – Los Angeles, Calif. – Crypto.com Arena
Oct. 26 – San Francisco, Calif. – Chase Center
Oct. 28 – Las Vegas, Nev. – T-Mobile Arena
Oct. 29 – Phoenix, Ariz. – Footprint Center
^ Rescheduled date from Leg 1 without Omar Apollo
The Who may have played their last-ever U.S. dates. The veteran Rock and Roll Hall of Famers who’ve been taking their closing curtain calls since their “final” show in 1982 may actually be done playing shows in the U.S. according to singer Roger Daltrey.
While the band has some more Who Hits Back shows boked in Europe this summer, Daltrey, 79, told USA Today that another hop across the ocean might be out of the question. “Nothing at the moment. I don’t know if we’ll ever come back to tour America,” said Daltrey. “There is only one tour we could do, an orchestrated Quadrophenia to round out the catalog. But that’s one tall order to sing that piece of music, as I’ll be 80 next year. I never say never, but at the moment it’s very doubtful.”
As far as what might finally slow the band down, Daltrey said the chaos of the post-pandemic touring economy is a huge reason. “Touring has become very difficult since COVID. We cannot get insured and most of the big bands doing arena shows, by the time they do their first show and rehearsals and get the staging and crew together, all the buses and hotels, you’re upwards $600,000 to a million in the hole,” he said of the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns on touring.
“To earn that back, if you’re doing a 12-show run, you don’t start to earn it back until the seventh or eighth show,” Daltrey explained. “That’s just how the business works. The trouble now is if you get COVID after the first show, you’ve (lost) that money.”
The Who just released the live collection The Who with Orchestra: Live at Wembley, a 20-song chronicle of their 2019 show at the iconic stadium, which marked their first headlining slot there in 40 years. And while Daltrey said the band was in perhaps its finest form ever at the moment, some of their signature bits don’t have quite the same pop as they did a half century ago.
“Pete can’t quite jump 10 foot in the air anymore. He can do 3 foot, so he’s not bad! (Laughs),” he said of the band’s guitarist and only remaining original member. “I don’t swing the microphone hardly at all now because it doesn’t matter to the sound anymore. Before, when all of those things used to work, it was a circus act. We’re more than that now. I’m proud that our music has come of age and I think you could say this is the most modern classical music out there.”
The Who will hit the road again on June 14 with a gig in Barcelona, Spain and on a Euro run that is currently slated to run through an August 28 show in Sandringham, England at the Royal Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.
Beabadoobee is currently living out her “Wildest Dreams” while supporting Taylor Swift during the superstar’s Eras Tour across the United States. For Beabadoobee’s first day supporting on the tour — March 25 at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium — Swift dedicated “Our Song” to her, which the 22-year-old opened up about in an interview with People published Friday (April 7).
During the show, Swift told her crowd before launching into the third single from her self-titled debut that she had read an interview with her opening act. Said the star, “I figured for her first show with us, I’d play that specific song that she said she wanted to hear.”
Beabadoobee excitedly recalled that the experience “didn’t feel real” to her. “Imagine someone that you’ve listened to growing up and almost shaped your childhood being like, ‘This is for young Bea.’ And I’m like, well, f–k my life. I’m going to die,” she said. “It’s like all the problems have just been solved in that [moment].”
“She’s just so awesome. And the fact that she took the time to say that and to watch an interview, and to sing it and even just introducing me,” the “Talk” singer, whose real name is Beatrice Kristi Laus, continued. “It’s just mental that someone I’m a massive fan of appreciates my music as much. It was a trip. It was a massive trip. It was like I was on shrooms or something.”
As for how Bea is handling the pressure of opening stadium shows, she revealed that keeping her nerves under control is a tough task — especially considering that Swift is counting on her. “It’s actually pretty terrifying out there. Hope I get used to it. But I think it’s just when I’m on that stage, I not only think about like, ‘Oh, I’m going to play to all these people and that’s so terrifying as it is,’” she shard. “It’s more like, ‘Oh my God, I’m doing this for Taylor Swift because Taylor Swift wants me up here and she loves me and I love her.’ So it’s just a lot to take in when you’re up there.”
In addition to performing with Swift, Beabadoobee is doing a series of solo concerts and festival dates throughout the spring and summer after wrapping up The Eras Tour run on April 29.
It’s been a transformative few months for SZA. The R&B superstar released SOS, her second studio album, in December to universal critical acclaim and blockbuster business. The set earned 318,000 album equivalent units in its first week of release, kicking off a non-consecutive 10-week run atop the Billboard 200. And in the middle of that chart-topping stretch, she kicked off the aptly titled SOS Tour.
The 18-date stint ran from Feb. 21 through March 23, giving SZA her first taste of headlining arenas on her own. According to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, the SOS Tour grossed $34.5 million and sold 238,000 tickets.
Spread across its month of action, SOS shows averaged $1.9 million and 12,812 tickets per night. Returns were remarkably consistent, only dipping below 11,000 at the (relatively) low-capacity Viejas Arena in San Diego. The SoCal arena sold 8,700 tickets, but fostered the tour’s second-highest ticket price, at $174.69. Otherwise, attendance swung between 11,069 (Atlanta) and 14,383 (Toronto) on a nightly basis.
New York and Los Angeles were the two markets, perhaps unsurprisingly, with double-headers. SZA played two shows at Madison Square Garden on March 4-5, and the run’s final two dates at Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on March 22-23. Logically, these were the highest grosses and attendance counts, hitting $4.7 million and 27,000 tickets at the East Coast arena, and $3.9 million and 25,000 on the West.
Reporting is limited for SZA’s pre-pandemic concerts, with a small handful of figures for 2017’s Ctrl the Tour and subsequent 2019 Australian shows. But matching up her shows market-by-market, her growth over the last six years is undeniable.
SZA played at Austin’s Emo’s on Oct. 1, 2017, earning $31,000 from a sold-out audience of 1,550. She returned to the city on March 9 at the newly minted Moody Center. She spun that attendance and its average $20 ticket seven times over, amounting to a show gross 55 times the total of her previous market play ($1.7 million).
In New York, it’s a similar – but bigger – story. SZA grossed $45,000 and sold 1,800 tickets at Brooklyn Steel on Dec. 10, 2017. Returning to Madison Square Garden last month, she earned $4.7 million and sold 27,000 tickets. That represents a jump of 1,376% in attendance and more than 10,000% in revenue.
The caveat in NYC is that SZA also played an un-reported show at Manhattan’s Irving Plaza the night after her Brooklyn date in 2017. But even if the 1,100-capacity club sold out at the same average ticket price, her growth in New York would still be nearly 6,500%.
SZA got some arena experience during her first album cycle, snagging co-headline billing on Top Dawg Entertainment’s Champions Tour in between Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q. But even that stacked bill played only one show in New York, selling fewer tickets (12,500) than SZA did on either of her solo ’23 shows at the same venue.
Much of that upward trajectory can be attributed to the slow-burn success of 2017’s CTRL. While peaking at No. 3 and spending “just” a handful of weeks in the Billboard 200’s top 10, it has accumulated more than 300 weeks on the chart. One of its five frames in the top 10 was in June 2022, after a five-year-anniversary deluxe edition hit streaming services.
After letting that album breathe for more than five years, SZA’s timing was sharp. The SOS Tour was announced days after its namesake album was released, with tickets going on sale a few days after that. The set’s massive opening week backed up the feverish hype surrounding her long-awaited comeback, and its subsequent ticket on-sale capitalized on that momentum without missing a beat.
The SOS Tour helped complete SZA’s transformation from slow-burn R&B wunderkind to genre-bending arena powerhouse. She is represented by Wasserman Music and promoted by Live Nation. The tour featured direct support act Omar Apollo.
Just under the surface of Ed Sheeran’s chart-topping Oceania shows, the Red Hot Chili Peppers breaks new ground on Billboard’s monthly Boxscore charts. The band is No. 2 on February’s Top Tours ranking, and followed closely again at No. 6, becoming the first act to appear twice on the same chart since the list launched in February 2019.
The Chili Peppers played eight shows in Australia and New Zealand from Jan. 21 through Feb. 12. For those stadium gigs, the group paired with Post Malone for a co-headline run of $48.2 million, splitting by $15.2 million in January and another $33 million in February. That was enough to land them at No. 2 for both months, first behind Elton John and then Sheeran.
Without missing a beat, the Chili Peppers followed with three shows in Asia on Feb. 16, 19 and 21, sans Post Malone. Those earned $12.1 million, putting the unaccompanied band at No. 6 on February’s overall ranking. In the four years since the monthly charts premiered, no act had previously doubled up on the 30-position ranking, much less in the top 10.
While it’s the first time that an artist has scored two positions on a monthly chart, it’s not unprecedented among all Boxscore rankings. On the 2018 year-end charts, Jay-Z was No. 3 alongside Beyonce for the On the Run II Tour, and at No. 25 for his solo headline dates.
The Chili Peppers also blanket the Top Boxscore chart, both on its own and alongside Post Malone. The co-headline shows appear at Nos. 5-6 and 9, topped by two shows on Feb. 2 and 4 at Sydney’s Accor Stadium ($13.5 million; 107,000 tickets).
Unaccompanied, the band hits Nos. 9 and 24, spotlighting the Feb. 19 performance at Tokyo Dome which earned $7.2 million and sold 45,000 tickets.
In addition to two shows from Sheeran, the Chili Peppers’ Sydney dates helped make Accor Stadium the month’s top-grossing venue with a $32.4 million gross and 279,000 tickets sold.
Since launching in June in Europe, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Global Stadium Tour has earned $237.4 million and sold 1.9 million tickets. Beyond the Oceania and Asia legs, the band continues with a swing of North American shows that extend through mid-April, before returning to Europe and continuing on to Latin America later this year.
At $491.9 million, the soon-to-be-reported Western shows will push the band’s career Boxscore gross past the half-billion mark.
Live Nation president/CEO Michael Rapino is once again dipping into his personal bank account to convey his financial support and commitment to the concert promotion company he’s been building since 2005. On Friday (March 31), he purchased approximately $1 million worth of company stock “in order to maintain his strong level of stock ownership in the Company,” according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The purchase is a bit confusing since it was part of a tax withholding effort and was technically listed as a sale of shares by Rapino rather than an acquisition. But just as he did in March 2020, Rapino spent approximately $1 million of his own money to increase the number of Live Nation shares he held in his portfolio.
Rapino made the March 2020 purchase just as the company’s share price, and most of the stock market, was being battered by fears of a deep recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, the company was trading at $38.60 per share, down nearly 50% from weeks earlier when the stock was trading at approximately $74 per share.
Today, that $1 million Rapino invested in the company in 2020 is worth $1.8 million, with the Live Nation stock hovering around $68 to $70 per share — better than it was during the early days of the pandemic, but lower than shareholders want considering that the company enjoyed record revenue in 2022 and is poised for a big 2023 with superstar artists like Beyoncé, Drake and Madonna hitting the road. Rapino’s latest purchase is a way to shore up confidence in the company as it heads into another promising year.
Dragging the company’s share price down are concerns about debt and regulatory pressure from Washington, D.C. Live Nation carried $3.7 billion in debt prior to the pandemic and now shows a debt level of $6 billion. With nearly $5.1 billion of that debt set at a fixed interest rate, the company will easily be able to service its interest payments, but it’s unlikely to raise additional capital for acquisitions in the short term due to federal monetary shifts toward higher interest rates. On the regulatory front, the company is facing both long-term scrutiny over its 2010 merger with Ticketmaster and more recent attention over its handling of the 2022 ticket sale for Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour.
Friday’s purchase was structured differently than the March 2020 purchase, which saw Rapino buy the $1 million in company shares off the open market. Instead, it was part of a share surrender by Rapino and other executives over taxes due on vested restricted stock awards. As part of the company’s equity incentive plan, Rapino was to surrender 22,204 shares of restricted stock back to the company to cover withholding taxes but opted to pay $1 million out of his own pocket toward taxes due on his 2022 stock award, “hereby retaining ownership of 14,285 shares of common stock of the Company that would have otherwise been surrendered to the Company to pay taxes,” according to the SEC filing.
Rapino currently holds 5.2 million shares of Live Nation, consisting of 3.5 million shares of common stock, options to purchase an additional 600,000 shares and a performance share award targeted at 1.1 million shares of common stock.