Austria In The Pink

Austrian promoter Richard Hoermann says the 55,000 tickets he sold across seven Pink shows will make her the country’s best-selling live act of 2007.

There were bigger single shows than the average 8,000-capacity indoor and outdoor arena dates she played, notably the June 19 Genesis show at Linz Gugl-Stadion. But the Vienna-based promoter – head of Event Service GMBH – believes more people have paid to see Pink than any other act.

The pocket dynamo’s live show has made her one of this year’s favourites on the European outdoor circuit, where a full book of dates delivered by London-based Marshall Arts included several appearances at such major festivals as Hungary’s Sziget, Romania’s new B’Estival, Switzerland’s Paleo Nyon and the U.K.’s V Festivals.

Hoermann’s Austrian shows, which were dotted throughout the first seven months of the year, included sellout arena-sized shows in Innsbruck (4,500), Vienna (11,000), Salzburg (7,500), Dornbirn (11,000), Imst (7,500) and Clam Castle (7,500), the open-air venue near Linz.

Only the 9,000-capacity Graz Stadthalle failed to sell out, but still sold 7,500 tickets.

Hoermann also did a Croatian show that sold 3,500 in Zagreb Cibona and a sold-out 7,500-capacity Ljubljana Tivoli, the first time the act has visited the region since her less-than-successful visits of 2004.

He believes the Clam Castle arena venue (it also has a smaller, 2,000-capacity area), which staged five shows this year, has spent more than a decade becoming popular and expects the number to almost double in 2008.

"Clam has proven once more that – after 15 years of building it up – it’s become the most prestigious site in Austria. Plans are currently being made for 2008 and it looks very promising that we might be able to top this year’s results there," he explained. He also had Clam sellouts with Zucchero and John Fogerty.