Tuborg Moves Into Tour Mode

Danish brewer Tuborg is increasing its involvement in live music by sponsoring three shows on next year’s Depeche Mode tour.

The Copenhagen-based brewing giant has a strong foothold in eastern and central Europe and has previously put money into large one-off events, but this is the first time it’s taken a slice of a major tour.

“It’s always been the plan but the difficulty has been finding the right act,” explained Tim Dowdall from Live Nation’s Budapest office, which has worked with Tuborg on more than a dozen shows in the last three years.

“Some international artists do well in certain countries, but may not be as popular in the neighbouring territories,” he said.
The brewer’s shows, which will all be under the company’s Greenfest banner, are at the Vasil Levski Stadium in Sofia, Bulgaria, May 18; USCE Park in Belgrade, Serbia, May 20; and Tuborg Arena in Zagreb, Croatia, May 21.

The shows are among eight Dowdall is promoting or co-promoting. The others are in Bucharest, Romania; Warsaw, Poland; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; and Prague, Czech Republic, May 16 through June 25.

Securing the shows, which amount to nearly one-third of those that are confirmed, rounded off a couple of good weeks in the old Eastern Bloc for Dowdall and Live Nation.

The company also sewed up the Budapest and Prague shows on next year’s AC/DC tour, co-promoted Madonna’s Athens gig – which attracted more than 75,000 fans – and also sold more than 25,000 tickets for two Coldplay dates in the Hungarian and Czech capitals.

Coldplay’s Sept. 22 show at Prague’s O2 Arena sold 14,914 of a possible 18,000 tickets, and the following day was only 300 short of selling out the 11,466-capacity Budapest Arena.