Germany: AEG Booking, DEAG

AEG Expands Berlin Booking Team 

– Aissata Hartmann-Sylla

AEG has promoted Aissata Hartmann-Sylla, longtime booker for Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena, to senior director and appointed Paul Cheetham as booking director for its new music hall, which will open next year.

Hartmann-Sylla joined the arena in 2009, when it was still called O2 World Berlin. She started out as event manager and has been overseeing the arena’s event booking since 2013.

Cheetham was managing director for Heartburst Management, where he was specialized in organizing B2B events in Germany, such as the former Popkomm and Berlin Music Week.

Most recently he’s been involved with Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg. The Sheffield native’s 20-year experience in the music business includes stints at London-based promoter Mean Fiddler as well as Live Nation Scandinavia in Finland.

Reporting to Mercedes-Benz Arena VP and GM Michael Hapka, Cheetham will book AEG’s new music hall, which is currently being constructed on the Mercedes Platz, the entertainment district currently being developed right outside the main arena. A naming rights partner for the new 4,500-capacity music hall has yet to be announced. AEG said the Mercedes Platz will also feature a UCI movie theatre, a bowling lounge, 15 cafés, restaurants and bars as well as two hotels.

Frankfurt’s New Soccer Stadium

Architects of the new stadium of German soccer club SC Freiburg published the drafts of the 76.5 million-euro project, which is supposed to open in 2019. The new, still unnamed stadium will offer space for 34,700 people; 18,400 seats as well as 10,000 standing capacity are allocated for SC Freiburg’s home fans.

Architects HPP, a joint venture of the club and the city of Freiburg, designed the new stadium, which will be located close to Freiburg airport at Wolfswinkel in the west of the city.

The building contract went to Köster GmbH, a company that realized stadium projects with HPP in the past.

HPP Architects / Köster – Frankfurt Stadium Rendering

DEAG Buys VR Stake

German live entertainment giant DEAG and its subsidiary Handwerker Promotion acquired stakes in virtual reality company TimeRide GmbH.

DEAG secured itself an 8 percent stake, while Handwerker Promotion bought 4 percent of the Munich-based VR company, which “develops, organizes and markets entertainment and educational services in the field of virtual reality,” according to the announcement. TimeRide’s current project involves VR time travels to former European cities. The company plans to extend its offering into other areas of live entertainment.

DEAG intends to strengthen its family entertainment offering with the purchase. DEAG CEO Peter Schwenkow called TimeRide “a pioneer in VR entertainment in Germany,” adding that “we want to benefit from the growth opportunities of virtual entertainment offers in the coming years with our acquired stake and exclusive distribution partnership on MyTicket.”

Maurice Lausberg, managing director of TimeRide’s founding partner actori GmbH, said, “DEAG and Handwerker Promotion will help us expand the TimeRide concept with their comprehensive expertise in producing and marketing entertainment events.”