Europe 2018: Movers And Shakers

Burak Cingi / Redferns – All Eyes On Europe
The inaugural All Points East festival, produced by AEG Presents at London’s Victoria Park, is one of the year’s big stories from the other side of the pond.

The year began with AEG opening an office in France and hiring Arnaud Meersseman, previously managing director of event production company Miala, to run it. 

The company also premiered a new festival in London called All Points East, attracting some 90,000 people to its inaugural weekend which left Jim King, executive vice president live music at AEG Presents, “delighted with the reviews and response from fans.”

Live Nation launched the next Lollapalooza offshoot in Stockholm, Sweden, in May, and is reportedly looking for a German location for its recently acquired Rock in Rio brand, too.

In Scotland, TRNSMT attracted some 140,000 people over two weekends (five days in total), and officially replaced the former T In The Park festival as the country’s biggest festival, by promoter DF Concerts’ own admission.

Some of the biggest moves in the first six months of 2018 were done by two live entertainment giants from Germany.

 CTS Eventim acquired a 60 percent stake in Italian concert and festival promoter D’Alessandro e Galli in February, and a majority stake in Italian concert promoter Vivo Concerti in April, closing its fourth acquisition in the Italian live entertainment market in less than eight months. 

CTS Eventim also made a major acquisition in Spain by buying a 63.5 percent stake in Neo Sala’s Doctor Music.

DEAG, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, is on a mission to reduce minority interests with the aim of increasing the earnings per share attributable to DEAG shareholders. 

Also, it sold 100 percent of its shares in UK promoter Raymond Gubbay to Sony Music Entertainment International Ltd. The joint projects of Raymond Gubbay and DEAG’s UK subsidiary Kilimanjaro Live will continue unchanged. 

DEAG thinks of the UK as its “second home market” after Germany and acquired 100 percent of Scotland’s Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival in June. 

Most recently, DEAG increased its stake in its online ticketing system MyTicket to 75.1 percent, by buying shares from Starwatch Entertainment, the music and live entertainment arm of Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 Group, which had helped establish MyTicket in its start-up phase.

Back in March, real estate investment group Secure Income spent £436 million ($608 million) on two portfolios that included the 21,000-capacity Manchester Arena, which was previously owned by real estate investment firm Mansford. The deal did not affect the arena’s management agreement with SMG Europe, which will continue to operate the arena for the next 27 years.

Speaking of SMG Europe: the company got Ticketmaster back on board as official ticketing partner for its UK venue portfolio in April, after going with CTS Eventim for the past five years.

Shortly after, Ticketmaster informed its UK and international customers, excluding the U.S., that their payment data may have been compromised in a security breach that took place June 23.

In other ticketing news, Vivendi’s See Tickets acquired Paylogic, the ticketing and technology company headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, for an undisclosed sum, and Eventbrite acquired Spanish ticketing provider Ticketea for an undisclosed sum.

Also in Spain, Pollstar unveiled that L.A.-based investment firm The Yucaipa Companies has acquired a minority equity stake in one of the country’s flagship festivals, Primavera Sound.