CTS Eventim’s Klaus-Peter Schulenberg Says ‘We Can Hang On For Two Years’

Speaking to German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, CTS Eventim boss Klaus-Peter Schulenberg said his company would be able to sustain itself for two years without incurring debts.

He however feared for the small events, companies and venues that won’t survive this crisis if the promised economic aid packages didn’t kick in soon.

Culture wasn’t as much a luxury as it was a system-relevant good, he told FAZ.

He didn’t want to make a forecast regarding CTS Eventim’s flagship festivals Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, promoted in partnership with Live Nation, as well as Hurricane and Southside, promoted by FKP Scorpio, which is part of CTS Eventim’s promoter network Eventim Live.

While CTS Eventim’s biggest events were insured against communicable disease, it was still hard to plan anything as long as authorities didn’t make any long-term announcements.

It’s the same situation all of the world’s festivals are in, of course. Which is why more than 60 European festivals recently released a joint statement pointing out the economic impact a cancellation of this year’s festival summer would have, and vowing to go ahead with their events unless there was absolutely no other way.

Sources from the production sector, however, tell Pollstar that, “honestly, no one in this sector expects to have a summer/festival season.”

A UK artist manager, who didn’t want to go on the record, said he was having phone calls with promoters about possible shows in summer just to maintain some semblance of reality. He didn’t think that things would get moving again prior to a vaccine against Coronavirus being found.

Others are more optimistic, based on expert prognosis projecting when the virus would be contained. Paradigm Agency’s Geoff Meall told Pollstar: “Looking at the graphs the scientists in the UK were showing, the modelling seems to think that there will be a rise and then a fall off. If we’re lucky, it’ll start falling rapidly in May, if we’re not lucky it’ll fall less rapidly in June, July, August. 

“By the time September comes, the virus should be at [containable] levels that will allow us to get back to a modicum of business.

“Plus, the other thought is, the world economies can’t have everybody on lockdown for the next seven months of our lives, because we’re not going to have food, we’re not going to have any medicines. You have to take those things into account as well.”

As Schulenberg continues in the FAZ interview, promoters have already paid most of the upfront costs for marketing, suppliers and other ancillary costs, which is all financed with ticket sales money. 

If everybody returned their tickets now, promoters would face ruin. Which is why Germany’s promoter’s association BDKV has demanded that the German government pass a resolution that would give promoters a 365-day period to reschedule an event before having to refund the ticket, which would massively help with their cash liquidity.

Schulenberg also points towards Italy, where promoters are allowed to hand out vouchers for future events, instead of refunds, which was reasonable for consumers and didn’t cost the government a penny.

CTS Eventim has started to appeal to fans on its socials, asking them not to return tickets if it can be helped.