Boxoffice Insider: Successes In Markets Outside North America


Fiona Goodall / Getty Images – SIX60
New Zealand’s SIX60 performs at Eden Park in Auckland April 24. The first concert to be held at the venue sold out with 50,000 people in attendance. The country continues to lead the way as the largest post-coronavirus live music market as the rest of the world slowly but surely appears to be opening.

The pandemic’s impact on live performing varies around the globe, but it is evolving as safeguards for the health of concert fans are continually changing. Many smaller U.S. venues have been open for months with social distancing and pod seating requirements in place, yet some are now starting to expand capacities for shows as regional COVID-19 regulations also evolve.

Outside of North America, there are areas where live entertainment opportunities are still severely hampered because of the pandemic, yet other locations are largely open with less restrictions and seating capacities almost at full strength.
New Zealand continues to be in the latter group with higher attendance counts a possibility for concerts in comparison to many other parts of the world. Earlier in the year, New Zealand band SIX60 grabbed global attention by staging full-capacity concerts in stadium-sized outdoor performance venues – the first touring artist to do so since the arrival of the coronavirus in early 2020.
Reggae band L.A.B, also hailing from New Zealand, has also made a foray into the live scene in their home country by staging two outdoor events this year, according to Boxoffice reporting by Auckland-based live agency and management company Loop. The band appeared early in 2021 at TSB Bowl of Brooklands in the city of New Plymouth on Jan. 9, one of their few headlining dates during the Kiwi summer season. Some 12,000 fans attended the outdoor concert at the venue located in the city’s Pukekura Park. The sold-out show racked up a gross of $636,309 (NZ$882,207) and included appearances by The Black Seeds, Mako Road, Bailey Wiley and Anna Coddington.
More recently the group sold out a performance in Auckland at Mt Smart Stadium with a crowd numbering about 16,000 on March 27. It was the first live concert at the venue in over 13 months since Elton John’s performance on Feb. 16, 2020. Joining the headliners were Mako Road, Ladi6, Ria Hall and The Leers, all with opening sets. The performance amassed sold-ticket revenue totaling $1.2 million (NZ$1.6 million). Aside from SIX60’s earlier shows in January and February, it is the only reported concert worldwide to surpass the $1 million mark in gross earnings since the beginning of the shutdown in mid-March of last year.
L.A.B appeared previously in Auckland just last year, headlining a concert on June 3, 2020 at Spark Arena. They also played a show on July 11 at Claudelands Arena in Hamilton where they are booked again on July 17 of this year. Both of those shows in 2020 were Loop-produced events as well.
Another international performance to pop up in Pollstar’s current Live Boxoffice Database is a two-show event by Russian techno pop act Ruki Vverh. The artist moved about 80% of the available tickets at the Minsk Arena in Belarus at concerts on March 26-27. The total ticket count was 22,470 for both shows which was only about 25% less than full capacity at the 15,000-seat arena.
Also appearing in recent Boxoffice tallies is Ukranian pop artist Svetlana Loboda, professionally known as Loboda, who performed on April 24 at the Barvikha Luxury Village Concert Hall in Moscow, a postponed concert that was originally planned for April 3. Her show was not a highly attended event; only 413 guests were present in a casual environment with table seating configured at the venue. Tickets, though, were priced from 8,000 to 90,000 rubles (about $100 to $1,200) which generated a gross of 15.6 million rubles ($204,816).
In Spain, singer Pablo López performed five concerts in Valencia on April 21-25 as part of his “Mayday & Stay” tour that launched on April 2 in Palma de Mallorca. Valencia’s Palacio de Congresos hosted the Spanish artist’s five-show run, registering an overall attendance total of 3,254 with 704 tickets offered per show. His tour opener in Mallorca occurred at Trui Teatre and included three performances through April 4. The sold ticket count was 1,851 with 663 tickets available for sale at each concert.