Features
RBX: Reeperbahn Festival Furthers US Expansion
At the start of the year, Reeperbahn Festival announced that it was merging
the main event in September as well as the digital offerings into the newly created company RBX GmbH, based in Hamburg.
Launched in 2006 as a club festival, Reeperbahn Festival has developed into one of the leading platforms for new talent, pop culture in general, and an acclaimed music industry conference for fans, artists, representatives from the music business, and the media alike.
The new company, RBX, established earlier this year, takes business areas previously set up and managed by Reeperbahn Festival GmbH and Inferno Events GmbH & Co. KG and combines them into one corporate entity.
See: Q’s With Reeperbahn Festival Founder & Managing Director Alexander Schulz
Alongside Alexander Schulz, who will head RBX as CEO, long-serving employees Ramona Kappmeyer and Johannes Vincent are being promoted to chief operating officers, expanding the company management.
Kappmeyer will head the administrative finance department, as well as the
marketing and distribution division. Vincent will oversee operational functions of program and Production. The newly appointed COOs have worked at Reeperbahn Festival for more than ten years. Both have power of attorney and report to Alexander Schulz.
Detlef Schwarte will continue to be responsible for curating the panel events and interview formats for Reeperbahn Festival as external senior advisor for conference sessions.
See: Reeperbahn Festival Releases Anchor Award Documentary (Video)
One of the aims of the new organizational structure is to highlight the festival’s international status as a platform for music culture and the music industry. To underline the international ambitions of RBX, a representative for the U.S. has been appointed in the form of Andrea Da Silva, who worked as senior policy analyst and global team leader, media & entertainment industries international trade administration for the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington D.C. until summer 2021.
Da Silva already worked on the recent Keychange U.S. launch in June. The U.S. is Reeperbahn Festival’s partner country this year, the festival has been showing a clear ambitions to enter the U.S. market.
RBX is equally owned by Inferno Events GmbH & Co KG and Reeperbahn Festival GmbH. The
around 50 employees including eight trainees from the various business divisions of the shareholder companies all transferred over to the new RBX GmbH back in January.
The restructured operations will continue to be supported by the long-standing funding commitments of the German federal government commissioner for culture and media, and the city of Hamburg.