Features
Liveurope: 2022 Talent Booking Below COVID Levels
Liveurope, the pan-European initiative supporting concert venues in promoting European talent, has found that booking levels are up compared to the pandemic, but still below 2018/2019 levels.
The pictured graphic shows the umber of annual concerts with new European acts booked on average per Liveurope member venue. It shows that the number of emerging European artists back on the road is still below pre-covid levels.
Before the pandemic, the venues that are part of the Liveurope platform were booking 36 up-and-coming acts from around Europe on average. In the concert season 2020-2021 – the pandemic peak – this number was slashed to 9,7, representing a 67% decrease in artists touring.
In 2022, Liveurope supported 600 concerts with emerging European acts, averaging 31 shows organized per member venue. This represents a threefold increase compared to the previous year but is still 13% less than pre-COVID levels.
As the organization points out, the current inflation in Europe “is putting extra pressure on venues’ finances, giving them less room to invest in up-and-coming artists.”
Paula Poštolková, head of program at Slovakian club Nová Cvernovka, said, “Booking an emerging artist from another European country already represented a big financial risk for our venues before the pandemic. Now with inflation and energy prices skyrocketing, the support we receive from Liveurope will be vital to help us invest in promising artists we believe have great potential.”
Liveurope points out that “more and better targeted EU funding is needed to boost the circulation of European artists. Scaling up initiatives with a track record in promoting European repertoire would allow for more key actors to receive much needed EU support to pursue this mission.”
See: €2.1M EU Grant For Liveurope
Liveurope coordinator Elise Phamgia said, “For close to 10 years now, we have seen the exponential impact yielded by EU funding for the development of new artists and the circulation of European repertoire. After adding 5 new venues in our platform in 2022, we hope to continue our growth dynamic so a greater number of live music operators can benefit from our smart incentive-based support.”
More detailed findings on Liveruope’s website.