Features
Germany: Lehmkuhl Joins BMG, KJ Strengthens Festival Business
Stefan Lehmkuhl To Book Theater des Westens
Stefan Lehmkuhl, one of Germany’s well-established event bookers, joins BMG, where he’ll be responsible for the concert and event program of Berlin’s historic Theater des Westens.
BMG announced in September that it had taken a two year lease on the iconic 1,700-seat venue in Germany’s capital to host its own theatrical productions as well as concerts and residencies.
Lehmkuhl is the co-founder of Berlin-based Goodlive GmbH, and has curated and booked events including Melt Festival, splash!, and Lollapalooza Berlin. He said, early feedback from artists and managers around the new venue has been “positive, with particular interest in the residency format.”
See: Goodlive Reshuffles Company Management As Co-Founders Depart
Working alongside Lehmkuhl will be event producer Pansy, the stage and internet persona of Parker Tilghman, who has been creating acclaimed underground performance events and club nights in some of the city’s most prominent institutions for at least a decade.
Pansy said, the residency format would be “of particular interest to established artists who want to present a high-end show at a beautiful venue in the heart of Berlin rather than embarking on a regular tour. We look forward to pairing them with local, underground performers that keep our city so special and unique.”
The live concert and performance series at Theater des Westens is planned from September to November 2023, with further engagements in spring and fall 2024. For booking requests and collaboration ideas booking-tdw@bmg.com is the right address.
BMG chief content officer Dominique Casimir commented, “Taking a two-year lease on the Theater des Westens was a statement of intent. The appointment of Stefan and Pansy shows the extent of our ambition. Stefan is known for his creative booking and for producing events with visual flair and artistic integrity. With his help we will take the Theater des Westens to an entirely new level and make it a premier entertainment destination in Berlin.”
Lehmkuhl said, “I am excited to join in collaboration with BMG as my first consultant and curation project after a two year hiatus from the industry. We are offering artists completely new opportunities that have not existed in Berlin before in a truly gorgeous setting. We are open to collaborating with agents, managers and event organizers, internationally and nationally, even beyond music, and welcome inquiries. I am grateful for Dominique’s trust and look forward to working with her, Pansy and the team at BMG.”
Michael Schacke, CEO of Undercover and responsible for BMG’s live strategy in GSA, added, “With the opening of Berlin’s Theater des Westens for live concerts, residencies and performances, the next piece of the puzzle of BMG’s live strategy falls into place. With Undercover as tour and local promoter in GSA and the Taubertal Festival, TDW now adds one of the most beautiful and exciting live venues in Europe that gives us more opportunities to work with artists and their management in the live segment.”
See: BMG Moves Into Live By Acquiring German Promoter Undercover
KJ Strengthens Festival Business
Hamburg promoter Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion has bought into one of the city’s most established festival promoters, Kopf & Steine, which has been operating in the Hamburg district of Wilhelmsburg since 2007.
The undisclosed amount of shares was acquired via KJ Project, a joint company by Karsten Jahnke and Björn Hansen, owner of Morgenwelt GmbH, founded in 2021.
Together, they will preserve and reinforce the projects managed by Kopf & Steine, such as the festival formats MS Dockville, Spektrum, Habitat Festival, and more, which have become fixtures in Hamburg’s cultural offering.
“Furthermore, the creation of new synergies in various areas of the event industry [are] planned,” according to the press release, including in the areas technical services, security, sponsorship acquisition, booking and catering.
The shareholder structure ensures that all matters relating to the formats managed by Kopf & Steine will continue to be the domain of medium-sized cultural Hamburg based companies, independent of corporate structures.
Claudio Urban and Frank Diekmann, managing directors of Kopf & Steine, released a joint statement: “Kopf & Steine has welcomed KJP into its team of shareholders: This share is a great benefit for our formats and the future of music, art and festivals in Hamburg and Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg. We count on KJP as a strong partner with whom we can continue to maintain Kopf & Steine’s independence in the festival industry – and at the same time look forward to a close collaboration in which we can learn and benefit from each other in many areas.
“With almost 100,000 visitors, the festival summer on the Elbe island is a beacon of Hamburg’s music and cultural landscape. Together, we strengthen these formats – such as MS Dockville, Vogelball and Spektrum – while also preserving the jobs related to them and additionally create numerous synergies while doing this. This partnership will ensure that independent, diverse and well-attended festivals will continue to take place in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg in the future. Hamburg will remain to be a headliner for music, culture and festivals – this is the aim we will be working on together with Ben Mitha, Björn Hansen, KJ Projects and the Kopf & Steine team. We are very much looking forward to taking this next step together.”
Ben Mitha and Björn Hansen, managing directors of KJ Projects, added: “We are very much looking forward to working with Claudio and Frank, who, together with their former partner Enno Arndt, have created great formats over the last 15 years! MS Dockville, Spektrum and Vogelball have been excellently positioned in the festival landscape and also are continuously developed with a lot of love and and eye for detail, so that they are now considered renowned institutions in the international festival calendar.
“The current times are characterized by many challenges for creative industries, which is why the new constellation enables us to bundle our interests vis-à-vis politics, administration and service providers, so we can represent them even more strongly in the future. At the same time, this participation underpins our strategy of extending the value chain within the framework of our own network. Through our affiliated companies such as Stereolicious GmbH (event catering) and ADDWISE Engineering GmbH (production and festival planning office), a high level of added value is created not only for all those involved, but also for Hamburg as a city of culture.
“It is important to all of us that Hamburg continues to be an important music location in the future, known internationally for its cultural offerings and strong cultural and festival formats. Especially in the current situation, strong and independent partners and a joint strategy for action are indispensable, so the cooperation between KJ Projects and Kopf & Steine was a logical step.”