Features
‘The Tickets Are Flying Out’: Q’s With Kim Bloem, MD & Head Promoter, Mojo Concerts
For this year’s Dutch Focus, Pollstar reached out to Kim Bloem, one of the managing directors and head promoter at Mojo Concerts, the Netherland’s biggest promoter, to get a sense of the state of business in the country.
While 2024 will not experience the same amount of stadium shows, but it’s already proving hard to get arena, theater, or club avails during the busy periods. There’s potential to break new acts faster than ever before, and Mojo’s festival business is doing great, as well, according to the veteran promoter, who also shared a funny anecdote from her most recent Diana Ross show.
See: All Of Pollstar’s Inaugural Dutch Focus
Pollstar: Do you still feel the pandemic in your day-to-day business?
Kim Bloem: I don’t think there are any post-pandemic effects affecting our business at the moment. Over the last two years, we’ve see people wanting to buy tickets, there’s so much demand. When we announce a show, the response is usually huge, and immediate. We’ve announced some 20 shows in the last two weeks, and they are doing extremely well.
I read a couple of months ago, about people not buying houses, cars, and other big, expensive things right now. But they still want to go out, maybe even more than ever, which could be a post pandemic effect, actually. And you also see that in the clubs. It’s not just with the big blockbusters, that tickets are flying out, but also in the 500 to 1,500-capacity rooms. What I’m hearing from the clubs is, that people are spending less money on drinks and [merch, etc], indicating, that they are making choices. But the tickets are flying out. In these past two weeks, in particular, demand felt amplified, and that’s a great state to be in.
Is the overall volume of shows manageable, and what does your calendar indicate regarding next year? How hard is it to get avails at venues?
2023 already came with a lot less difficulties than 2022, and 2024, is going to be almost back to normal, whatever normal means, it’s a rather difficult expression.
Like, when was this ever a normal business, you mean?
Exactly. The overall touring load is manageable in the sense that we don’t have 19 stadium shows and open-air shows like we did in 2023. But it’s still going to be a big year. It’s really, really difficult to get even one available date in the busy touring periods.
The number of stadium acts that are touring is, of course, lower than in 2023. But you have many arena and theater shows coming up. This business has been experiencing growth for as long as I can remember, if not on the stadium level then on the arena level.
Smaller artists are growing faster, their careers are taking off quicker than before. In many cases, you’re not building from Paradiso’s upper hall to the main hall to AFAS Live to the Ziggo Dome. Sometimes, you’re going directly into AFAS Live, or it’s going straight from a sold-out Paradiso into the arena. Those kinds of steps are being taken quicker than before. So I think in that perspective, you know, there’s also a lot of growth that we experience
Is that the norm now, or do you also still observe the classical way of starting in the club and moving up the circuit?
I definitely still see that a lot. What we also see, is that the demand for club shows is so high, that you can do back-to-back shows. We frequently hold a second-night after an announced initial date, because we feel that the demand is there.
How about the festivals? Is it doing as well as the touring side?
Yes. Last week, we sold out Down The Rabbit Hole 2024 within a day, despite having raised ticket prices to offset the increased costs. North Sea Jazz Festival, Pinkpop, Lowlands, are all extremely successful. It’s not a given that things are so successful across the board, so I think we should celebrate that.
Sounds like the business is truly back in full swing.
If you look at our 19 stadium and outdoor shows, which had an average of around 50,000 to 60,000 people attending, that’s already about a million tickets only on the shows taking place between June and August only.
Any show that stood out?
Beyoncé [at Johann Cruijff Arena] was absolutely fantastic, and phenomenal production-wise. More recently, I had two Madonna shows at Ziggo Dome, and I was overwhelmed by the size of the production, and how arty it was done, really beautiful. It’s incredible to see how much effort these artists and their teams put in to give the fans what they want.
A funny story happened, when Diana Ross brought her farewell tour to Amsterdam in October. She performed to a seated Ziggo Dome, which sold out in a heartbeat. She was, of course, wearing one of her luxurious gala dresses. Usually, after a show, she goes off stage, quickly changes, and hops on her car. But this time, she enjoyed the show so much, she came back out for an encore after already having changed into a track suit.
Do you have a business philosophy?
Put everything into perspective. The COVID period has made us all evaluate what’s important to us. My colleagues are all hard working people. If you call them at nine o’clock at night to get something done, they will do it for you. But I still think that everybody has to keep an eye out to make sure this doesn’t become the norm.
Also, always question yourself. Why are you doing things the way you do, why is it important to you and how does it affect the people you work with? Be wise about stuff, don’t do it just because the job requires it.