Good Volume, Diverse Offerings & Hardly A Sign Of Slowing Down: The Netherlands Are Ready For Another Huge Year

Until recently people were wondering if the high volume of shows in the Dutch concert industry was simply because of artists making up for the lost years of touring during the COVID lockdown. However, since 2023 it’s become abundantly clear that the Dutch just love to go out and enjoy entertainment together – maybe more so than ever, having been reminded of how it feels if all of these entertainment options are suddenly no longer available.

There’s challenges that remain, of course, most notably the high costs for every aspect of touring. Ticket price increases are inevitable, but so far, the fans don’t seem to mind. This milestone year “could not have been better for our artists, shows and events,” says Age Versluis, head of touring at Dutch promoter Friendly Fire, which celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2024. “Numerous artists that we have been supporting on our roster for a while have come and grown into their biggest shows ever. Artists like Noah Kahan, Cigarettes After Sex, Teskey Brothers, Mitski, Fontaines D.C., Khruangbin, the list goes on.”

Greenhouse Talent, one of the remaining truly independent promoters in the country, had its biggest year in history – largely thanks to co-promoting two of the year’s biggest shows: two nights of Rammstein at Goffertpark in Nijmengen, June 18-19, and three sold-out shows by Taylor Swift at Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam, July 4-6. “Their massive shows have been iconic on all levels for us,” said head promoter and COO Wouter de Wilde.

According to Kim Bloem, one of the managing directors and head promoter at Mojo Concerts, the Netherlands’ biggest promoter, it’s been another “busy but amazing year,” as well as a “record year in terms of arena shows. It’s been interesting to see that more and more artists can do multiple arenas in the same market compared to other years.”

The country’s busiest arena is Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome, where Jacobine Talsma is the head of events. She said that “approaching the end of 2024 our state of business is healthy but hectic. We are grateful that we have had another great year, hosting 115 events at our venue, and we are happy to see that concert promoters still choose the Ziggo Dome as a location for their events.”

Concert organizers love the building for its “good sight lines, perfect acoustics, comfortable chairs, and plenty of catering facilities.” Talsma added, “Everything we do has to serve two audiences: the fans, and the artists with their management and crew. We always strive to improve and innovate to be able to continue creating the ultimate live experience.”

Another famous building in the Netherlands is the Ahoy in Rotterdam, which, aside from touring concerts, hosts the annual North Sea Jazz Festival, A State Of Trance, major sports events, and other show formats, like the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021. In addition to its 16,500-capacity main hall, the Ahoy just opened a 8,000-capacity auditorium, the RTM Stage and its first year lived up to “how we once envisioned it,” according to Arnaud Hordijk, Rotterdam Ahoy’s head of entertainment & sports, and has immediately “established its position in the Dutch concert landscape.”

Hordijk said his team was “very proud of the diversity of shows we get to host. With our relations we present a nice mix of international & national artists and acts, diverse family shows for families with small children as well as families with older children. Additionally, we host various European and World Championships, the creme de la creme in the field of sports.”

The variety of events coming to the Netherlands has never been greater. Greenhouse Talent’s Wouter de Wilde said, “We are very happy that we’ve been involved in country music for the past few years now, which is now really developing as a stable and growing business in The Netherlands. Same goes for live comedy, and K-pop, all of which we are heavily involved in.”

Bloem confirmed, “We see that some specific genres such as country and K-pop are becoming more and more popular, more artists are touring and the sales are great. Also, Latin music, in all its variety, is becoming very successful, and the number of tours that are coming to our small country has significantly picked up.”

Ziggo Dome’s Jacobine Talsma said, “Over the past year we have experienced an increase in the number of Latin events that have taken place at our venue, hosting shows from artists such as J Balvin, Karol G and Aventura, which all turned out to be great successes. In addition, the urban genre was also well represented in our agenda with concerts by Davido, Frenna, and Dadju & Tayc. Besides this, Dutch artists remain well represented. For example, the Dutch band KANE gave five concerts in 2024 and there are also many Dutch acts on the schedule for next year.”

Dutch artists booked at Ziggo Dome for 2025 include Bankzitters, Son Mieux, Suzan & Freek, Antoon and many others. Talsma added, “Domestic talent is very important to us. We find it important to remain available to young and local talent. That has not changed, in fact we see a growth in the market.”

For Friendly Fire, domestic talent has always been a major focus, given the Netherlands’ healthy touring and festival market. “We have a great team exclusively dealing with Dutch artists and shows, who have been killing it,” said Versluis. Fifteen of them will perform at the upcoming edition of ESNS, which the promoter describes as “the most important annual breakthrough opportunity for new Dutch talent.”

Everyone confirmed that the local repertoire is going strong in 2024 and 2025. Hordijk said, “The national product is important to our concert landscape and that of national festivals. The Dutch market has expanded considerably since COVID, in terms of diversity, genres, and also reunions of various Dutch icons. We like the fact that we at Rotterdam Ahoy may be a stage for the careers of our national artists.”

For Mojo Concerts, domestic talent is “extremely important.” According to Bloem, the company hired a dedicated team “that goes deep into the networks of labels, managers, etc.” As a result, she continued, “We have seen an incredible growth of Dutch fans going to shows of domestic acts over the last few years, so this is definitely a growing market. Last year we did 25 arena shows with domestic acts.”

For Greenhouse Talent, promoting domestic talent hasn’t been part of the core business. “But at the same time,” said de Wilde, “we’re signing more domestic acts and talent in recent years, as we find it important to develop talent, and we are asked to do so more often, which we find a fun challenge.”

Speaking of challenges, there are some the Dutch sector needs to overcome, preferably collectively. Hordijk summed it up, when he said, “We see ourselves as a platform for everyone, where visitors, old and young, can be inspired and entertained. Because of the enormous supply chain issues and economic conditions, the question is whether a show or event concept can be (financially) successful. Costs within our industry continue to rise, and margins continue to narrow. Out of necessity, tickets are getting more expensive. These are challenges that we must all be aware of for the sake of our collective industry. In order to continue to
meet the visitors’ demands with a quality experience, it is important that we manage to achieve a healthy occupancy rate – not just now, but also in the future. And for that, it’s even more important that it remains affordable for everyone to go see their idols perform live.”

Like elsewhere in Europe, festivals that rely on big names to sell tickets have had a difficult year. Niek Murray, festival manager of Pinkpop, one of the country’s most iconic festivals, told Pollstar at the beginning of the year, “It’s been more difficult to book huge acts in 2024, as a lot are taking a break from touring after two crazy years.” He added, “While we’ll always be a headliner-driven festival, we also want to become at least a bit less dependent on the big acts. So, we’ve been working on the atmosphere, trying to tell the story of Pinkpop more, so the people who are visiting for their dream headliner come back the next year because they had a really great time.”

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Friendly Fire’s Versluis concurred that “it feels like festivals have had a tough year balancing the top of the bill,” but emphasized that “there is more great new music to add on the lower tiers than ever!” He explained how the event landscape has shifted locally: “We see more and more one-day, and free-festivals having a hard time breaking even. The Netherlands used to have a big collection of festivals, booking internationally and domestically.

“We see two major trends. Firstly, we see a lot of the events that took a hit during COVID – given the rising costs, they’re not able to secure the right talent that’s asking for higher fees. Those festivals are having a hard time. We’ve seen some of them close for good, or limit slots/budgets, which makes it harder and harder, especially for international artists, to come over. The other trend is that domestic artists have gotten so strong, making music in both English and Dutch, that it’s harder to compete with these artists and their sales.”

In terms of genres, he added, “We see the niches doing more of their own headline shows, while the classic festival genres like metal, rock, hip hop are still performing well.” On the flip side, festivals that have built their reputation and audience around the overall experience, where the program off the main stage has always been as important as the musical lineup, are going strong. Case in point: Down The Rabbit Hole, which, according to Mojo Concerts’ Bloem, was doing extremely well on the 2025 presale.

In general, 2025 was shaping up to be another great year, she said, adding that the stadium show wasn’t going anywhere. Greenhouse Talent’s Wouter de Wilde was also optimistic. “2025 is looking like another solid year for us. We have a good volume of shows, and a lot of successful tickets on sale. Furthermore, we are expanding our own concepts such as Zuiderpark Live and Spoorpark LIVE, in order to maintain, and even expand our position in our market.”

As for the Dutch concert business in general, he added, “overall we see a stagnation compared to the boom straight after COVID, but there’s more business coming our way, which is comfortable for our company’s growth goals.”

Friendly Fire wants to make the most of 2025 by further improving on the way it operates, and getting an even more flexible and experienced team working on all aspects of the business. The plan was to “hopefully launch some fresh new ideas,” said Versluis, who was personally looking forward to “Dean Lewis’ double Ziggo Dome shows, Damiano David’s first headline show, and all the shows by emerging artists we have confirmed and/or announced at the club level. For our promoters it feels like 2024, especially the end of this year, saw some great career buildups come to fruition. So, 2025 feels like a year we’ll be doing what we love so much: discovering and building the next headliners out there!”

The venues are already filling 2026 slots. Ahoy’s Arnaud Hordijk said the “pressure for 2026 is already noticeable. That can sometimes be difficult, as you want to build on various concepts, but are already forced to make certain choices. On the other hand, the offer is overwhelming and diverse, which is a positive thing.” One area requiring special attention was ticketing. He noted, “Some shows do really well, and other shows tend to be more challenging. We have noticed that tickets in the standing category have a more challenging time at some shows than others.”

Speaking of tickets: when Pollstar talked to Mojo Concerts head promoter Rob Trommelen earlier this year, he said, “We need to keep an eye on [ticket prices]. It must be possible for everybody to buy tickets. We don’t want to be a jet set business. It’s not always easy, because for some, it’s all about the money. You saw what happened with Oasis. That’s a sign that people will not accept everything.”

That being said, he added, “The market is healthy, we sell more tickets than ever, it’s unbelievable. All levels are doing well, including the clubs, and it’s not stopping. I’ve got Toto on sale, they’re going to play the GelreDome in Arnheim, sold out, 32,000, the biggest international show of their entire career. The new generations pick up all these classic artists through the socials. Last week we put The Offspring on sale at the Ziggo Dome. They played clubs 10 years ago.”

Ziggo Dome’s Talsma confirmed the positive outlook: “There are plenty of concert tours announced. We see an increase in touring shows for the upcoming year by more than 27% compared to 2024. We already announced a number of shows for 2026 earlier this year, and are placing options more than a year in advance. Therefore, we have confidence in the future and are proud to see the number of events in the Ziggo Dome continue to grow.”

In terms of opportunities, VIP and offers that enhance the visitor’s experience are still in great demand. “The fans coming to the shows we promote and the festivals we run, have different needs and wishes,” Bloem said. “In terms of VIP packages, and F&B, for instance, we have expanded our offerings, and are always looking to explore all the opportunities in that field.”

New event concepts require some courage on the promoter’s side, but they can pay off big time. Like Rotterdam Ahoy’s The Pianoman, the Netherlands’ largest piano bar, or a more intimate concept focused on street theater, cabaret and magic, called The Ashton Brothers, which has so far sold 30,000 tickets. “It’s nice to see how it’s been embraced by the market,” Ahoy head of entertainment & sports Hordijk said. “There is and always will be room for creativity and concepts that are distinctive. It’s nice that we can make this possible together with our partners.”

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