International News: American Country Acts Score Down Under, New Seoul Arena & More

AUSTRALASIA

by Christie Eliezer

AUSTRALIA

US Country Names Head To CMC Rocks, Strummingbird, Deni Muster & More

Australians’ love affair with US country music stars continues with four festivals announcing them in their latest artist announcements.

Jordan Davis, Old Dominion and Riley Green headline the 19^th CMC Rocks, March 20 to 22 at Willowbank Raceway in Queensland.

They are accompanied by 17 US names, including Carly Pearce, Tucker Wetmore, Dasha, Gavin Adcock, Tyler Braden, Hudson Westbrook and Josh Ross. 

The first announcement had 16 Aussie names, including festival favourites James Johnston, Casey Barnes and Wade Forster.

Due to close contacts with Nashville by co-founders Michael Chugg and the late Rob Potts, CMC Rocks has the reputation for showcasing then-unknowns such as Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen and Layne Staley who quickly return to play arenas.

With almost half its 24,000 crowd from overseas or around Australia, the event makes A$15 million ($9.8 million) for the Queensland economy.

Chugg told Pollstar: “In a survey we did this year, 67% are return visitors. Willowbank is a beautiful part of the world.

“The on-site police and security get bored, the drunker this audience get the happier they get.”

Jelly Roll on his inaugural visit Down Under Oct. 24 to Nov. 8 with Drew Baldridge for Live Nation, is also announced festivals headliners.

They include the inaugural Strummingbird on the Sunshine Coast (Oct. 25), Newcastle (Nov. 1) and Perth (Nov.2), Harvest Rock in Adelaide (Oct 26) and Face To Face’s new Sunburnt Country in Townsville, Qld, Nov. 6 at the 25, 455-seat Queensland Country Bank Stadium.

The Deni Muster (Oct. 3 and 4) in Deniliquin in regional New South Wales, which draws 20,000, is headlined by Zac Brown Band and showcases Nashville’s fast-rising outlaw Jackson Dean.

Board For Australian Music Venue Foundation

The new lobby group for grassroots venues, the Australian Music Venue Foundation, appointed a board and artist ambassadors.

The new members are artist manager and Music Victoria CEO Fiona Duncan; James Legge, director of Perth club Freo.Social; John Collins of Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall and the Triffid; Tim Northeast, head of Melbourne’s Corner Hotel and Northcote Social Club; and Tyla Dombroski, CEO of the Crowbar Group and president of the Live Music Venues Alliance.

They join founding members Harley Evans of Moshtix, Howard Adams of the Australian Live Music Council, Mardi Caught of marketing agency The Annexe and Tam Boakes, operator of Adelaide’s Jive who is AMVF CEO.

In an advisory capacity are Mark Davyd, of the UK’s Music Venue Trust, and Julia Robinson, head of government relations & programs of the Australian Recording Industry Association.

Artist ambassadors are the bands the Rubens and Velvet Trip, singer-songwriters Phoebe Go and Darcie Haven, and DJ/writer Anna Lunoe.

The Rubens remembered, “We had to play a lot of shows before we were a band worth listening to and small venues like Oxford Art Factory and Candy’s Apartment gave us the space to learn, fail and grow.”

NEW ZEALAND

TEG Acquires Eventfinda

Sydney-based Ticketek Entertainment Group (TEG) acquired NZ-founded ticketing and events discovery platform Eventfinda, strengthening its capabilities in the small-to-mid size events market.

James McGlinn, who co-founded Eventfinda in 2006 as an events calendar and set up its first ticketing system three years later, remains CEO.

He said his team and clients would remain as is.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for Eventfinda to expand globally while still delivering the high level of service and functionality it has become known for through our homegrown technology platform.”

Cameron Hoy, TEG’s COO and head of global ticketing, said: “Having both of these trusted and successful brands under one roof will allow us to service an important segment of the live event sector with an agile, self-service ticketing platform that offers venues and event organisers the flexibility and white-label functionality they require.”

According to the Eventfinda website, it has issued almost 10 million tix to over 150,000 events in Australia and New Zealand. Ticket sales on both sides of the Tasman are over NZ$100 million ($58.9 million) by last year.

ASIA

by Phil Brasor

JAPAN

Pet Shop Boys, Kneecap Among Rockin’ On Sonic Headliners

The second annual edition of Rockin’ On Sonic, the one-day New Year’s festival co-presented by two of Japan’s biggest festival organizers, Creativeman Productions and Rockin’ On Japan, announced the first lineup for next year’s event, which takes place January 4 at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba, east of Tokyo. So far the roster includes Pet Shop Boys, Underworld, Kneecap, Travis and Wolf Alice. More acts will be announced in coming weeks.

Another big Asia festival scheduled for January also just released its first set of artists. Lollapalooza India 2026, which will take place January 24 and 25 in Mumbai at the Mahalaxmi Race Course, will present Linkin Park, Playboi Carti, Yungblud, Kehlani, Fujii Kaze, Knock2, Sammy Virji, Lany, Bloodywood, Calum Scott, Hot Milk and dozens of others. The festival will mark Linkin Park’s India debut. 

KOREA

New Seoul Arena Slated For ’27

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on September 1 that the Seoul Arena, which will help the Korean capital “fill a large gap in the [city’s] performance infrastructure,” according to the Korea Herald, will open in the first half of 2027. 

The venue is currently under construction in the northeast part of the city. It will become Seoul’s “first concert hall capable of hosting over 20,000 spectators.” Though the city is the de facto capital of K-pop, it lacks a dedicated music venue with more than 10,000 seats, which is why large-scale pop concerts have to be held in over-booked sports facilities and stadiums, though there are some large concert halls located in the suburbs. 

Seoul Arena will consist of two basement levels and six above ground. There will be two performance venues, with the main arena holding up to 28,000 and a mid-sized hall that can hold 7,000. Both will feature state-of-the-art advanced acoustic systems, flexible staging and optimized sight lines. Sports facilities that host concerts often receive complaints about poor stage visibility and bad sound. 

The city government also hopes the new arena will transform northeastern Seoul into “a hub for culture and tourism.” Presently, the area does not contain any cultural assets. It will be located near two subway lines and an express train is presently being built that will link the arena to central Seoul within 20 minutes and Incheon Airport in an hour. 

MACAU

Galaxy Inks TMELiveDeal

Macau’s Galaxy Entertainment Group has hooked up with TMElive, a subsidiary of China’s entertainment powerhouse Tencent Music Entertainment, in order to help drive more music concerts to the Galaxy Macau casino resort in hopes of making it “Asia’s leading entertainment hub,” according to a report in The Stadium Business.

Galaxy Arena, which opened in April 2023, is Macau’s largest indoor arena, seating 16,000. The extended deal with TMElive aims to support Macau’s development in culture and tourism by “presenting multifaceted musical spectacles to music lovers, leveraging shared resources and market-leading advantages.” So far the partnership has resulted in the 2025 TMElive International Music Awards and the 2025 Tencent Music Entertainment Awards. 

In a statement, Galaxy Entertainment chairman Francis Lui, said, “In the first half of 2025 alone, we hosted close to 190 events at the Galaxy Arena and the adjacent Galaxy International Convention Center, welcoming thousands of attendees from around the world.” The executive chairman of Tencent Music Entertainment said, “This renewed partnership with Galaxy Arena will allow us to continue innovating and expanding the reach of Chinese music, both regionally and internationally.”