‘It’s Been A Very Buoyant Year For Venues & Content’: Q’s With Iain Campbell, President, OVG Middle East, Asia & Africa

OVG Middle East has been making great strides in the region since forming a joint venture with Middle East-based event management and venue operator Ethara in 2023. The business of OVG Middle East comprised 32 venues at the time of this writing, with more to come in the near future, as talks with building operators in the region are ongoing.

For Pollstar‘s annual Middle East Focus, we reached out to Iain Campbell, president OVG Middle East, Asia and Africa, to talk shop (OVG is parent company to Pollstar). He touched on the state of play at OVG ME, how far the region is away from becoming its own leg on an international tour, and shared his favorite show of the year (which may surprise you).

Pollstar: Can you sum up the state of play at OVG Middle East?
Iain Campbell: It’s been quite the year for OVG in the Middle East. We now have 32 venues in our portfolio, something for each event type, and we’re serving them through our 360-degree venue service portfolio. It all began with the announcement of the JV with Ethara in 2023. It has really helped cement us in the region, and they’ve been great partners. Growing in the rest of the Middle East has been a lot easier because of Ethara at our side.

It’s been a very buoyant year, both from the venue side, but also from the content point of view. We’ve had a great year hosting content into the region, including the first edition of the Dream Concert K-pop event, or Travis Scott, who brought his ‘Circus Maximus Tour’ to Etihad Park. And we’ve just held concerts over the F1 weekend in Abu Dhabi with Benson Boone, Post Malone, Metallica, Katy Perry.. There is more on the horizon. It’s super busy, but it’s been phenomenal.

When you work with buildings across the region, are you flexible in terms of which services they can hire from you?
OVG’s ethos around the world, and certainly in the Middle East, is that we want to collaborate with clients. We’ll more than happily work with venues we don’t operate. Prime example would be Saadiyat Nights. We don’t run the whole festival, but we supply services, which can range from security to venue operations to f&b, sponsorships, etc. We also work with leagues, like the Saudi Arabian football league – SPL.

Any other aspects that are part of your 360-degree approach?
We’ve also got a full design consultancy. It’s always an OVG ethos to work with owners and clients early in the design process applying our commercial mind. Nobody these days is building just a football stadium, or just a live event arena. They’ve got to be versatile and flexible, and if we get involved in the early stages, it helps us to make them more commercially successful.

The emergence of a touring market is intrinsically linked to the venue circuit in that market. What’s the venue infrastructure like, which which regions are lacking, which are blossoming, and how far would you say are we out from international acts being able to route a proper Middle Eastern leg?
I don’t think we’re a million miles out. I honestly think we’re probably only 12 to 18 months away. Venues are being built. Venues have broken ground in Saudi. We have done multiple shows this year that have played multiple markets. We’ve got ones coming up that are playing Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, India, and, quite possibly in the future, Egypt as well, where we have a strong relationship with the New Capital government.

How far in advance of an event do people start buying tickets?
We are seeing a shift. While this will always be a late buying market, it used to be extremely last minute. There’s still people buying a week or a day before the event, but we are seeing a lot more uplift in early tickets when the show gets announced.

The four Coldplay shows at Zayed Sports City Stadium at the start of the year saw 200,000 fans across four nights, which is unheard of in this part of the world. The onsale broke regional records. When Linkin Park went on sale for their January show at Etihad Arena, it sold out within 24 hours.

Are VIP offers and premium experiences in demand?
It’s a global trend, and the Middle East forms no exception. It’s a very buoyant market, and we are looking to increase the hospitality offerings in some of our venues. When I started in the business 30-odd years ago, the global trend was that about 5% to 6% would be hospitality. Now the global average is between 16% and 20%.

What’s has been your favorite standout event of the year?
It was the July 29 J-Lo concert at Etihad Arena. I’ve been out here 16 years on and off, and I can tell you that the UAE used to die in the summer. To now see concerts doing so well in the height of summer represents a material shift in the business we do.

What trends stand out to you that affect your business in the region?
Honestly, all forms of content, from family entertainment to sport to live entertainment, are growing in the market. There’s a real lust for content, and there’s a lust for varied content. It’s not about one particular genre, even if sport, music and family entertainment are probably, the main three.

Because the infrastructure that has been and is being built in the Middle East, is so new and modern, it’s almost like you’re starting on a blank canvas, allowing you to design infrastructure, plazas, restaurants, f&b, parking, etc. right from the planning stage, to cater for a variety of different audiences.

I do believe festivals are on the grow, we’re certainly planning a festival in Saudi Arabia at the moment, which more than likely have a camping element to it.

What challenges remain, and what are the biggest opportunities you identify?
I’ll talk about opportunities first. It used to be that expats would be flown in to do the job. Now, we’re starting to see a lot of training programs. We’re working with local Emiratis and Saudis so, in the future, the venues can be fully run with a local workforce. One of the challenges when you grow at this speed will always be getting the right people. Finding and training them is also part of a true 360-business. We’re not just venue operators, we have proper boots on the ground. Within the JV with Ethara, we have an HQ team of 48 people, and we’re up to 312 full-time employees in total. That’s actual boots on the ground. We’re not ‘doing it’ from, we’re doing it from here. We have offices in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, with more to come. It’s exciting times.

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