‘Nobody Is Making Money’

Pozitif’s One Love festival had to cancel, or at least postpone, its 2016 edition because many flights were canceled over the weekend of the coup (July 15-17). But Turkey has long been a tough place for promoters.

According to Nick Hobbs, international booker and owner of talent-buying and promoting agency Charmenko, the political climate in Turkey has “a general effect on cultural consumption you could say, but it’s not dramatic.”

What the conservative Muslim government does affect, however, are alcohol and tobacco brands, which cannot be headline sponsors – at least not overtly. It also means that city and sports venues are dry, another disadvantage for promoters. It’s not just concrete laws that keep sponsors out. Coca-Cola didn’t stage Rock N’ Coke, usually Turkey’s biggest festival, in 2015 and 2016, and it looks like 2017 isn’t going to happen either.

Pollstar reached out to the soft-drinks company for comment, but did not hear back.

Hobbs says promoters in Turkey need sponsors, otherwise “it’s more or less impossible to make money with an international artist. Ticket income isn’t enough.”

Turkey’s capital Istanbul is a long way from the center of Europe, which makes artist fees therefore higher. At the same time, “ticket prices can’t be too high. It’s a very price-sensitive market.”

Hiring venues is expensive too, which is why Hobbs believes that “the end result might be that there’ll be fewer and fewer big shows. It’ll mainly be club shows.”

Add the fact that there’s virtually no municipal sponsorship available either, and it becomes clear why “as far as I can say, nobody is making money.

“Literally nobody. All the big players are losing money to different degrees,” Hobbs said. “I don’t think it’s healthy, which is a fairly obvious thing to say. In the long run this will mean that more and more promoters draw in their horns.”

And that’s not even taking into account the recent terrorist attacks, of which Istanbul had to endure three in 2016 alone. It affects artists, who are afraid to come to Istanbul or Turkey in general. It also raises their costs, because many will be traveling with increased security. “It affects audiences, because some part just stops going out as much as they used to, whether it’s cinema, concerts or sports,” Hobbs said. He estimates the decline at around 10 percent to 15 percent, which “can make the difference between a show being profitable or a loss.”

Istanbul is the major market, but it’s not the only relevant concert market in Turkey. “This year there’s been a series of major concerts in Antalya, which are being promoted with taxpayers’ money,” he said. This practice is poisoning any promoter’s game, as “they’re paying inflated amounts (and I’d love to see the real show accounts to know where the money really went…) to the artists, who are then playing to small audiences, because such concerts are badly promoted.

It’s a way for the government to try and make itself look good. They’ve completely screwed up the tourist business through the disputes with Russia and Israel particularly.”

Sting, Maroon 5 and Selena Gomez are just few of the names being promoted by the Turkish government, this year. However, Hobbs doubts that this practice will continue.

The venue situation has improved, since the Zorlu Center – with various-capacity stages – opened in 2013.

“We can now book mid-level acts, theater acts, which for a long time wasn’t happening. Damien Rice, Sigur Ros, PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Tindersticks, Godspeed You Black Emperor – all those acts would probably not have come at all, if Zorlu Center wasn’t open,” Hobbs said.

The economics of the mid-level shows are still not satisfying, though. Ticket sales in general haven’t been good enough, “so I don’t know how long Zorlu Center will be able to continue its adventurous policy. I very much hope they stay the course.”