Concert Market Rankings: No. 6 Atlanta

Atlanta, colloquially referred to as “Hotlanta” as a growing leisure destination with a long, warm outdoor season, is appropriately also a major concert market, with the most active venues in the region including State Farm Arena, Fox Theatre, Cellairis Amphitheatre At Lakewood and City Winery Atlanta.

The city has produced numerous popular musicians, in recent years becoming famous for the “Dirty South” style of Southern rap practiced by the likes of Ludacris, Big Boi and Gucci Mane, while also home to R&B stars like Usher and Toni Braxton, genre-bending performers like Janelle Monáe and Lil Nas X, rock bands from The Black Crowes to Indigo Girls and still more.

One recent hot tour to hit the market was Harry Styles’ “Love On Tour,” which played two nights at State Farm Arena in late October, grossing $4.15 million total despite ongoing concerns about the Delta variant and overall difficulty in arena touring in the final quarter of 2021.

“Everybody was masked,” said Steve Koonin, CEO of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena, also noting the venue’s vaccination requirement. “We had unbelievable per caps on merch, as I think every city in the country did.”

Other highlights include the other touring giant in the room in 2021 – The Rolling Stones, whose smash Mercedes-Benz Stadium gig in November grossed a staggering $11.1 million from one show, with just shy of 50,000 tickets sold.

On the development front, 2,300-capacity The Eastern opened in September with Big Boi. Since then, a full slate of active touring artists have played at the multi-level venue, which includes a rooftop performance space as well as a main level performance room. Located in the Reynoldstown neighborhood within The Atlanta Dairies development, the venue is a partnership between AEG Presents and Atlanta-based subsidiary Zero Mile, which also operates Terminal West in West Midtown and the Variety Playhouse in Five Points. 

Check out Pollstar’s inaugural Concert Market Rankings chart at the link below:
https://www.pollstar.com/Chart/2022/01/First%20CMR%20Jan%202022_997.pdf