Australasia News: Executive Moves At Live Nation; Secret Sounds Acquires Kicks Entertainment & More

AUSTRALIA

Executive Moves At Live Nation, AFA

Australian-born Mark Vaughan, who worked in Europe for most of his career, has returned Down Under to join Live Nation.

In his new role as vice president of talent and artist development, he heads up the promoter team in Australia and New Zealand.

Vaughan was based in Oslo, Norway, as partner at All Things Live, the largest independent concert promoter in the Nordics.

The Australian Festival Association (AFA) named Mitch Wilson as managing director. 

He replaces Julia Robinson who moved to the Australian Recording Industry Association using her contacts in government as head of policy and advocacy.   

Wilson, who worked at Live Nation and the Sydney Mardi Gras, was project manager at AFA.

Secret Sounds Acquires Kicks Entertainment

Secret Sounds Group and Live Nation acquired Ryan Sabet and Jeff Drake’s Kicks Entertainment.

Its flagship festival Spilt Milk sold out within minutes every year since its 2016 debut in Canberra and expanded to regional Victoria and the Gold Coast. Drake and Sabet said the new partnership would allow Kicks to produce “new event experiences that are fan-focused.”

Secret Sounds’ properties include Splendour in the Grass, which in July had to cancel the first of its three days because of heavy rain and flooding, and the three-state Falls Festival.

NEW ZEALAND

Summer Series Brings ZZ Top, Benatar, STP

ZZ Top, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Stone Temple Pilots and Aussie hard rock band the Angels return as part of Greenstone Entertainment’s three-show 2023 Summer Concert Tour Feb. 4-11. 

 The international legacy acts event, which sold 50,000 tix for its three shows in 2020, was cancelled this year after some of its acts didn’t want to go into COVID  isolation.

The tour marks ZZ Top’s first NZ concert in 36 years. They last played to 80,000 at Auckland’s Western Springs stadium in 1987.