Live Nation posts 2017 results

Live Nation had another record year in 2017 for the full year ended on December 31. Revenue were up 24% to $10.3 billion; attendance at the company’s concerts was up 21% to 86 million; and sponsorship and advertising revenue was up 18%. The company’s Ticketmaster unit showed strong growth as well, with its fee-bearing gross transaction value (GTV) up 15%. The company acknowledged a $202 million fourth-quarter loss from its $110 million settlement with Songkick, whose assets it acquired as part. Looking ahead into 2018, LNE confirmed arena, amphitheater and stadium shows through February 19 are up 7% compared to this time last year.  CEO Michael Rapino said “Given our plans to further monetize our fan relationships, I expect this will translate into continued strong growth in concerts operating results in 2018.”

US recorded music market growth driven by streaming

The Recording Industry Association Of America say that in the first half of 2017 retail revenues from recorded music in the US were up approximately 17% to $4 billion, with wholesale revenues up about 14.6% to around $2.7 billion.  The big growth is in streaming with revenues from all the various streaming services available in the US now accounting for 62% of the total American market, with total streaming revenues up 48% to $2.5 billion in the first six months of the year.

Mysteryland US cancelled

The US  edition of Mysteryland has just been cancelled. A statement on the Lifestyle promoted event's website reads: "Dear Nomads", Due to unforeseen circumstances, Mysteryland USA will no longer take place in 2017. Since 2014, we have strived to produce the best possible experience for our festival attendees, and are truly humbled by all of the love and support that you, the artists, the beautiful venue of Bethel Woods Center For The Arts and the town of Bethel have shown us as we celebrated life through music, culture and art". The 2017 event was due to take place in July, headlined by LCD Soundsystem, Major Lazer and G-Eazy. 

International Live Music Awards - The Arthurs - the winners!

The winners of the 2017 'Arthurs' at the ILMC are out - and main accolade of the evening, the Bottle Award, went to a very surprised and emotional Herman Schueremans, of Live Nation Belgium/Rock Werchter. 

The other winners are:

Venue (First Venue to Come into Your Head)
Royal Albert Hall

Production services (Services Above and Beyond)
Eat to the Beat

Professional services (Most Professional Professional)
Selina Emeny, Live Nation

Festival (Liggers’ Favourite Festival)
British Summer Time

Ticketing (The Golden Ticket)
CTS Eventim

Assistant (The People’s Assistant)
Sarah Donovan, Live Nation UK

New business talent (Tomorrow’s New Boss)
Oliver Ward, UTA

Agent (Second Least Offensive Agent)
John Giddings, Solo

Promoter (The Promoters’ Promoter)
Stephan Thanscheidt, FKP Scorpio

Festival and Event Industry Tackle Sustainability, Social Division & Censorship

With just 2 weeks to go until A Greener Festival and the ILMC’s eagerly awaited Green Events & Innovations Conference (GEI9), London’s Royal Garden Hotel, 7th March, the full line up of top speakers and sessions has been released.

The live event and festival industry are coming together to tackle issues of sustainability and the role that the global live events industry must take in the face of perceived political and social divisions, and artistic censorship.

GEI9 will debate issues from site design and infrastructure, sustainable set and stage design, the impact of fireworks and special effects on the environment, what Brexit and the current political environment means for events, and how censorship and oppression of musicians is reported to have doubled between 2015 and 2016.

This is set to be a pivotal event of lively, challenging and meaningful exchanges.

The UK’s Sustainability Conference for Festivals and Events is back on Tuesday 7th March 2017

GEI9 is A Greener Festival’s annual flagship event delivered in partnership with the International Live Music Conference (ILMC). Each year welcoming diverse and inspiring speakers and projects from around the world to gather and challenge the way we deliver events towards a better impact for our environment and society.

The theme for GEI9 is “Sustainable Design”. The art of creating every aspect of great events involves both creativity and impeccable production techniques. By instilling ecological, economic and social principles in to all aspects of event design in conception, communication, implementation and review, necessary changes can be achieved.

GEI 9 will explore how sustainable design is being applied to operations, artwork, infrastructure and management, to align events with our natural and technological environment in the 21st century.

This is in addition to the usual program of the most current innovations and developments at festivals and events from around the world, including those assessed by A Greener Festival.

Keynote: Designing Sustainability into the DNA of Events

Lucy Legan, Co-founder, Ecocentro IPEC (BR)

Ecocentro IPEC in Brazil is the largest reference centre of sustainability in Latin America, and demonstrates scalable models of social technologies. Keynote speaker, Lucy Legan MSc, has played an integral role in environmental education in Brazil and is a best-selling author of educational books on sustainability literacy.

Since 2006, Lucy has collaborated with Boom Festival, Portugal, as it transitions to a model of sustainability by implementing permaculture edible gardens for festival-goers, natural construction, composting during the festival on a large-scale (with 90 tons composted on-site during the last edition), and by co-ordinating a highly efficient waste-management team.

Many festivals and events are taking on the challenge of innovation in sustainability. A new paradigm of sustainable and responsible events takes into account the dynamic elements potentially acting as a laboratory for change. The future of green events is in the hands of event producers and event attendees.

Permaculture design offers a framework for thinking and designing sustainable festivals and events, where new economies, ecological landscapes, scaled technological solutions, transition strategies and social redesign can be tried out in a temporary autonomous zone.

Panel: Get Lithe Leccy! Smart Design of Event Energy

Paul Schurink (ZAP Concepts, NL) | Steve Muggeridge (Green Gathering, UK) | Tim Benson (Hybrid Energy Consultant, UK)

Which festival stakeholders need to be involved in changing an event’s energy sources and how should we go about persuading traditional energy suppliers used to providing diesel generators, to completely rethink their business model?

Paul Schurink is an expert in the field of temporary energy supply, sustainability and innovations and has been involved with a variety of large-scale events including the Olympic Games and UEFA EURO 2012. He will present a case study of Zap’s work with DGTL BCN festival in Spain.

Joining Paul will be environmentally conscious event organiser and sustainable event veteran, Steve Muggeridge, of iconic Green Gathering fame, who will reveal how the event’s team go about designing the site layout, their use of power hubs, and even the programming of the entertainment, in order that the entire festival is run on renewable energy.

 

Launch: The Smart Energy for Outdoor Festivals Guide
Chris Johnson, Powerful Thinking, Shambala Festival (UK)

Five years on from the launch of The Power Behind Festivals Guide, Powerful Thinking has released a comprehensive update to their indispensable industry energy guide – Smart Energy for Outdoor Festivals. And what’s more, this eagerly awaited guide will be exclusively launched by Chris Johnson, during GEI9.

Presentation: Latest Actions & Challenges for Greener Festivals
Claire O’Neill, Co-Founder, A Greener Festival (UK)

Following the assessment of 25 festivals across 11 countries in 2016, A Greener Festival will provide insight into the latest developments and key challenges that events are experiencing in the pursuit of sustainability, and will also be launching the Greener Festival Assessment Report.

Presentation: What Next? Environmental Policy Post-Brexit
Amy Mount, Head of Greener UK Unit & Senior Energy Policy Advisor, Green Alliance (UK)

Greener UK is a group of 13 major environmental organisations with a combined public membership of 7.9 million, united in the belief that the UK leaving the EU will provide us with a pivotal moment to restore and enhance the UK’s environment.

Amy Mount will offer insights into the risks and opportunities that Brexit poses to UK environmental policy, and the work of Greener UK, which includes NGOs such as WWF, Greenpeace, National Trust and the Woodland Trust.

Panel: Wider Environment – Nationalism & Climate Change Denial 
Fruzsina Szép, Yourope (DE) | Holger Jan Schmidt, Co-founder, GO Group (DE) | Stephen Budd, Stephen Budd Music (UK) | Ivan Milivojev, Exit Festival (RS) | Amy Mount, Green Alliance (UK) 

Green events are about more than just lowering our environmental impact. In this session, we will look at the social and cultural effects of recent global political developments, and what role events might play.

Fruzsina Szép will share the actions of European festival association, Yourope, and their recent Take a Stand initiative, aimed at encouraging festival promoters to foster values of “social togetherness, understanding and tolerance for all cultures, genders, races, religions, sexual orientations, colours and origins.”

Fruzsina will be joined by renowned artist manager, Stephen Budd, who will be sharing his recent experiences of artist censorship and oppression with us; along with Exit Festival’s Ivan Milivoje, GO Group’s Holger Jan Schmidt and Amy Mount from Green Alliance.

According to research from the FreeMuse annual report Art Under Threat, such cases have more than doubled since 2015. What action must we take, therefore, to protect our freedom to present an alternative, inclusive vision for society?

Panel: Sustainable Set & Stage Design
Chris Tofu, Continental Drifts (UK) | Bertie Cole, Arcadia Spectacular (UK) | Tim Leigh, Stage One (UK)

With the competition to create sets and stages that are more impressive, more elaborate, and more expensive to build, maintain and shift, this session will ask how innovative approaches to extravagant stage and set design can be delivered without a jarring waste of the world’s resources. Hear from the leading set and stage designers and builders about what techniques are being adopted to reduce the waste without loosing the artistic impact.

Panel: The Environmental Impact of Fireworks
Aymeric Lecomte, A Greener Festival/Bournemouth University (UK)

They might be visually impressive but what is the environmental impact of firework displays at events? Is there a legitimate cause for concern or does the bang really outweigh the bother?

Aymeric Lecomte presents the latest research on this controversial subject, and opens the debate for the future of special effects in the live entertainment industry.

Tom will present an industry and consultant's view on the environmental issues surrounding the use of fireworks and pyrotechnics - and to try and dispel some of the myths that surround their use at events big or small.

Drawing on his experience as a chemist and having worked in the industry since his teenage years and latterly as a consultant to major events such as London NYE and the Olympics, Tom has a unique perspective on what the issues really are.

Panel: The Future World of Special Effects 
Patrick O’Mahoney, Newsubstance (UK) | Aymeric Lecomte, AGF (UK) | Dr Thomas Smith, Pyrotechnics Association (UK) | Dr Thomas Smith, British Pyrotechnics Association (UK) | Stuart Warren-Hill, HoloGauze (UK)

Having turned the spotlight on the environmental impact of fireworks and special FX, Dr Thomas Smith, Patrick and Aymeric will take a subsequent look at alternative methods of providing the wow factor at events without literally costing the earth.

From drones, lasers and holograms to mind boggling chemical compounds – what are the safe alternatives in the explosive world of special effects?

Panel: Designing Inputs for Greener Outputs 
Chris Cooke, CMU (UK) | Sid Sharma, Shambala Festival (UK) | Lucy Legan, Boom Festival (PT) | Mikkel Sander, Roskilde Festival (DK)

Smart events choose smart design. In this panel we will look at how infrastructure can be planned and delivered in a way that it will help events significantly lower their wastage of fuel, water, food, materials and resources.

Where | When

GEI9 will take place at the Royal Garden Hotel in London from 10:00 until 18:00 on Tuesday 7 March 2017. 

Immediately after the event, all GEI delegates are invited to attend a closing drinks event that will take place in the York Suite of the hotel for a chance to network, discuss the day's events and enjoy a tipple or six.

Rooms 3 & 4, Lower Ground Floor, Royal Garden Hotel
2-24 Kensington High St, Kensington, London W8 4PT, UK
10:00 - 18:00, Tuesday 7 March 2017

Hosts: A Greener Festival | ILMC

Registration | Rates

A delegate pass for GEI costs £99 plus booking fee, with a discounted rate of £65 available to ILMC delegates, students, and members of AGF, AIF and Yourope. The ticket price 

includes a five-star lunch, refreshments, and a closing drinks party.

Please note that all our early-bird tickets are now sold-out.

ILMC delegates should tick the relevant box when registering for ILMC.

Members of AGF, AIF and Yourope are limited to two representatives per festival, and should contact hello@agreenerfestival.com.

Non-ILMC delegates should click here to register for GEI9.

To see footage and presentations from previous editions of GEI, click here.

For more information and tickets, click here.

The Grammys - (some of) the winners

Album Of The Year: 25 — Adele 

Record Of The Year: “Hello” — Adele 

Song Of The Year: “Hello” — Adele Adkins & Greg Kurstin, songwriters 

Best New Artist: Chance The Rapper

Best Pop Vocal Album: 25 — Adele 

Best Pop Solo Performance: “Hello” — Adele 

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: “Stressed Out” — Twenty One Pilots 

Best Dance Recording: “Don’t Let Me Down” — The Chainsmokers Featuring Daya 

Best Dance/Electronic Album: Skin — Flume 

Best Contemporary Instrumental Album: Culcha Vulcha — Snarky Puppy

Best Rock Performance:“Blackstar” — David Bowie

Best Metal Performance: “Dystopia” — Megadeth

Best Rock Song: “Blackstar” — David Bowie,

Best Rock Album: Tell Me I’m Pretty — Cage The Elephant

Best Alternative Music Album: Blackstar — David Bowie 

Best R&B Performance: “Cranes in the Sky” - Solange

Best R&B Song: “Lake By the Ocean” — Hod David & Musze, 

Best Urban Contemporary Album: Lemonade -  Beyoncé 

Best R&B Album: Lalah Hathaway Live — Lalah Hathaway

Best Rap Performance: “No Problem” — Chance The Rapper Featuring Lil Wayne & 2 Chainz 

Best Rap Album: Coloring Book — Chance The Rapper 

Best Country Solo Performance: “My Church”  -  Maren Morris

Best Country Duo/Group Performance: “Jolene” — Pentatonix Featuring Dolly Parton

Best Country Album:  A Sailor’s Guide To Earth — Sturgill Simpson

Best Jazz Vocal Album: Take Me To The Alley — Gregory Porter 

Best Gospel Album: Losing My Religion — Kirk Franklin

Best Latin Pop Album: Un Besito Mas — Jesse & Joy 

Best Music Video: “Formation” — Beyoncé 

Best Music Film: The Beatles: Eight Days A Week The Touring Years 

T off for 2017

“Continued restrictions” on the T in the Park festival site at Strathallan Castle mean the event will be not go ahead in 2017 – its first cancellation in 23 years. In a statement to press, the two parties behind the festival – promoter DF Concerts and commercial partner Tennnt’s Lager – blamed T in the Park’s enforced move from its previous site, in a disused airfield in Balado, Kinross-shire, for the 2017 event’s postponement, as well as problems at the new site - not least the protected Osprey's nest that had huge cost for the organisers and local objections , saying they “need to take stock and take a year out to try to resolve the issues, so that we can once again deliver the kind of camping festival you are used to and deserve.”