Should concerts only be possible for vaccinated people?
The debate recently flared up again in Germany, while such shows have been around for some time in the USA.
In Great Britain, too, the government wants to make proof of vaccination a prerequisite for attending a concert from September onwards.
Benjamin Fischer
Editor in business.
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The motivation for the original approach by Jens Michow, the managing president of the industry association BDKV, is obvious: As in summer 2020, there are various pandemic-compatible formats such as picnic blanket and beach chair concerts. Sometimes they are a bit bigger than last year and at least there is a little work for the various service providers and a stage for culture. Such forms are hardly a viable business model for organizers in the segment, which is not exactly high-margin anyway, due to distance and hygiene rules. For a real restart, fully utilisable capacities are required, i.e. concerts with no distance - if necessary, initially only for vaccinated people.
The core of the demand is by no means new.
Klaus-Peter Schulenberg, the head of the event and ticketing giant CTS Eventim, had already said at the beginning of February: “Once everyone has the opportunity to be vaccinated, it is an individual decision.
Then private organizers should be able to provide proof of vaccination as a prerequisite for access.
In an interview with the FAZ, Schulenberg said at the beginning of July that he hoped “that we will see indoor concerts with full capacity in the fourth quarter with no gap or mask.” For the time being, the 3-G rule is a prerequisite for this.
Standard 3-G rule
This is currently the standard in this country for the various smaller concert formats. In Austria, on the other hand, events without spacing rules and capacity restrictions have been possible on this basis since July 1st - in addition to rapid antigen tests, PCR gurgle tests are often used there. On Wednesday, the German Association of Music Venues demanded Livekomm, among other things, to enable 100 percent utilization of clubs with recovered, vaccinated or people with negative PCR test results from October 1st. The Frequency Festival planned by an Eventim company for August with 55,000 visitors was recently canceled in Austria with reference to the Delta variant and the numerous infections at a festival in Utrecht.The uncertainty for the multi-layered industry is consequently still high, which is why the majority of the international tours that have been planned have long been postponed to 2022 anyway.
The M-Dax group has been referring to liquid funds in the high three-digit million range since the beginning of the pandemic - and is setting the course for the time after the pandemic. One building block is to be a new multifunctional hall in Milan. According to Eventim, the "largest and most modern" arena in Italy is being built as part of the Milano Santa Giulia urban development program and will have a capacity of up to 16,000 spectators and a large outdoor area. Eventim put the total investment for the project at around 180 million euros. Construction is scheduled to start in autumn 2022.
The arena should be used by the IOC for the Winter Olympics in early 2026, after which Eventim will take over.
With the Lanxess Arena, the Berlin Waldbühne or the Apollo in London, the group already operates a number of prominent venues. The Milan arena will be “a must-play for all major tours and we will also be part of our promoter through the four Italian organizers. Network Eventim Live of the region around Milan and beyond that we are able to offer absolute top events from the Eventim portfolio in our own arena, ”said Schulenberg.
102 million euros from November and December aid
In addition to the self-operated venues, more than 30 organizers belong to the group's network. Then there are the ticketing platforms, through which around 250 million tickets were sold before the pandemic, most of them on behalf of tour operators outside the group. After founding a joint venture in America, the home market of the world's largest concert and ticketing company Live Nation, at the beginning of 2020 Eventim also wants to attack in Asia as soon as possible. With Jason Miller, the former Live Nation manager for tours in Asia and the Middle East runs the recently launched joint venture Eventim Live Asia, based in Singapore. For its part, Live Nation wants to host an edition of the British download festival in Germany in 2022.The branch run by Marek Lieberberg recently announced a date for the end of June at the Hockenheimring.
The group, to which the Ticketmaster platform also belongs, presented figures for the second quarter on Tuesday, which once again underline the different situation for the industry in America and Europe. Sales rose 677 percent to $ 575.9 million compared to the same quarter last year, which was admittedly badly affected by the pandemic. Including ticket sales from shows that have not yet taken place, it was $ 2.1 billion. Eventim will not publish its half-year figures until the end of August. In 2020, sales totaled 256.8 million euros, after 1.44 billion euros in 2019. At the beginning of July, the group announced that it had received 102 million euros in November and December aid.