It had just gone up again, "but then the rapidly growing incidences and the news came to Omikron," said CTS Eventim boss Klaus-Peter Schulenberg in an interview with the FAZ: "At Christmas 2020, ticket sales were 95 percent below the level from 2019 to 2021 it is 'only' 60 percent, which of course is still far too little. "

Benjamin Fischer

Editor in business.

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Eventim is Europe's largest event and ticketing group.

Before the pandemic, the M-Dax company had a turnover of 1.44 billion euros and sold 250 million tickets through its channels - the vast majority for non-group organizers from various sectors.

Schoolsberg said in the summer that maybe 6 million would be for concerts from their own network of organizers.

In Germany alone, this includes prominent names such as FKP Scorpio, Semmel Concerts and the Peter Rieger Concert Agency.

Eventim also operates the Waldbühne in Berlin and the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, for example.

It was not until the beginning of December that the group also took over the Kölnticket and Bonnticket sales platforms.

"Culture has to pay for politicians' indecision"

Business itself was, of course, sluggish over the year. In the third quarter, sales of 114.7 million euros continued to improve - an increase of 279.2 percent compared to the same period in the previous year. But in the absence of major festivals and concert series, the pre-pandemic level remained far away. The bottom line was a profit of 4.5 million euros in the third quarter, after the 102 million euros in November and December aid in the second quarter were largely responsible for around 48 million euros more. With the recent increase in the number of infections and the emergence of the Omikron variant, the few concerts planned in this country for winter 2021 were largely canceled again.

For Schulenberg, the reasons for the renewed worsening of the situation also lie in part in the summer: "Culture has to pay for the politicians' indecision during the election campaign," he says.

After all, the course should have been set at this time so that there would be no or at least a weaker fourth wave.

“Once again, the event economy is suffering, for the continued existence of which politicians still do not offer any conclusive solutions.

Because the industry has long been in a dramatic struggle for survival. "

"Organizers hope for the loyalty and understanding of the concert fans"

Eventim can still rely on liquid funds in the high three-digit million range.

For many smaller event organizers, arcade operators, but also technology rental companies and especially the many self-employed people, the situation is naturally very different.

Schuleberg also refers to another aspect: "Events can only be carried out economically with no or very little capacity restrictions." This is one of the reasons why many organizers did not postpone tours to the first quarter of 2022 from the outset, "because, unlike politics, they have the pandemic situation see it coming".

For the period from the second quarter on, Eventim is currently much more confident.

"We believe that we can do our many festivals and also big open-air tours like Ed Sheeran's," says Schulenberg.

One problem for the industry, however, could be the expiring voucher solution.

In order to protect the liquidity of the organizers, it was decided in May 2020 that vouchers could be issued for tickets purchased before March 8 in the event of cancellation instead of the price being reimbursed.

Due to the continued difficult situation and numerous shows that have meanwhile been postponed several times, the industry had in some cases pushed for an extension of the regulation.

At the beginning of the new year, however, consumers can now request the payment of a voucher.

US business is off to a good start

"The organizers hope for the loyalty and understanding of the concert fans," says Schulenberg: "If there is a flood of reimbursement requests in January, it could get tight for some." At least with previous postponements, however, usually 80 to 90 percent would have their ticket to keep. They are generally very grateful for the state aid: “The continuation of bridging aid 3 is also an important step. But the event / cultural industry suffers like no other. It has not achieved any noteworthy sales for almost two years. ”He therefore hopes that the new government will soon initiate“ sustainable and targeted ”support for the sectors particularly affected, such as the event industry.

Schuleberg is comparatively optimistic about the USA. In the home market of the world's largest live entertainment group Live Nation, which also includes the Ticketmaster platform, Eventim has been active in ticketing since the end of September. As early as February 2020, a joint venture was founded with industry veteran Michael Cohl to organize tours in North America.

"We are extremely happy with our live entertainment activities in the US," said Schulenberg.

In mid-December, a sold-out Genesis tour has just been completed and, among other topics, the world rights for the Harry Potter exhibition have been acquired.

The ticket portal is also doing well.

"The market should develop better than the European one in 2022," he expects, "not least because the booster campaign in the USA started two months earlier than in Germany, for example."