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AEG announces plans for a major revamp of its Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center) in Los Angeles.
Just three people are responsible for over two thirds of UK festival and outdoor event tickets listed by resale platform Viagogo, a new report finds.
A number of European arenas tell IQ that skyrocketing energy costs are emerging as the sector’s biggest challenge since the Covid-19 pandemic.
AEG Presents sues Young Thug for the return of a $5million (€5m) advance, plus damages, after accusing the rapper of breach of contract.
CTS Eventim hails an “impressive comeback” for live entertainment, as it shares bullish financial results for the second quarter of 2022.
Harry Styles will continue his current Love on Tour outing with a run of stadium shows in Europe next spring and summer.
Rumours of gunfire cut short a Wiz Khalifa concert in Indianapolis, causing fans to flee the venue by climbing over seats and fences.
Mad Cool Sunset is called off after organisers were unable to find a “suitable” replacement for Rage Against The Machine.
Grassroots music venues are among the small- and mediumsized businesses in the UK that are facing closure without immediate action to curb rocketing fuel bills.
DEAG’s revenue soars past prepandemic levels, according to the company’s financial results for the first half of 2022.
Takk, the Swiss-French concert promoter and artist booking company, hires Théo Quiblier.
Ticketmaster gives event organisers the ability to issue NFTs before, during, and after live events.
Friendly Fire ups Pien Feith to head of its Dutch booking department.
ASM Global announces a long-term partnership with Fuze Technology Inc to offer mobile charging to attendees at its venues.
Live Nation makes a strategic investment in Turn Systems, which operates a leading reusable cup system.
Sam Fender is set to become the first Geordie artist to headline St James’ Park in his hometown of Newcastle, UK.
Ole Hertel is promoted to vice president and managing director of AEG Operations, operator of the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin.
Feist pulls out of her support slot on Arcade Fire’s world tour, following allegations of sexual misconduct against the band’s front man.
K-pop fans can now buy shares in the companies behind stars like BTS and Blackpink via a new Exchange Traded Fund, launched in the US.
STAR publishes a report outlining the impact of Covid-19 on the UK’s ticketing industry.
Organisers of the star-studded Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert hail the event as a “fitting and humbling memorial” to the late Foo Fighters drummer.
DF Concerts heralds a recordbreaking summer, having sold one million tickets between June and August.
Placebo postpone their entire North American tour just two days before it was due to begin, citing “visa and logistical issues.”
Justin Bieber postpones the remaining dates of his Justice world tour due to ongoing health issues.
Michelle Donelan is named as the UK’s eighth culture secretary in five years as part of a cabinet reshuffle by new prime minister Liz Truss.
Festicket appears to be on the verge of administration after a moratorium filed by the festival discovery and booking platform comes to an end.
Ticketmaster says its dynamic pricing model has captured over $500m (€500m) for artists and event organisers from resale markets in 2022.
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European live music trade bodies are lobbying for government-backed sup port packages to protect the sector in the face of rocketing energy bills.
Astronomic energy costs have emerged as the sector’s biggest challenge since the pandemic, with ASM Global’s Marie Lindqvist saying electricity and gas prices have quadrupled at the com pany’s venues since the beginning of the year.
“It is probably our number-one challenge right now,” Lindqvist tells IQ. “However, the cost base in general is a huge challenge, with pressure in all key cost lines such as labour cost inflation, event costs, food costs etc.”
ASM is leaning on technology to help monitor and reduce its carbon footprint and costs. “We are able to view our consumption in real-time so we track usage every day with a view to becoming as efficient as we can be,” says Lindqvist.
“We are also further investing in new technol ogy and working closely with Greener Arena and other experts in the field to continue to move forwards in this space. Finally, we are recruiting a head of sustainability whose sole role will be to support our business to achieve our carbon reduction targets and to support our venues to be as green as they can be.”
AEG’s 15,000-cap Barclays Arena in Ham burg, Germany, is exploring the use of alterna tive sources such as wind power and solar energy in a bid to curb prices.
“Since its construction in 2009, the Barclays Arena has a greywater recycling system on the roof that collects rainwater for the sanitary sys tem,” says VP and MD Steve Schwenkglenks, add ing that the venue is reducing waste and increas ing recycling across its food and beverage offers.
The UK government unveiled the Energy Bill Relief Scheme for businesses after it was revealed that some live music venues are seeing their en ergy bills increase by an average of 300% – in some cases as much as 740% – adding tens of thousands of pounds to their running costs.
Under the new scheme, wholesale prices are expected to be fixed for all non-domestic energy customers at £211 (€243) per MWh for electricity and £75 (€86) per MWh for gas for six months between 1 October and 31 March 2023.
While welcoming the move, trade bodies stressed that further support is needed to stabi lise the sector – although calls to reduce VAT on ticket sales to 5% and reform business rates in September’s mini-budget went unheeded.
Elsewhere in Europe, markets including the Netherlands and Germany are still lobbying for
critical support to curb “disastrous” energy costs for live music businesses.
In the Netherlands, the Association of The atre and Concert Hall Directors (VSCD) says a large proportion of its membership is in danger due to rising energy costs and inflation.
“For many venues, the rise in energy costs is disastrous,” says Mirjam Radstake, director of Theater Hanzehof and Buitensociëteit in Zut phen. “The expectation for next year is that we will be seven times more expensive. Even if we sell out every performance, this cost increase is impossible to absorb.”
Germany’s Federal Association of the Con cert and Event Industry (BDKV) is calling for a special relief programme for the events sector.
“Without state support, there is a risk of the industry collapsing with bankruptcies, opera tional closures, and further migration of skilled workers and the self-employed,” reads a state ment. “This special programme is needed now and not in the near future when such help is al ready too late.”
Mirjam Radstake | Theater Hanzehof and Buitensociëteit in Zutphen“For many venues, the rise in energy costs is disastrous. The expectation for next year is that we will be seven times more expensive. Even if we sell out every performance, this cost increase is impossible to absorb”
2022 was always going to be something special. And boy, was it. Special and busy. Record-breaking busy. 2019 was an unparalleled year for summer events, then 2022 came along and blew that out of the water with 67% more events taking place. Massive thanks go to all our clients for partnering with us through such an incredible year.
While 2022 presented its challenges, we still scanned more than 1.5m people into events this summer. I am super proud of the whole team at Ticketmaster; getting fans into these events is just the grand finale of a huge undertaking.
First up – our marketing team finally got to stretch their muscles and put our 23m-strong fan database to work. From growing audienc es for new clients such as Trentham Live to reaching as many fans as possible for the more established festivals – particularly those like Creamfields South, which added new venues. The team not only used their skills to reach the right fan with the right event but also got crea tive with campaigns like highlighting the payment options to give ticket buyers more options.
Our heroic Fan Experience team was our backbone throughout the entire summer, dealing with over 200,000 fan enquiries. The recent enhancements to our digital custom er service solutions meant that more than 50% of these were successfully dealt with using automated responses, ensuring a speedy resolution for fans.
Then it was our onsite teams who made it all happen, working over 25,000 hours in box offices across hundreds of events up and down the UK. This year, we invited local stu dents studying event courses to work with us for the summer, giving them great relevant experience. We met some amaz ing people and, as a bonus, discovered new talent with two of them joining the team full-time.
Looking back on this summer, we can’t ignore the endless
benefits going digital has had. We’ve seen a 120% increase in the use of digital tickets across the business since 2019, and the majority of tickets this summer were fulfilled through our digital ticketing solutions. My personal highlight was the Ed Sheeran tour – the first call with the promoters took place back in March 2021, so it was more than 12 months in the making. The goal of the artist’s camp was to lock down the tickets so they stayed with real fans, and our digital ticketing technology did exactly that. Job done.
Being back in the field was a great relief for me. I’m first and foremost a people person. Sitting behind a desk and looking at a screen all day lost its appeal three days into lockdown. And it was not just me who missed being out and about in this amazing business. My son, Henry, has been going to fes tivals since he was six weeks old, and this year, I took him to everything possible. From BBC Big Weekend to Standon Calling, then to his first stadium show with Ed, and two Camp Besti vals, making it an action-packed summer. Finally, to the new Camp Bestival site in Shropshire, which, I have to say, was way more civilised than our pre-kid Bestival days!
This record-breaking summer is a testament to the fact that live music and festivals remain essential to everyone. It’s a time to reconnect with friends and family, try things you haven’t done before, explore and find new music, have time away from the 9-5 and the hustle and bustle of ordinary life. It’s all about the experience, which is why VIP sales are through the roof, with new concepts continuing to come through. The Ned Club at The Cambridge Club was another level, the Chef’s tables at Connect Festival booked up like the very best restaurants in town, and events like Wilderness con tinue to knock it out of the park year after year.
Strap yourselves in… 2023 is going to be another record-breaker. I’ll see you there.
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“This record-breaking summer is a testament to the fact that live music and festivals remain essential to everyone”
is an artist unafraid of baring all in her music. Her unique alt-pop-rock/emo sound has led to a growing groundswell online, building a strong community of fans – her “outsiders.”
AViVA describes her songs as being about the “outsider ex perience,” something clearly expressed in both her sonic pal ate and her lyrics, in which she explores the themes of control and isolation.
Since her debut single, GRRRLS, in late 2017, her distinct sound and message has garnered the support of tastemakers globally on YouTube and Spotify.
AViVA has toured with the likes of Yungblud, Poppy, and Pale Waves, has played at numerous festivals, and amassed more than 3bn global streams.
AViVA spent 2021 releasing new music and a debut novel (via MacMillan publishing), with a second book released this summer. She will appear at Supanova (Comicon) in Australia in November.
The International Festival Forum in as sociation with TicketSwap enjoyed a triumphant sold-out return 27-29 Sep tember, where a record-breaking 800 delegates enjoyed three days of Camden sunshine and a healthy mix of confer ence sessions, artist showcases, network ing events and business meetings.
Representatives from more than 500 festivals around the world reported brisk business with their booking agent colleagues, with many agen cies setting up pop-up offices around Camden. Delegates took advantage of IFF-organised speed meetings and the extensive networking areas on offer at the Holiday Inn hub or the various bars and terraces at the likes of the PowerHaus live music venue.
The eighth edition of IFF got off to a roaring start with an opening party sponsored by UTA, before the good people from Solo Agency in vited delegates to check out four of their finest emerging acts.
Early risers on Wednesday morning wit nessed opening debate The Festival Season 2022, where various luminaries shared their experi ence of the past few months, before IFF founder Greg Parmley conducted a keynote interview with principals of Roskilde Festival, which final ly got to celebrate its 50th edition after two years of postponements.
Wednesday’s live musical fare was provided by X-ray Touring, One Fiinix Live, and Primary Talent International, while CAA provided din ner and drinks, prior to Mad Cool Festival and The Spanish Wave’s showcase and a fitting birth day party to mark Roskilde’s golden anniversary.
Throughout IFF, headline sponsors Tick etSwap proved a popular draw thanks to their custom-built terrace lounge in the Holiday Inn offering a delicious brunch alternative, as well as a never-ending flow of mimosas for thirsty visitors.
Thursday’s schedule kicked off with a series of presentations titled The New Kids on the Block, where recently launched agencies One Fiinix
Live, Mother Artists, and Runway spoke about their ethos and bespoke approaches to business, and German festivals Superbloom and Tempel hof Sounds outlined their successful first seasons.
The conference schedule later wrapped up with Festivals & Agents: Happier Than Ever?, which examined the stronger bonds between both sides of the business and the ways they are continuing to work together for the common
good on behalf of artists and their fans.
A packed afternoon showcase programme saw live performances by clients of Wasserman Music, Earth Agency, and ATC Live. And for those not rushing off to catch flights, IFF’s final dinner was followed by Music Venue Trust’s Revive Live Mixer gigs, before UTA brought the curtain down at Camden Assembly with its latenight artists showcase, Hear This
Showcasing artists at IFF 2022 included:
Blondshell (ATC Live)
CLT DRP (FMLY Agency)
Connie Constance (ATC Live)
Dead Pony (Wasserman Music)
Debbie (Wasserman Music)
Deijuvhs (Earth Agency)
Ellie Dixon (One Fiinix Live)
Fat Dog (UTA)
Florence Arman (Primary Talent International) flowerovlove (Wasserman Music)
Gigi Moss (X-ray Touring)
Haviah Mighty (Earth Agency)
Hickeys (Spanish Wave)
Irenegarry (Spanish Wave)
Khazali (Primary Talent International)
Lizzie Esau (Wasserman Music)
Megan McKenna (Solo Agency)
Mitch Sanders (Solo Agency)
pablopablo (Spanish Wave)
Panic Shack (UTA)
piri & tommy (Wasserman Music)
Pixey (Primary Talent International)
Psymon Spine (X-ray Touring)
Steven Bamidele (Primary Talent International)
Surf Curse (ATC Live)
Talk Show (Primary Talent International)
The Goa Express (ATC Live)
The Kairos (Solo Agency)
The K’s (Solo Agency)
The Native (X-ray Touring)
The Stickmen Project (One Fiinix Live)
Waldo’s Gift (ATC Live)
Zand (UTA)
Zheani (X-ray Touring)
It’s 15 years since IQ launched The New Bosses – our annual search for future industry leaders. Such is the vast array of talent that stood out during the Covid crisis and the post-pandemic restart, that we have increased The New Bosses class of 2022 to recognise 20 of our brightest and best who are already making a difference through their work and extra-curricular activities.
The individual profiles on the following pages are shortened versions of the full interviews. Keep an eye on iq-mag.net in the coming days and weeks, where we will be publishing the full Q&A with each New Boss. And congratulations to everyone selected as one of this year’s New Bosses!
Your podcast initiative opened doors for you. What advice would you give to anyone trying to find a job in live music?
Go the extra mile: Start your own project (podcast, blog, etc.) and invest your time. Show the world you have expertise and why you would be a good addition to any team.
What’s been the biggest challenge for you and the DreamHaus team as the business has emerged from the pandemic restrictions?
There is an uncertainty about the upcoming winter, so hopefully we can continue having regular concerts throughout the colder times. Let me be fully honest: after months in my home office, it took a while for me to get used to the regular office workflow again.
Where would you like to see yourself in five years?
I just want to keep my momentum going and build my roster. In general, my goal is to continue to do my work, learn, and evolve –personally as well as career-wise – and then who knows what the fu ture will bring.
What has been the highlight of your career, so far?
After years of attending splash! as a fan, the moment I was backstage at the festival as an official was pretty cool. In addition to that, LUIS – the first domestic act I signed – just started his first tour, which is basically sold out.
MVT’s Emergency Response Service has proved invaluable over the past couple of years. What is your favourite success story?
Over the years, Pauline Forster, who owns the iconic George Tavern in London, has fought an immense battle to save the venue against threats of redevelopment. Being a small part in the story of the George Tavern and helping ensure the venue survives is something I am proud of. Pauline’s spirit encapsulates the creativity, chaos, and courage that can be found in venue operators up and down the country.
Your work at MVT has put you in the spotlight on TV and even lecturing students. How do you prepare for such daunting assignments?
I try to always say ‘yes’ to these types of challenges because by placing myself into these situations, I’ve become more familiar with their set up and actually started to enjoy them. I tend to have a general idea of the points I want to make, sense-check them by running them past the team, who have years of experience in the sector, and then try to leave room to just enjoy the process.
Where would you like to see yourself in five years’ time?
I don’t think [MVT CEO] Mark Davyd will have any issue with me openly saying I am coming for his job!
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At 35 years and counting, Mimmo D’Alessandro and Adolfo Galli’s pro moting union has outlasted most marriages. But then, they do live largely separate lives.
“Adolfo is in Brescia, and I stay in Tuscany, in Viareggio,” explains D’Alessandro of their two-office setup. “I met Adolfo in 1987 in Tuscany. We had spoken on the phone about Miles Davis, who he was working with, but the first time we met faceto-face was at a David Bowie show I promoted in
Florence for the Glass Spider Tour. Adolfo is a very different character to me. I support Napoli [FC], he supports Inter…”
“It’s definitely a unique combination in our business, that’s for sure,” responds Galli with a chuckle. “Mimmo is more involved produc tion-wise, and I’ve always looked at more of the commercial side. Mimmo is from the south, I’m from the north. He likes horses, and I like gui tars. But our differences are our biggest strength.
“Even though sometimes we don’t agree, he puts something of what he thinks in and I put
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It’s 35 years since Adolfo Galli and Mimmo D’Alessandro first collaborated on a show, changing Italy’s live music scene forever. James Hanley learns that Di & Gi’s founders are the epitome of ‘opposites attract’…
Welcome to IQ Magazine’s 2022 Green Guardians – our annual list (and badge of honour) that highlights those eco-warriors and innovators striving to make the live entertainment industry more sustainable.
The Green Guardians is spearhead ed by IQ and an expert panel of sustainability experts to recog nise suppliers who are improv ing the live music business when it comes to being more environmentally friendly.
Our international panel of judges this year includes representatives from A Greener Festival, Green Events & Innovations Con ference, Greener Events, Green Operations Europe (Go-Group), Julie's Bicycle, Le Réseau des Femmes en Environnement, Sustainable Event Alliance, Sustainable Event Solutions,
Tour Production Group, and Vision:2025.
The 2022 list of Green Guardians includes 20 entries across a wide range of event sup pliers and solutions providers, all of whom are working tirelessly to reduce the carbon footprint of the live entertainment business.
One of the goals of the Green Guardi ans initiative is to point decision makers toward suppliers who can help them to im prove their environmental credentials. We hope the products and services profiled on the coming pages will make a meaningful contribution to cleaner concerts and produc tions around the world in the years ahead.
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Principality Stadium in Wales was just one of two UK venues on Rammstein’s historic 2022 tour
hygiene. Yet to gaze upon any number of packed stadiums and festival fields this summer is to re alise that public concern has all but vanished; de mand for large-scale communal, euphoric, sweatsoaked music experiences is higher than ever.
This comes as no surprise to Tom McCann, venue director of Arsenal F.C.’s Emirate Stadium in the UK’s capital. “Everyone – both fans and artists – learned to appreciate live entertainment when it was taken away from us for so long,” he says. “And with so many bands having produced new music over the last two years, it’s created a perfect storm of fans wanting live concerts and artists wanting to play.”
Indeed, rather than uncertainty holding back stadia mangement, a number of venues chose the pandemic recovery period to enter the market.
t was a statement that had become inevi table but was still dreaded – 13 words that nobody in the live music industry wanted to hear. “We collectively recommend largescale events through the end of March be postponed.” The date was 12 March 2020; those words came from a joint statement issued by Live Nation, AEG, CAA, WME, Paradigm, and UTA. That same night, the last four arena shows in the US – Billie Eilish, Prince Royce, Post Malone, and Lauren Dai gle – took place; one day earlier, Maroon 5 had headlined Uruguay’s Estadio Centenario, while 7 March had seen Elton John entertain over 26,000 fans at Australia’s Western Sydney Stadium. Such shows were no more, though – and no one knew when they’d be back.
As Covid-19 rampaged across the planet, ax ing public events and social gatherings became the first step toward lockdowns, with sporting events, cinema, theatre, and music the first to shut down. Safety, and fear of the virus, were the primary considerations; as the joint statement continued, ensuring that “precautionary efforts and ongoing protocol are in the best interest of artists, fans, staff, and the global community” were of paramount importance. Some smaller shows and events continued, particularly in ter ritories that enacted less stringent restrictions, but in the main, stadiums remained shuttered. And despite the arrival of the vaccine in early 2021, successive infection waves and the number of Covid-19 variants ensured that it wasn’t until the second quarter of this year that full-capacity stadium shows became viable once again.
In the midst of lockdowns, some wondered what profound behavioural and societal changes the virus might leave. Handshakes would be out, mask-wearing in; and as for large social gather ings, a whole new range of protocols and norms would be adopted to defend personal space and
Barely four miles (6km) north of Arsenal, ri vals Tottenham Hotspur dipped their toes into the concert market this year, hosting back-toback shows by both Guns N’Roses and Lady Gaga with just under 200,000 fans in attendance across the four nights.
Across the city, arguably the world’s most fa mous stadium, Wembley, was the setting for as many concerts – 16 – as games this year, selling more than 1.3 million tickets in the process. However, next year it will shatter that record with agreements to host 26 concerts.
In the UK in general, the total number of stadium and festival shows will exceed 2,000, double-digit growth from pre-pandemic levels, according to the Financial Times. And it’s not just here or in Europe: Argentina’s River Plate Stadi um will host Coldplay for ten nights in Novem ber (they’re also doing five nights in São Paulo, Brazil), while the likes of Ed Sheeran and Billy Joel have had to add extra dates to the Australian and New Zealand legs of their respective tours.
Of course, this is not just due to pent-up de mand and consumer confidence. As Alex Luff, venue sales manager at Principality Stadium in Wales, says, many of the postponed shows from 2020 and 2021 have simply been rescheduled. “We’ve had to work harder as a team and work more collaboratively with our partners and pro moters to satisfy such a crowded calendar,” he says. Rammstein’s Stadium Tour is one such ex ample; originally planned for 14 June 2020, they finally played in June this year, wowing nearly 40,000 fans with “audacious theatrics, extrava gant pyrotechnics, and world-class production.”
In total, the Principality Stadium has wel comed over 350,000 music fans this summer, in cluding 110,00 across two nights for Stereophon ics’ We’ll Keep a Welcome shows – with support from Sir Tom Jones, his first time playing the stadium – and 75,000 back in May for Ed Sheer an, the biggest capacity crowd to have ever taken place in Wales. “It was a bumper summer,” says Luff, “and an incredible opportunity to present the stadium to new audiences.”
Keen to make up for two years of inactivity and to meet public – and artist – demand for huge concerts, the 2022 stadium show schedule was packed like never before. Derek Robertson talks to stadium operators about recovering from the pandemic, dealing with a congested calendar, and their plans for a bright future.
Having been shut down by the coronavirus for longer than many of its European neighbours, Italy’s live music professionals have been more eager than most to resume business. Adam Woods reports on their mixed fortunes.
In a market known for passion ate and frequently litigious extremes of competition, the breadth of the coalition that met the press at Milan’s San Siro stadium last September was striking.
Under the banner of promot ers’ body Assomusica, the heads of Friends and Partners (F&P), Vivo Concerti, Live Nation Italia, Verti go, D’Alessandro e Galli (Di & Gi), BPM, DNA, and others sat shoul der-to-shoulder to insist on a full live restart at full capacity.
“We have lost 99% of revenue,”
said Live Nation’s Roberto De Luca. “Only with 100% capacity can we start again.”
They didn’t get their wish until April this year, and a rollercoaster year has been the consequence –stuffed with shows, not all of them successful, but bringing relief, to the top end of the market in particular.
“We saw huge growth in 2022, both for international artist and lo cal artists,” De Luca tells IQ, almost exactly a year on from the San Siro showdown. “Talking only about big events in the summer period, we produced 22 stadiums, with 1.24m
tickets sold; two big open-air shows, with 105,000 tickets sold; and two festivals – Firenze Rocks and I-Days. We sold 309,000 tickets for those.”
The biggest shows, of course, give an impression of health that doesn’t necessarily carry right through the market.
“The trouble with this summer is there were too many offers,” says Vittorio Dellacasa of Milan-based staging and production specialist Delamaison Productions. “In a normal season, a venue might have ten shows a month, and now they have 29 on a monthly basis. The big
events work very well – like, capacity of 20,000 upwards. But the medium to small events, it’s tough for them.”
Italy was hit particularly hard and exceptionally early by Covid. In the live business, the resulting restrictions meant two long zombie years, and as with most other mar kets, the ramifications of those and other disasters are taking time to unravel.
“After two years of pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis, we are all living a very difficult period,” says Vertigo CEO Andrea Pieroni. “I’m pretty sure it will take another two or three years before we come back to the pre-pandemic level. It won’t be an easy challenge, in my opinion, but I’m here, and I’m ready to rock.”
Pieroni says he didn’t draw his inspiration from his home market for his recent novel, È solo rock‘n’roll (It’s only rock’n’roll), set in the in ternational live music business. But
With magnificent Roman buildings such as Verona Arena – which celebrates its 2,000th anniversary in 2030 – Italy has some of the most spectacular venues on the planet © Claconvr/Wikimedia Commons
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My highlights of IFF were:
1. Sustainability including equality, diversity, and accessibility came up on all panel sessions, unprompted.
2. Reconnecting with the “live” family, actually IRL.
3. flowerovlove at the Wasserman showcase was particularly mesmerising – and now I’m a fan!
Claire O’Neill | A Greener FestivalMy IFF highlight was seeing so many interna tional friends and colleagues again. It’s been a super challenging year for all, but happiness at being back doing what we all love is getting us through. Seeing so many people in person is a great reminder of this.
Alex Bruford | ATC Live
IFF was like a festival: after entering the gates, it was full of smiling faces, old and new friends, lots of music, and great adventures. I think IFF is the most important meeting place for the European live music industry at the moment.
Rauha Kyyrö | Fullsteam Agency
The highlight of every IFF for us as an agency is that we get to meet with all the agents and the industry professionals that we work with for the whole year, and it’s always good to put the face to the name!
Meeting people. The social aspect is the most im
portant part of IFF, then the showcases. Michal Kaščák |Pohoda Festival
It was just great being back at IFF in an envi ronment full of the best festival bookers in the world. And the fact that people are back booking new acts for their events, rather than rollovers, is just such a relief.
Rob Challice | Wasserman MusicSeeing people and reigniting those friendships that we’ve all built and enjoyed over the years. On the artist side, I really liked Khazali, who is repped by Beckie Sugden at Primary Talent. I loved his attitude and bedroom eyes, and the music was just fantastic.
Mo Thomson | Sandbird Creative Services
My IFF highlight was definitely The New Kids on the Block panel. Hearing how both new festivals and agencies are working to change the business for the better was really inspiring. I found meet ing other independents extremely insightful; it
was a great opportunity to hear new perspectives!
Amy Greig | Runway Artists
Great networking! I had as many meetings as I could possibly handle, both with agents and pro moter colleagues from all over Europe.
Nick Hobbs | Charmenko
My highlight was the ability to finally touch base with so many of my international colleagues af ter so long. Face-to-face conversation is often the best way to feel out future collabs and ideas.
Flo Noseda-Littler | Wasserman Music
It was great to see everyone together again in Camden. My top highlight, and shameless plug, was deijuvhs forward flipping into the pit at our showcase – it was a proud moment!
Lucy Atkinson | Earth Agency
For me, the absolute highlight was seeing pro moters that I stayed close to throughout the pan demic and vice versa. True friendships beyond the business formed, with hardships very much still at the forefront for so many, so it was good to see us all sitting together and supporting.
Natasha Gregory | Mother Artists
This year’s edition of the IFF resembled the one from 2019, for me. I have the impression that in the last two years, relations have tightened and conversations are not only based on the exchange of information but focus on the analysis of many threads and variables that may affect the devel opment of a given artist. Most of us can describe ourselves as solution seekers and creativity has returned to the game!
Sara Kordek | Good Taste ProductionWhat was your International Festival Forum highlight?
