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A time for touring The Middle East has had no shortage of high-profile international acts performing over the years, but historically it has been largely restricted to one-night-only flying visits, with the stars and their crew rolling into either Dubai or Abu Dhabi and disappearing just as quickly as they had arrived. There’s long been talk of how transformational it would be to establish a genuine touring route for the Middle East and with the development of infrastructure such as the Coca-Cola Arena and Etihad Arena in the UAE, as well as the emergence of Saudi Arabia as an event-hosting nation, finally what was previously a pipedream for the region’s live events industry is now becoming a reality. Central to the development of the live music industry within the region is Live Nation Middle East. The company recently made history by putting on the first ever regionally routed run featuring an A-list band, when Maroon 5 performed in Egypt, the UAE, and Israel in May, and it already has several other large-scale regional tours in the pipeline. I had the pleasure of talking to James Craven, President, Live Nation Middle East, and suffice to say, he paints a very positive picture for the future of the industry. Read the full interview on page 6. Our cover story for this issue comes from a legendary DJ who has graced our pages on many occasions. Fatboy Slim returned to Dubai’s Zero Gravity, with his tight-knitted touring team – ably assisted by local suppliers Encore, Snap, and AES – triumphing over adversity to throw one last pre-summer blowout. Read all about how the show almost didn’t happen on page 24. Elsewhere in the issue, we hear how Istanbul-based Imagina Productions breathed fresh life into an existing stage design (page 30), we check-in with the team at ES:ME (page 48), and we learn about Huda Lighting’s new events division looking to make a big impact on the industry (page 46). Enjoy the issue. Peter Iantorno Editorial Director
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