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God Bless America! INTERNATIONAL NEWS
IN THIS ISSUE SUMMER 2018 3 STAGECO DÉBUT AT ULTRA EUROPE 4 DOWNLOAD PARIS: C’EST BIEN! Deep inside the French version of the rock and metal classic 12 PAROOKAVILLE Welcome to the windy city 14 AMERICAN PIE Mary Lou Figley discusses the past and present of Stageco US 20 FORGING REPUTATIONS ON THE RUN Touring with Taylor Swift and Beyoncé & Jay-Z 28 LONDON THEME FOR AIRBEAT ONE 32 FOO FIGHTERS: CONCRETE, GOLD & STEEL Live from London Stadium 36 IN THE ROUND AT QAPITAL Cover image © Mark Cunningham
I hope you are enjoying this extraordinarily hot summer as much as we are. At this moment, our crews are building our unique Alpha and Bravo tents at Lowlands, and with many of our current tours now moving out of Europe and over to America, I am reminded of the events in 1992 that led to Mary Lou Figley and I setting up Stageco US – the subject of a feature in this edition. My first meeting with Mary Lou remains unforgettable. We arrived at a bank in Dallas to open an account and there she was, dressed so elegantly in her businesswoman attire, while I was every inch the casual rock’n’roll staging guy. I had the impression that the bank clerk thought we were very dubious pair! We have always followed our clients and Stageco US was one of our better decisions because, just like today, tours would begin either in America or Europe and then cross the Atlantic after a gap of a week or two, so a company such as ours really needs to have a presence on both continents. There was no way that we could predict how the US business would blossom, any more than we were able to ourselves in Belgium at the start. By coming into the picture at a time when stadium tours were still young, we were able help shape this side of the industry and, as the years progressed, the US office evolved to play a major role in our continued growth. Next year is already shaping up to be another very busy one for Stageco but let’s soak up the rest of this summer first! Hedwig De Meyer, Stageco President
SUMMER 2018
STAGECO INTERNATIONAL NEWS