Tag: July 2020

Venue Voices: Adina Erwin

In the weeks after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the protests that followed, three Black professionals in venue management spoke to VenuesNow’s James Zoltak about their career paths and experiences, their...

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Artists Set Bar High With Multiple-Show Runs

PURPLE REIGN: Prince announces his 21-show engagement at London’s 02 Arena in 2007. (Getty Images) Of the landmark moments in live performing recorded in the box-office archives, one of the most exclusive categories is the handful of concert performers who have played 20 shows or more at one venue for a single concert engagement. We will profile six of those acts who made history with runs of 20 shows and beyond. Among the notable artists in this group, Prince stands out as the only one who topped the 20-show mark at an arena: his record-setting series of 21 performances staged at The O2 in London in 2007 just weeks after the arena opened. Prince kicked off his engagement, promoted as “The Earth Tour: 21 Nights in London,” on Aug. 1 and continued performing intermittently during the next seven weeks, wrapping the run on Sept. 21. With 351,527 tickets sold, overall… Continue Reading Artists Set Bar High With Multiple-Show Runs

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How 11E1even Group Grossed $600,000 During a Pandemic

GOOSE ISLAND: 11E1even artist Goose opens for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre on March 7. (Kendall McCargo) Management company’s ‘survival mode’ produces Live From Out There streaming festival In mid-March, as the novel coronavirus pandemic arrived in America and threw the live business into disarray, few responded as effectively as management company 11E1even Group, which represents artists such as Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Twiddle and Goose, and established a new revenue model for its clients. “The idea, first and foremost, was us jumping immediately into survival mode of ‘how do we make sure we’re going to be able to keep these bands afloat that we represent,’ which then obviously turned into a bigger concept of helping bands and crews around the country through our platform,” said 11E1even owner Ben Baruch. Baruch and 11E1even manager Dave DiCianni co-founded Live From Out There, an inventive pay-per-view streaming festival that… Continue Reading How 11E1even Group Grossed $600,000 During a Pandemic

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Midyear 2020: Bright Spots

LIKE A ROCKET, MAN: Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour continued to dazzle when it hit Oceania. (Getty Images) Standout moments before venues went dark Festivals at Mexico City’s 55,000-seat stadium, Foro Sol, scored prominent slots among the 15 Hot Tickets events ranked in the More Than 30,000 Capacity group. Topping the chart with a $12.5 million gross is the 2020 edition of Mexico’s Electric Daisy Carnival, which spanned three days. EDM giants Tiësto, David Guetta, Zedd and Diplo were among the slate of performers for the Feb. 28-March 1 event. The total headcount during the weekend registered 296,982. Another festival at the stadium was Vive Latino (No. 4) with Guns N’ Roses among the mainstage draws and two-day attendance logged at 153,892. Ticket revenue from the March 14-15 fest topped $7.7 million. Elton John, whose “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” trek is the highest-grossing tour of the year so far,… Continue Reading Midyear 2020: Bright Spots

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Letter From Maureen: Silence? I Don’t Hear It

Maureen Andersen President and CEO, INTIX The bad news lumbers on. Who would have thought?  Who would have conceived this new world we are in?  To say that we were, as a collective industry, “blindsided,” is an understatement. Arguably there isn’t a single ticket professional, performer, player, executive, stagehand, designer, fan or patron who would ever have thought that we’d be so totally and completely ground to an entire stop of shutting the doors and turning off the lights. Except for the “ghost light,” our venues are closed, the seasons are canceled or rolled forward to some indeterminate date and the venues stand silent.  There may have been reasons in the past that a given league, organization, theater or element of the industry had closed, but there was always a clear path forward to reopening. We could see the light at the end of the tunnel and knew that it would only take the… Continue Reading Letter From Maureen: Silence? I Don’t Hear It

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INTIX Quarterly: System Reboot

LEMME IN: The COVID-19 pandemic shut down secondary ticketing, but companies hope fans will be excited to return to events. (Getty Images) Secondary ticketing market sees promise beyond treacherous waters As the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic and the live industry shutdown that accompanied it have rippled across the business, few sectors have been hit harder than secondary ticketing. “It’s been unprecedented and catastrophic for the entire live event industry and certainly those in the secondary ticket market,” said Gary Adler, executive director and general counsel for the National Association of Ticket Brokers. “An interesting thing for the resellers is they’re getting hit in all directions. One, because there’s no revenue coming in, obviously, but two, because there’s all this recapturing of revenue that they generated in the past.” Major platforms, such as StubHub, SeatGeek and VividSeats, and independent resellers alike have been pinched from both sides, with promoters and… Continue Reading INTIX Quarterly: System Reboot

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The Other Washington Monument: The 9:30 Club Turns 40

ICONIC: Alabama Shakes performs at the 9:30 Club, which this year is celebrating its 40th year and in 2019 was crowned No. 1 on VenuesNow’s Top Stops chart in the 2,000 or Less Capacity category. (John Shore/Courtesy I.M.P.) The 9:30 Club’s 40-year run at best is highly unlikely. Really, what are the chances of what started out as a magnificent hovel surviving unprofitability, cutthroat competition, constantly shifting taste, corporate consolidation and rampant gentrification to become one of the most iconic venues on the planet? One that would somehow come to have more than 10,000 shows including performances by a pantheon of music deities, including James Brown, Prince, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Iggy Pop, Loretta Lynn, Public Enemy, Nirvana, Adele, Radiohead and legions more? “The fact that the 9:30 Club may do more shows on an annual basis than any other club in the world says it all,” says Kirk Sommer,… Continue Reading The Other Washington Monument: The 9:30 Club Turns 40

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What’s On at the Drive-In? A Lot

PUT IT IN PARK: Switchfoot performs a concert in a parking lot just outside San Diego’s Petco Park. (Courtesy Petco Park) Movie screenings, in-person and remote live performances and graduation ceremonies have made their way into venue parking lots in many cases — and right into the venue, in the case of the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium. The series officially opened with a Juneteenth screening of the civil rights film “Selma” June 19. That followed a soft opening for a drive-in series of movies and classic Dolphins games (including the team’s two Super Bowl wins) inside the stadium and in its Open Air Theater on the south side of the venue, said Tom Garfinkel, Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium vice chairman and CEO. Inside the stadium, there’s room for 230 cars, with tickets priced at $39 a vehicle. Open Air Theater tickets are priced at $12-$19 apiece. There’s also… Continue Reading What’s On at the Drive-In? A Lot

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Drive-Ins: Texas arena with lone full-timer joins trend

HOT TEXAS NIGHTS: Music under the stars in HIdalgo, Texas. (Courtesy Payne Arena) Eric Trevino has essentially been a one-man operations crew for staging a successful series of drive-in-style concerts filling Payne Arena’s parking lot in Hidalgo, Texas. The first three concerts, Eli Young Band, Kevin Fowler and Intocable, held June 5-7, grossed a combined $118,385, said Trevino, general manager of the city-owned facility. As of mid-June, Trevino was the 7,000-seat arena’s only full-time employee still working. His 20-person staff was put on furlough after the pandemic closed the venue for an indefinite period. Trevino began doing research for how he could help bring live entertainment back to the property and, in the process, help the community get back to work. Hidalgo sits next to the border of Mexico, and the arena draws residents from both countries to its events, though the border has been closed to nonessential travel since… Continue Reading Drive-Ins: Texas arena with lone full-timer joins trend

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Drive-Ins: A ‘Loop Daddy’ Road Show for the COVID-19 Age

BUCKLE UP: Hound’s Drive-In near Charlotte, N.C., filled up for the Marc Rebillet tour. (Courtesy HotBox) KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C. — Murderous flamingos, a sexy take on stimulating the economy and taking live phone calls from the audience are all part of Marc Rebillet’s 2020 Drive-In Tour, pairing the electronic dance music artist with a vintage piece of Americana. The pandemic has shut down the live entertainment industry over the past four months. As acts, agents and promoters come up with temporary solutions, many have turned to the drive-in format to fill the venue role. It helps musicians stay active and generate revenue and gives music lovers cooped up indoors an opportunity to enjoy an outdoor concert from the protective confines of their cars. The trend has pop-up concerts taking place in parking lots at arenas and stadiums across the country, but a few artists are actually performing at drive-in theaters.… Continue Reading Drive-Ins: A ‘Loop Daddy’ Road Show for the COVID-19 Age

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A Temple and a Dream Combine in Cleveland

ROOMS FOR IMPROVEMENT: A rendering shows the proposed hotel next to Masonic Cleveland. (Bialosky) Plans could help build on mixed-use concept for clubs It makes business sense, and not just in branding synergy terms, that a venue that sees live music performance as having a higher purpose would partner with a hotel chain whose very name embodies the aspirational. TempleLive, the Rogers, Ark.-based venue brand, and Dream Hotel Group out of New York have announced plans to develop a 207-room hotel adjacent to the 2,500-capacity Masonic Cleveland. “Nobody does hotel and food and beverage better than Dream,” said Mike Brown, vice president of TempleLive, who has a background in the hotel industry. “They just get the experiential hotel offering. “The local community frequents the venues inside the hotels, the guest rooms are appointed by people who understand exactly what guests want and they’re cool. They’re the cool kids you want… Continue Reading A Temple and a Dream Combine in Cleveland

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Seating Manufacturers Stepping Up for Distancing

DIVIDE AND CONQUER: 4Topps offers its countertop seating with dividers and hand sanitizers for golf tournaments. (Courtesy 4Topps) Products help venues control size and density of post-lockdown crowds The pandemic has seating manufacturers taking steps to protect patrons and venue managers. Plastic dividers, seat covers and greater education on sanitation are all part of their focus during the COVID-19 crisis. 4Topps, the Winston-Salem, N.C., firm that has carved a niche producing a four-seat countertop product for retrofits at arenas and stadiums, now makes plexiglass dividers for those structures attached with hand sanitizers for PGA Tour tournaments. For golf, those seats are typically set up inside corporate hospitality chalets with views to the course. Tournament officials rent them from 4Topps as part of an upgraded experience. Mounting “privacy panels” to both sides of the structure adds 50% to the rental cost, said Deron Nardo, the company’s principal and president. Nardo would… Continue Reading Seating Manufacturers Stepping Up for Distancing

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