Tag: June 2019

Q&A: Jaime Kelsall, Vice President of Concerts, APA

Jaime Kelsall of the talent agency APA has been working in the Florida market for the last 18 years. APA clients include Judas Priest, Blondie, Mary J. Blige and Million Dollar Quartet. Tell me about the Florida market. It’s an extremely healthy market. It’s an extremely crowded market. It’s stable as far as attendance goes. It supports a number of different genres across the state. Does the market shift as you travel across the state? Absolutely. Certain genres will do better in different parts of the state. In Jacksonville, rock bands will do well; they won’t do as well in South Florida or Tampa, mostly because Jacksonville has active rock stations dominating the marketplace. Hip-hop will not do as well in Jacksonville as they will in Orlando. (Electronic dance music) is huge in South Florida and Miami but not in Pensacola, Tampa or Jacksonville. Florida is a huge state. Between… Continue Reading Q&A: Jaime Kelsall, Vice President of Concerts, APA

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Scene: Tallahassee

Tallahassee’s biggest indoor venue, shown in 2014, holds 14,000 people. (Getty Images) Mix of college students and politicians makes it a distinct music market Mark Hinson is the former head senior music writer for Tallahassee’s daily newspaper, the Democrat, and has been writing about the local music scene for 27 years. Kati Schardl is the current music writer for the Democrat. Together, they’ve seen the market grow from a strictly university town to a more diverse city with its own vibrant music scene. Tell us about the Tallahassee music scene. Hinson: Locally there is a lot of talent in Tallahassee; we are known for Creed and T-Pain. They are not indicative of the music scene, though. We are a college town so there are a lot of bands that appeal to college people that come here. We’ve always turned out interesting bands. If you know where to go, you can see… Continue Reading Scene: Tallahassee

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Hot Competition

Milwaukee’s Summerfest 2018 featured several hundred bands scattered across a dozen stages. (Tyler Yomantas) The flagship venue of Milwaukee’s Summerfest has world-class production capabilities once again — and things are just getting started Summerfest, the Milwaukee festival that bills itself as “The World’s Largest Music Festival,” had another smashing year in 2018. From June 27 to July 8, mega-touring artists including Dave Matthews Band, Blake Shelton, Journey and Def Leppard, Shawn Mendes, Imagine Dragons, Arcade Fire and The Weeknd headlined the event’s flagship venue, American Family Insurance Amphitheater, comprising the high-profile tip of a lineup iceberg that featured several hundred performers scattered across a dozen stages in Henry W. Maier Festival Park, situated on the shores of Lake Michigan. The festival posted an attendance figure that, in a vacuum, appears gaudy: Over 11 days, it drew 766,192 attendees to the 75-acre park. But, by Summerfest’s standards, the number was underwhelming.… Continue Reading Hot Competition

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Florida: Wide Awake

Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Keith Douglas) In a state that welcomes many genres, venues are busy night after night Florida is a unique market, so big that it’s impossible to pin down what genres are leading the way toward the ever-increasing attendance numbers that facilities are reporting.  Each corner has its own unique demographic. Miami and Orlando love hip-hop and electronic dance music. Tallahassee and Pensacola love country. Jacksonville is a rock paradise.  So, while you might find a different style of live music wafting from the smaller clubs and larger arenas in different parts of the state, what they all have in common is great weather and a market that’s thriving on every level. READ ON: The Circuit: Sweet spots in the Sunshine State during a big year at the gate Q&A: Jaime Kelsall, vice president of concerts, APA Scene: Tallahassee — Mark Hinson and Kati… Continue Reading Florida: Wide Awake

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Live! Roundup: Pink Powers On: The ‘Trauma’ Trek Towers Stateside

Pink performs her now-famous hanging-upside-down-from-the-chandelier crowd-pleaser at Tampa’s Amalie Arena. (Scott Audette) Pink lands in Hot Tickets with two performances reported from the first 2019 leg of her Beautiful Trauma world tour, which launched March 1. Among the shows eligible for this month’s charts, sold-out concerts at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena scored the highest gross, landing on the More Than 15,000 Capacity group at No. 4 with $4.5 million in sales. The ticket count hit 30,499 for the two-show run April 26-27. The first performance was one of two postponed when she contracted the flu in spring 2018 not long after the tour launched. A March 2018 date in Montreal was also rescheduled for this year. Four more concerts also fall during the eligibility time period for the June charts, all with grosses topping $2 million from sellout crowds. Pink performed for 14,055 fans April 17 at SAP Center in… Continue Reading Live! Roundup: Pink Powers On: The ‘Trauma’ Trek Towers Stateside

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Community Assets

The 111-year-old Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House reopened last year after a $56 million renovation. (Courtesy Live Nation) Revitalized theaters provide a boost to their neighborhoods, cities The romanticism of walking into an ornately decorated historic theater has drawn communities to save the old structures, and cities across the nation are now watching new development around theaters grow and neighborhoods flourish. An outsized example of economic growth around a revamped historic theater is The Met Philly, a 110,000-square-foot structure that was saved from despair with a $56 million restoration.  The once blighted building is now called the crown jewel of Philadelphia’s North Broad Street, an area that’s going through a renaissance with new hotels, residential and mixed-use development sprouting up.  The Met Philly opened as a massive concert venue in December and continues to wow audiences and musicians alike with its grand facade, plush seats and double balcony.  “I have to… Continue Reading Community Assets

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Marquee Attraction

The club extends to a rooftop space that overlooks Peachtree Street. (Caleb Holland / With Agency) Marquee Club presented by Lexus at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre marks successful first year Shelling out $10 million to create the Marquee Club presented by Lexus was an anomaly for Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, which had not seen a capital outlay of this amount since the theater was built in 1929. “That was significant for us,” said Adina Erwin, Fox Theatre’s vice president and chief operating officer. “We’ve done capital improvements of $1 million to $1.5 million over time, but a construction process like this had never been done here before.” With the city’s bevy of entertainment spaces — including Mercedes-Benz Stadium, not 2 years old; newly renovated State Farm Arena; Cobb Energy Center; and the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center, which opened last year — it can be difficult for a venue in this neck of… Continue Reading Marquee Attraction

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Q&A: Mark Black, InterAmerica Stage Inc. founder and president

InterAmerica Stage donates work to community theaters, Mark Black said. “It makes us feel a part of something.” (Courtesy InterAmerica Stage)  Mark Black is the president and founder of InterAmerica Stage Inc., a specialty rigging and stage machinery company, which opened its doors in 1989. The company has worked on a raft of theaters in Florida, many of them historic theaters, including the Historic Cocoa Village Playhouse, Sunrise Theatre in Fort Pierce, Falk Theatre at the University of Tampa, Colony Theatre in Miami Beach, Polk Theatre in Lakeland, Actors Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables, Olympia Theater in Miami; Athens Theatre in DeLand; The Coliseum in St. Petersburg; and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota. Other projects have included Northern Stage in White River Junction, Vt.,  and The Forum in Inglewood, California.  Black talked with Brad Weissberg of VenuesNow about how he got into the business… Continue Reading Q&A: Mark Black, InterAmerica Stage Inc. founder and president

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Getting In: Corporate Packages to Single-Event Passes

The goal of design firm Lord Aeck Sargent was to connect the Marquee Club to the theater’s architecture while creating a feel of its own. (Caleb Holland / With Agency) To ensure as many guests as possible can take advantage of its amenities, which include early access to the club 90 minutes before events, complimentary food and nonalcoholic beverages, private restrooms and bars, and coat check, the Marquee Club presented by Lexus offers both membership and single-event pricing models.  Corporate annual membership packages are $12,000, $24,000, $36,000 and $48,000, which admit 10, 20, 30 or 40 guests, respectively. All include unlimited club pass transfers, priority access to premium tickets and no ticket transaction fees. Individual membership packages are $3,000 for two club passes or $6,000 for four. Both include priority access to buy premium show tickets for all Fox events through a private ticketing concierge as well as waived ticket… Continue Reading Getting In: Corporate Packages to Single-Event Passes

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Generation Next: Michael Owens

Assistant General Manager, Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, SMG Michael Owens learned early on how to pamper touring acts, a skill that helps him stay on the competitive edge as the assistant general manager of Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Oklahoma City arena is in direct competition with the BOK Center in Tulsa, so taking care of artists and their management teams is a high priority for Owens in trying to lure them to his venue. “You’d be shocked at the amount of capital you can buy with some of these touring acts by taking a little extra effort to show them hospitality and take care of them,” Owens said. “You have to roll out the red carpet and take care of these people.” His strategy has worked, and he’s one of VenuesNow’s GenerationNext winners in part because he and his team helped the 18,200-capacity arena achieve record concert ticket sales in… Continue Reading Generation Next: Michael Owens

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