Live Nation has continued growing in the second quarter and for the first half, with revenue up 12 per cent and AOI (adjusted operating income) up 6 per cent on a constant currency basis in the second quarter. The increase in revenue was led by our concerts business as we continued attracting more fans to more shows globally, which in turn drove AOI growth in our advertising and ticketing businesses through the first half of the year.
With the majority of our tickets sold for the year, we are confident that we remain on track to deliver our 2015 plan, and all key leading indicators reinforce our expectation of continued top- and bottom-line growth as we build global market share in our core concerts, advertising and ticketing businesses.
We have built the industry’s most scalable and unparalleled live platform, bringing 450 million fans in 40 countries to that magical two-hour event each year. Concerts are the flywheel for our high-margin on-site, advertising and ticketing businesses and this year we expect to deliver record operating results, increasing the revenue and profitability of each of these businesses.
Concerts Continuing To Build Global Platform
Starting with the concerts business, we have now sold approximately 75 per cent of our projected tickets for the year, and through July we are pacing 7 per cent ahead of last year’s ticket sales; this is our top leading indicator that we will increase concert attendance again this year. We continue to be the world’s leading promoter with about three-quarters of the top 25 global tours, including U2, Imagine Dragons, Lady Antebellum and One Direction. Along with attendance growth, we have also grown per-fan on-site revenue this year by 18 per cent to over US$20 per fan in our amphitheaters and festivals as our sales initiatives, particularly those focused on the high-end fans, pay off.
The strength of our global platform continues to deliver growth as we have increased year-on-year attendance. In the second quarter over a million more fans attended our shows, also spending money at the concert, paying service fees on tickets and providing advertisers with an engaged audience. For the full year we expect to grow our fan base by over two million, which on its own would be one of the top five promoters in the world, as we build our audience across our global portfolio, including arenas, festivals, amphitheaters, and theaters and clubs.
At the same time, we continue building our global platform for the future, most recently adding Marek Lieberberg to establish our concerts business in Germany. Germany is one of the top three concert markets in the world and Marek has a history of promoting more than 700 shows for over two million fans each year. Adding these shows to Live Nation can make us the top promoter inGermany, and moving these two million tickets to the Ticketmaster platform will substantially increase our scale and market position in ticketing in Germany. With this move, Live Nation now has a promoting presence in all the major Western European markets, and along with our presence now in nine Asian markets, we are the only promoter able to provide global and regional touring support at scale for artists.
Our artist managers continue to provide a strong pipeline of shows to our concerts business aligned with this growth.
Sponsorship & Advertising Delivering Accelerated Growth
In the sponsorship & advertising business, we have delivered strong growth through the first half, with both revenue and AOI up over 20 per cent on a constant currency basis.
Our key leading indicator for advertising, contracted net revenue, is up 19 per cent on a constant currency basis as of the end of the second quarter and we have sold over 80 per cent of our planned sponsorship & advertising for the year. This now gives us confidence that our AOI growth rate in sponsorship & advertising for the year will be in the low teens, an acceleration from recent years.
Our online advertising continues to build rapidly, growing revenue by 36 per cent and AOI by over 30 per cent at constant currency for the first half. We now have over 65 million unique monthly visitors to our sites and broader network, making Live Nation one of the top three online music networks.
On the content side, we have entered the second year of streaming live shows with Yahoo! Live, with an increased focus on festivals this year, including EDC in Las Vegas and the Wireless Festival in the UK so far, and Creamfields, Landmark and Voodoo to come. Our Live Nation TV network with VICE Media is launching this month, and will provide music fans with the combination of Live Nation’s access to 24,000 concerts and VICE’s unique story-telling ability.
With the growth of our festival business we are also continuing to build our base of major advertising clients, increasing the number of companies that pay us over US$1 million a year by 15 per cent; now delivering a collective $200 million to Live Nation in 2015.
With all parts of our advertising business now performing and growing rapidly, we expect a record level of AOI growth in 2015, with continued strong runway.
Ticketmaster Marketplace Continues to Grow
Ticketmaster has continued building its global leadership as a ticket marketplace this year, with 7 per cent growth in site visits leading to a 10 per cent increase in combined primary and secondary Gross Transaction Value (GTV) at constant currency.
A key driver behind this growth in site visits and GTV has been our mobile first strategy, building our products for ease of use and viewing on mobile devices. Mobile now consistently accounts for more than half of our traffic, both in North America and internationally, and year-to-date we have deployed 27 updates to our apps globally, as we are enhancing the fan experience.
As a result, we continue seeing growth in mobile ticket sales, up 21 per cent through the first half, and now accounting for 21 per cent of total ticket sales. Our app install base continues to build as well, now at about 19 million, as more fans are seeing the benefits from improved search and ticket management functionality.
I am confident that 2015 will mark the true point of conversion of Ticketmaster to a technology company. We have the right leadership and technology teams in place, building a marketplace and delivering products with great fan features, while also capturing cost savings for the business. With all this, Ticketmaster has never been better positioned.
A year of growth
After growing the business in the first half of the year, we expect 2015 to be another year of growth and record results for the company, and we are confident that we will deliver the final year of our three-year plan. Based on the strong position of our leading indicators in concerts, sponsorship & advertising, and ticketing, operationally we expect revenue and AOI growth in each of these businesses and overall for Live Nation this year. And more fundamentally, we continue to see a wide set of both organic and acquisition opportunities to further grow each of our businesses beyond 2015, directly building on the success we have achieved to date.
Michael Rapino
President and Chief Executive Officer
Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.
Tag: Entertainment
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Live Nation achieves double digit growth
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Glasgow to host MTV Live Lockdown
MTV is returning to Glasgow to stage MTV Live Lockdown on 30th September – the second MTV live music event to be produced in the city in less than a year.
The news builds on the success of Glasgow’s hosting of the MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) in November 2014 and the MTV Crashes in 2010.
MTV Live Lockdown is an eight-part series in which a selection of high profile artists travel underground and emerge for a special showcase performance in front of a live audience.
MTV UK is partnering with Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) and EventScotland to deliver the event, which will be produced by JJ Stereo and filmed and broadcast as a 3 x 30-minute series set to air on 30th October on MTV Music and MV Live HD.
Confirmed performers include English rapper and dance phenomenon, Example, two piece band, Slaves and chart topping British duo, Sigma.
The acts will perform in a coliseum style set, providing a 360 degree view for an intimate and exclusive audience of approximately 500 fans.
Paul Bush, Director of Events at VisitScotland: “It’s fantastic to welcome MTV to Scotland once more and hold the first production of MTV Live Lockdown outside of London. MTV Live Lockdown forms part of a legacy from the 2014 MTV EMA which was also hosted here; further reinforcing Scotland’s reputation as the perfect stage for events”.
Paul Bush is speaking at HOST CITY 2015 in Glasgow, the leading EU-based meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events, on 9 to 10 November. -
How to create a music tourism hotspot
Host City: We are very much looking forward to your participation in Host City 2016. What do you think is most interesting about the conference agenda?
John Langford: I think it’s a much needed conversation piece, realising the economic impact that big events can deliver. In particular I think there’s a growing focus on cultural events.
Host City: Are we seeing a greater convergence of sport and entertainment?
John Langford: Yes we are definitely seeing more of that and I think there are two reasons. The first is that the lines between sport and non-sport entertainment are becoming blurred. We are expecting it to be integrated: whether it’s a Super Bowl half time show or an opening or closing ceremony of Formula 1 Rocks, it’s becoming expected.
The second reason is that it adds value to sponsors and consumers. It brings in additional people and additional money. My wife will come with me to sport events if she knows there is going to be some kind of entertainment that she is going to be interested in. That brings in more eyeballs and more sponsors.
Host City: In relation to your experiences as a promoter and venue manager, what do you think are the critical issues for customer experiences?
John Langford: The first thing is truly understanding what the customer experience is. In our case, the customer experience begins the moment the person starts looking for tickets, not when they arrive at the venue.
And if you take that to a city context, it’s the whole experience that someone has. If they are a music tourist, it’s not just seeing Coldplay at the arena or the stadium; it’s the whole experience that leads up to that: the travel, the hotel, the food, the whole lot.
Secondly, we are all striving to exceed expectation and for me that’s a measure of great customer experience – we need to truly understand what the customer is expecting and then exceed that.
Thirdly, this really means that all the players need to work in a synchronised approached and that is a real challenge for cities – how do we work better with transport hosts, airports, hotels etc. to deliver a city-wide customer experience?
Host City: How does SECC work with the city of Glasgow to achieve this?
John Langford: Fortunately, the city of Glasgow is quite progressive in the way it approaches big events, more so than most other cities around the world. It’s always had a big drive to lead on hosting events, whether that’s conferences – they’ve got a very successful conference team at the city marketing bureau – or the major events team, who we worked with very closely on events like the MTV European Music Awards and Radio 1’s Big Weekend. We’ve got the MOBO awards coming up at the end of the year – those are driven by the city as opposed to promoters.
The real benefit of Glasgow is that there is a city strategy to drive cultural tourism. And it works both ways: the city can drive things to us, and if we have an idea we can drive it back to the city. A good example is the Ignition Motoring Festival in August, which is a concept that we came up with and the city bought into it and essentially it’s a whole campus-wide festival of motoring.
Host City: How do you go about programming content at SECC and SSE?
John Langford: We are quite fortunate in a way in that we don’t have major competition for our size in a good 200 mile radius. And Glasgow audiences are great; they are some of the best audiences in the world and we know from the research we’ve seen that they buy about 50 per cent more tickets that the UK average for live music events.
Typically anything that comes to the SSE Hydro is booked in the same way that the O2 is booked in London: a big artist like Madonna, U2 or Timberlake will typically book the O2 and the Hydro and then fill in the rest of UK and Europe on the back of that. So we are very fortunate in that we get a lot of proactive bookings; promoters will come to us.
We do however have challenges outside those busy periods where we try and create our own content and that requires working with promoters and artists and festival organisers to create events.
We are very cautious not to be promoters. Some venues feel differently but we feel we are not in the business of promoting. We would rather be in the business of coming up with concepts, taking a share of the risk, but we’d rather work with an established promoter to actually deliver the event.
We work very closely with AEG that owns the O2 in London on a country music festival called Country to Country. We are working on another music festival, the genre of which I can’t share just yet.
Host City: So you are moving towards “festivalisation” as well?
John Langford: Yes, I think that’s an audience trend. People are expecting bang for their buck. Way Out West in Gothenburg is an example of an urban festival, or the Great Escape in Brighton – those are examples of things that we would certainly like to see more of in Glasgow, not just on our campus. We feel that we are part of the fabric of Glasgow, just as much as Barrowlands or Hampden Park stadium.
Host City: How important is nurturing local talent for cities to develop themselves as cultural hubs?
John Langford: I think it’s all part of the same ecosystem. You need record labels, promoters, managers, recording studios; you need a whole ecosystem that creatively feeds itself.
Some of the research that I’ve seen on developing music cities is that it’s important to have all of the aspects working together; and ideally that it’s driven by the city and I think that’s probably the biggest challenge for a lot of cities.
It’s a bit like herding cats, particularly in the creative industries; there are a lot of entrepreneurs and independent thinkers and I think the challenge is creating an environment within which they can work. You need to lead without pushing and I think that’s a real challenge for cities.
Host City: How important is venue planning in creating entertainment hubs – not just physical venues but also using open spaces?
John Langford: Glasgow has a good range of venues, indoor and outdoor, sports and entertainment. I think it’s key that cities have that.
Secondly it’s licensing and I think a lot of cities need to work harder on this. You need to get all the city structures working together if the object is to bring more events into the city. Whether its occasional licenses for drinking, food or capacity, everything needs to work together.
You need a progressive planning regime in the city. In the UK there are a lot of traditional music venues that are being squeezed by pressure from residents. The gentrification of areas is causing a lot of venues to shut down, so there is a big drive, certainly from the music industry, to protect those venues.
But what you’re talking about is going that extra step. It takes a liberal, forward thinking city to recognise that there is going to be a bit of pain sometimes, whether it’s noise or hundreds of thousands of people coming to your city for an event – the progressive cities realise that’s where the economic impact comes from. You need to take a bit of pain sometimes to get the gain.
*UK Music report “Wish You Were Here 2016”
John Langford, Director of Live Entertainment at SECC and SSE Hydro, is speaking on 22nd November at Host City 2016 conference and exhibition on the subject of “Creating Entertaining Experiences for Visitors”. -
Creating entertainment hubs and cultural meccas with Cirque du Soleil
This article follows our involvement on a panel discussing the topic of “Creating entertainment hubs and cultural meccas” at the Host City conference and exhibition in November 2017.
The debate at the conference emphasised the importance of location integrity and matching strategic local cultural goals to event goals in the creation of successful “go to” events, wherever they are located in the world.
Our experience in all we do proves these conclusions. First up, Cirque was formed from within the long-established Montreal creative street entertainment community. This gave us artistic credibility and sector integrity from day one for our Circus inspired shows. This allegiance to Montreal and the strong “alternative street-scene” there has been core to our offer as we expanded and grew.
Our Head Office is still based in Montreal. As an Englishman when visiting this HQ, it also helps when immigration officials ask, “reason for your visit”. When replying I always mention, “work with Cirque”, which causes the officials to visibly swell with pride and wave me through!
Cirque has definitely added to Montreal’s cultural reputation. It often appears on lists of ‘the World’s most reputable cities’, vying for top 10 positions with cities that are far larger.
All Canadians, (not just those handling immigration,) now see the city as what Forbes magazine has termed the “cultural epicentre of the country.”
This claim for culture may not be so easy to extend to our other important entertainment hub– Las Vegas!
We have over 3,000 staff located there, running up to eight shows more suited to the unique “local cultural goals” that only Vegas can deliver. Our ‘Michael Jackson One’ musical plays to packed houses twice a day at the Mandalay Resort & Casino.
In the decade we have been in Vegas, Cirque has definitely contributed to the city’s long established “Big Show” entertainment reputation, even if this may seem at odds with the more bohemian Montreal hub.
Another core part of the Cirque offer is our touring shows. We have between six and eight shows on the road, at any time, performing shows all over the globe.
According to our twitter feed today (January 2018) we have shows in Rio, Beijing, London, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Dubai and Panama City. They will remain in a city for between one week and six months and continually tour the globe for up to eight years.
These are a mixture of arena-based shows, such as the Albert Hall when in London, and performances under the big top. We have recently added ice skating arenas to this roster with our newest show based on ice, “Crystal”.
Every show is a self-contained mini village – a mobile entertainment hub, if you will.
Most recently Cirque has added a new provision to our offer – one that builds on our ability to create, stage and sell entertainment that is relevant to today’s media savvy and entertainment hungry consumers.
We are developing partnerships with locations, entertainment organisations or rights holders who wish to develop their own experiences, whether branded or not.
The NFL X on Times Square in New York is our most recent example of this offer. We have developed, in close co-operation with the NFL a four story, 40,000sq foot, interactive and immersive series of exhibits. Check out https://www.nflexperience.com
NFL X confirms those panel discussion conclusions. Firstly, the importance of location integrity and secondly, matching strategic local cultural goals to event goals.
The NFL X adds to the Times Square integrity by adding to its status as a “must-see” destination within one of the World’s most famous cities. It also fits within New York’s unique cultural offer – being brash, loud and original.
Nick Prichard is part of the Cirque du Soleil Global Alliances team. He is currently developing the new Experiential provision with a number of Host Cities, Sports Rights Holders and Brands. To find out more please contact him on nick.prichard@cirquedusoleil.com -
Nashville’s Music City brand grows to embrace world sports
Host City: What sort of a situation was Nashville in when you took over?
Butch Spyridon: Our primary attraction was a theme park. The company that owned the theme park owned two TV networks, so, we had the ability to package the city and put it out on the networks, and we relied on that for weekend visitors in summer and spring.
The theme park closed in 1998, and the networks went away. Then 9/11 hit a few years afterwards, and we were sitting here with no substitute demand generator. Our city convention center was woefully inadequate and we were just floating in the water. Even our primary source of business, the Opryland Hotel, was starting to build hotels around the country, so it was no longer a case of signing five-year contracts to come to Nashville; it was signing five-year contracts to rotate along with three, four and five other cities.
So we had to decide: do we want to be in the business of the hospitality industry, and, if so, what is it going to take to be successful?
I don’t think any other city has used events quite like Nashville as a key strategy to getting itself out of its slump – to create awareness, recognition, build the brand, generate PR and sell hotel rooms. It’s very intentional, and in 2003-2004 we put a plan together.
Three things came out of the planning process. We needed a true demand generator – a new convention center, that became the Music City Center.
Then it was to own the Music City brand. We had a nickname, but we didn’t have a brand. And we focussed on living up to the brand in every way imaginable.
And then the third leg of the stool was to use events to build the brand, to draw attention to ourselves and generate travel.
So, the cornerstones were the convention center, the brand, and big events.
Host City: What big events did you host in those days?
Butch Spyridon: First, we worked with CMA, the Country Music Association, to stage a four-day, 45,000 out of town visitors per day event. At the time it was 20,000 and dying, a very uninspiring event. We worked with them to reinvent it and move it downtown. That was the number one move, to grow that as a signature summer event.
Then we took over July 4th and turned that into an event that sells 20-25,000 rooms and generates national PR for us.
Host City: How did Nashville manage to take ownership of something which is a national event?
Butch Spyridon: We had to make it bigger; we had to bring A-list talent to the table. And for events that go on in other places, we look at who does it best. When you think of July 4th or New Years’ Eve, where do you think of? It’s New York. We don’t have the Statue of Liberty, but we could put on the biggest fireworks show in the country. Nobody would expect that from Nashville.
We built the reputation with A-list talent like Lady Antebellum and a symphony performed live with the fireworks choregraphed and hand fired – which nobody else was doing. We made it the biggest July 4th fireworks show, we made sure the music was in place and we only book Nashville-based artists. We’re happy to go head to head with Macy’s or Philadelphia or Boston – our “Let Freedom Sing” show is that good.
It worked so well that the hotel community asked us to build a New Year’s Eve event. So now we are entering year nine for New Year’s Eve – 100,000 people, 20,000 hotel rooms – we built it from the ground up. For New York, New Year’s Eve is an event, but ours is a party! There’s a subtle difference there.
Host City: Nashville is renowned for music, but how has Nashville taken steps to host major sports events?
Butch Spyridon: We booked the 2014 Final Four NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, that was a big step six years ago. Then we saw what we could really do.
We booked and hosted the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue launch in 2015. We really brought it to life with a downtown festival with the Kings Of Leon headlining. We tented Lower Broadway, an eight-lane wide street with honkytonk bars and neon lights, and streamed it live. According to Sports Illustrated, it was their biggest and most successful launch. It was food, music and fashion in Nashville.
Two years ago we hosted the NHL All Star game and really turned that into an event instead of just a sporting competition in the arena – we brought it outside, we had a concert, we had celebrity guests – we elevated the All Star game in a way the NHL hadn’t done before. And now they’ve tried to continue that.
We also chased for the World Cup with the US when we lost six years ago. And this year we were part of the successful United bid, and that’s taking our domestic US national event strategy and pushing it globally.
Host City: Do you think this will be the seminal moment where you become a truly international event host?
Butch Spyridon: I think we have a decent shot; it’s not a foregone conclusion. If you think about it, ten or 11 US cities will host games. There will be training sites and a media center, and there will be a conference in February before the year of the Cup. So there are ample opportunities to score something – we obviously hope it is a game.
We know we are on display, so next summer we’ll have another Gold Cup game – it will be even more meaningful next year. When we do events, we do them at a high level. It is Nashville’s time to shine. It’s important we have a good turnout as the decision-makers will be watching not only how we execute but also how the fans respond to coming to Nashville for a soccer game.
Prior to the Gold Cup we will host the 2019 NFL Draft, which is a pretty big coup for us. Over three days, several hundred thousand people go through; it’s broadcast on multiple TV networks with international media – and we want to turn it into an international party.
The Tennessee Titans are playing in London this summer, so this further enhances our exposure and our ability to market both the football season and the draft itself.
Host City: Are you interested in other international sports championships?
Butch Spyridon: Where we have the facility, the answer is absolutely, yes. We can build a case for rugby, for International Champions Cup (ICC), when private promoters bring European teams over her. We hosted an ICC Game last year with Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur; we are told we will get one next year. Those sorts of things are very important.
One of the most fun events we host is Red Bull Flutag. The concept is they build a runway over water to see who can fly the furthest with homemade flying machines.
Do you see yourself as in competition with other cities or is it useful to get together to share ideas?
Butch Spyridon: I absolutely believe and love learning from what other cities, destinations, countries have done. We can all learn so much from each other, I do believe that, but also believe it is competitive, and we try not to give away all the secrets.
Host City: So how useful would an event like Host City be to you?
Butch Spyridon: Very useful. There are sporting related conferences like that that but there is not an event conference especially that includes international. I think it would be extremely valuable.
A few noteworthy events hosted in Music City
NFL Draft; coming to Music City in April of 2019
Gold Cup; US vs. Mexico September 2018. Also hosted in 2017.
International Champion Cup (ICC); hosted in July of 2017
NHL Play-off’s street party (hosted & produced by the NCVC), 2017
CMA Festival (85,000 people in attendance per day over 5 days)
NHL All-Star Game
Davis Cup, 2018
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Fan Party featuring Kings Of Leon, 2015
Jack Daniels’s Music City Midnight: New Year’s Eve in Nashville (hosted & produced by the NCVC)
Let Freedom Sing: July 4th in Music City Fireworks Celebration & Concert (hosted & produced by the NCVC)
Nashville is an official candidate host city for the 2026 World Cup -
Transporting live entertainment productions across Europe
Saan Trucking is a young independent company that originated in 2012 from Royal Dutch Saan, a family-based company with a great history in logistic services.
For the last couple of years, many touring-shows and complicated logistic projects have been trusted to our expertise. We strive for quality and continuity, which results in long term partnerships with our clients, the allocation of extraordinary one-off projects and a growing market share in fast trucking services. Our focus lies on the road in front of us, but our view is beyond the horizon.
Saan Trucking makes sure that live entertainment can be truly live. Any time, any place in Europe. We offer custom-made transport solutions for live entertainment productions. Our strength is characterized by high quality service and our engagement with our customers all along the road. With a small committed team, we provide the best trucking service for the best price.
We do many different types of live entertainment trucking projects; family entertainment, one-off projects, some smaller orchestras, sports events, music performances.
Disney on Ice
As one of the most popular family-entertainment shows in the world, Disney on Ice has been around for many years. This special show casts more than 50 well-known Disney-stars, performing over 30 sing-alongs from the entertainment company.
The show “100 Years of Magic” was touring Europe in the winter-season 2016-2017, performing more than 250 shows in 31 cities within 6 months. For this show, Saan Trucking was chosen to arrange the transports within the continent, deploying 22 trailers on average and driving over half a million kilometres. The show includes two ice-sets that move separately to the other equipment. The result is a production that requires three separate planning and routing operations that need to be overseen.
Holland Heineken House
Holland Heineken House is the national home of the Dutch Olympic Committee and the overseas home to all the Dutch athletes, families, fans and sponsors during the Olympic Games. In 2014 Saan Trucking was granted the full logistics operation for building the Holland Heineken House in Sochi, Russia during the Olympic Winter games.
This logistics project took about five months and covered the whole operation from planning until the return of all equipment to all vendors. Due to safety regulations and driving bans as an effect of the Olympic Games, we faced a tight timeframe to get all the equipment into Sochi. The operation consisted of loading on various locations, transfer, parking and just-in-time delivery at the venue.
We executed the transfer of 19 trailers from the Netherlands to Sochi using two ferry transfers. The first from Germany to Latvia was used to reduce turnaround time and economic reasons. A 2,500 km drive brought us to the second ferry; this ferry was mandatory due to a driving ban for the route to Sochi. Together with all the extra safety regulations, this was the biggest challenge for this job.
Thanks to our experience and extending network in Russia we concluded this project with a quick return home. The Holland Heineken House is a typical example of a close cooperation with our client and our experience with a-typical one-off projects.
Volvo Ocean Race
The Volvo Ocean Race is the world’s premier offshore race which is held every three years since 1973. It belongs to the largest sailing events in the world and it is considered the toughest sailing competition for teams. For the 2014-2015 edition Saan Trucking supported the official logistics supplier GAC Pindar with extra coordination, storage and flexible transport service.
We supported the race in three different ways. First, we provided full coordination and storage of an extra mast and accessories in a strategic location in Amsterdam. The mast should be 24/7 available if it was to be used as a substitute on one of the boats of the race.
Secondly, we transported several supplies from suppliers of the Volvo Ocean Race in the Netherlands to the start of the race in Alicante, Spain. Therefore, we used 10 trailers to Alicante, collect containers, lift-offs and one of the chassis was provided by us at the suppliers. Finally, we provided the transport for several stopovers in Europa, from Lisbon to the finish in Gothenburg, Denmark. Because of the tight race schedule, the challenge was to provide all the equipment in time. Therefore, we combined ferry and road transport, most of the time overnight.
The Volvo Ocean Race is a typical example of a successful sports event collaboration between the client, Saan Trucking and a third party in logistics.
Our fleet consist of tractors, box, softside and flatbed trailers, both mega and standard. All our trailers are equipped with the necessary facilities such as e-tracks at various heights, ratchet straps and load-bars. Recently we have expanded our fleet with five new trucks, all branded in our company colours to match with our current fleet.
We believe it’s not only about the trucks on the road, it’s about the people who drive the trucks. Our dedicated drivers speak fluent English and are very experienced in handling any live entertainment production successfully. Our drivers think beyond transport and provide additional services on site where possible. We offer transport solutions suitable to your needs. We put great care in personal contact with our clients, therefore you can contact us 24/7 by email and phone. If necessary, even in the middle of the night. So please do not hesitate to contact us about the possibilities of supporting your live event.
This article was contributed by Saan Trucking. For more information visit www.saantrucking.com -
P&J Live to host BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2019
[Source: EventScotland] The city of Aberdeen is set to host BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2019, the biggest awards night in the sporting calendar, on December 15 live on BBC One from the brand-new events venue and arena, P&J Live.
This is the first time Aberdeen will host the event. The city is known for its sporting heritage as the birth place of Manchester United legend Denis Law and Open-winning golfer Paul Lawrie, and it is also home to Aberdeen FC, the club where Sir Alex Ferguson first made his name as a manager with such extraordinary success.
Presenters Gary Lineker, Clare Balding and Gabby Logan will take to the stage to celebrate a huge year of sport in front of an audience of 10,000 with millions more watching live on BBC One.
Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events, said: “I’m delighted the BBC has chosen Aberdeen’s brand-new venue, P&J Live, to host this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. This world-class venue along with Aberdeen’s sporting pedigree makes it the ideal venue for the awards. It has been a great year of sport and I look forward to celebrating all the amazing achievements in Aberdeen this December.”
Director of BBC Sport Barbara Slater said: “It’s been an extraordinary year of sport so far with many incredible moments and surely more to come. I have no doubt Aberdeen will be an excellent host city to help us celebrate them.”
Louise Stewart, Head of Entertainment at P&J Live commented: “This is a gamechanger for the venue and the city. We are ecstatic to be working with the BBC sports team and the wider Aberdeen stakeholder group on this flagship event. Hosting an event such as this was absolutely at the forefront of the city’s vision when planning this transformational project.” -
Choir Games ambassadors to open Host City 2019 conference
Singing unites nations. A very international audience will make this experience first-hand at the Opening event of the Host City conference and exhibition in Glasgow on November 25th, where the Scottish Gaelic choir ALBA will perform as an ambassador of the World Choir Games – the world’s largest international choir competition.
Earlier this year ALBA and its conductor Joy Dunlop represented Scotland at the TV choral talent show “Eurovision Choir 2019,” an international choir competition inspired by the Eurovision Song Contest and the World Choir Games. The show took place in Gothenburg and marked the Opening of INTERKULTUR’s European Choir Games 2019, which aired live to 10 European countries at prime time. For its performance at “Eurovision Choir” ALBA was awarded the International Award at the Scottish Gaelic Awards on November 19 as the group that “best promotes Gaelic outside Scotland”.
The enthusiastic group of singers drawn from all over the country, who make up the ALBA choir sing in Scots Gaelic, the indigenous language once spoken all over Scotland, will provide a lively program showcasing Gaelic language and tradition as a prelude to the Host City Conference in Glasgow.
INTERKULTUR will be part of the well-known Host City Conference in order to promote the idea of the Choir Games, to inspire people of all ages, cultures, and ethnical backgrounds to experience the power of music as a universal language – turning the respective host cities into one huge festival stage full of voices and international atmosphere.
About INTERKULTUR
INTERKULTUR is the world’s leading initiator and organizer of international choral competitions. In over 30 years since the organization was established, more than 10.000 choirs and roughly 435.000 male and female singers from 107 nations have taken part in the World Choir Games and INTERKULTUR’s regional choir competitions. Since 1988 a total of 230 competitions and festivals have been held, cities like Barcelona, Vienna and Hoi An have been hosting various competitions for years. The famous World Choir Games are held every two years on different continents. The 11th World Choir Games 2020 take place in Flanders, Belgium with Antwerp and Ghent as host cities.
About Host City
Host City conference and exhibition brings together cities and sports, business and cultural events for two full days of unrivalled insight, networking, workshops and business on 26-27 November at the Technology & Innovation Centre in Glasgow.
This is where representatives of host destinations, federations and other rights holders, organisers, event suppliers and services from all over the world meet to discover opportunities and discuss the challenges of major event hosting.
www.hostcity.com -
Is sport the new rock and roll?
“The world has changed how we consume sports and entertainment. I’m lucky to be between the two and see both sides,” composer Matt Clifford says. “One of the first things I said to UEFA when I started working with them was, you know all these stadiums – I’ve played in them with the Rolling Stones.”
How do you get to join the Rolling Stones? “Like anything in life it’s like being in the right place at the right time,” he says.
Thirty years ago, Clifford was recording with a producer, Chris Kimsey, whose next project was a Rolling Stones record, Steel Wheels – which went on to achieve multi-platinum sales. “He saw me as someone who would fit in with working with those people. I was sent off to Barbados where Mick and Keith were working at that time. I walked in and said is this the gig, and Mick says yes, every Thursday night – so off we went. And the next day I was having lunch with Princess Margaret on the beach in Mustique!”
There are very close parallels between the way sports events and entertainment events are presented in a stadium. He went to the Stade de France recently to watch France versus England in the Six Nations, five years after playing there with the Rolling Stones.
“It’s very much the same thing. There is this incredible sense of anticipation, and the emotion that it unleashes in a crowd of 50 or 60 thousand people. It’s very much the same experience waiting for a big concert as waiting for the Champions League final, when you are walking up and see the lights. It’s extraordinary, you get the same buzz and excitement from both.
An element of spontaneity helps to create these levels of excitement in both sport and music. “You don’t know the outcome either way – you don’t know who is going to win the match, or which songs the band is going to play.
“With a band like the Stones it’s all about live performance, it’s all in the moment. There’s a lot of unpredictability with the Stones. You have to keep your wits about you! There are moments on stage with the Rolling Stones where, after 60 years, they’ll be out playing a song, something will go wrong, Mick will turn around to Charlie Watts and they are exactly still the same 18-year-olds who played in a tiny club in Richmond in London, and they’ve kept that alive. You see the same thing on the football pitch – that extraordinary telepathy that elevates it to a different level.
“There are so many parallels between music and sport. You have soloists, you have great teams. A rock group is all about being a team and knowing what your role is.
“The infrastructure is the same, you need many of the same facilities and we use many of the same suppliers”
But the way people consume and experience sports and music has changed immensely over Clifford’s career.
“The live experience has changed on technical levels. The sound reproduction and the experience of a concert is incredibly different – with HD LED screens and incredible lighting. PAs are smaller and so much better.”
But when it comes to sports events there is still much room for development of the audio experience, he says. “It’s an area that could be improved, especially now there is a lot of broadcasting in surround sound.
“So much of the experience when you go to a game is the sound. And the volume, when you’ve got a band playing here and another band over there, is extraordinary. It’s difficult technically because when you are watching you have to hear the commentary.”
Bringing gravitas and energy to event experiences
When not on the road with the Stones, Clifford writes anthems and official music for major sports events, which play a huge role in the event experience. Music is used in many different ways and for different moments on TV, on online platforms and in the venue.
“You come in as the composer and present two or three very different ideas, which are passed through several very large committees at a glacial pace. Because music is such a subjective thing, everyone on a committee will have a different emotional reaction to it. Once you’ve gone through that process and got the approval, the next stage begins, which is being able to do all these difference versions for different purposes, at different lengths and at different tempos, but keeping the brand theme. I find that exciting and challenging.
“When you get a brief for music for sport they often give the same words – inspiring, powerful, spirit of togetherness – but every sport is different, so you have to find that essence, the energy that is going to contribute to a broadcast of a live event.”
Clifford’s musical background was in the classical world, growing up playing in orchestras and singing as a choirboy in Gloucester cathedral – a world apart from sports.
“Italia ’90, where the BBC used Nessun Dorma as the theme music, was almost the first time that you used the gravitas and emotion that you get from classical music to go behind sport and take it to another level. Before that, football songs had mainly been pop songs.”
Once again, Clifford found himself in the right place at the right time. He was hired in 2003 by the anthem creator Tony Britten to modernize the Champions League theme – probably the most recognisable sports audio brand.
“It’s the theme that everyone aspires to – everyone would love to have that recognition. Tony Britten who composed the piece was inspired by Zadok the Priest by George Frederic Handel – and he absolutely hit the nail on the head. With my experience of working with different genres of music I was able to extend the reach of the Champions League music.”
For example, Clifford’s added a modern beat to the recognisable choir element for the walk-on music. Another key moment in a sports event is the cup lift.
“The first Champions League final I was invited to was 2005 in Istanbul, which is still the most amazing game I’ve ever been to. When Steven Gerrard lifted the cup, they played a piece of music I had written, which was amazing.”
Clifford also composed the anthem for the Six Nations, combining instruments from all of the six nations, which is played in the stadiums at every Six Nations game. He also worked with FIFA 2010 in South Africa, for which he won the pitch as part of a graphics company. As a result, he was able to take Mick Jagger as his guest, “to watch England being knocked out against Germany, despite a disallowed goal that was clearly over the line. Mr Blatter was very friendly before the game, but after the game we couldn’t find him at all!”
Clifford has never written an anthem for a club. “I think that would be a tricky situation – it’s like you’re trying to impose something. You can do that on the top level – the global level, or the broadcast level – but to say to fans you should sing this on the terraces, that’s not the right way to go.”
Fans tend to choose their own songs anyway. “Sometimes the song relates to football, but I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles – where does that come from? There are these associations that just happen. They are so ingrained into the culture of the club – when you listen to Liverpool fans singing You’ll Never Walk Alone at the Champions League final it’s amazing.”
This exclusive interview was conducted by Ben Avison of Host City at Global Sports Week, following Matt Clifford’s Meet the Artist Q&A
How to deal with a diary clash
“In 1990 we were doing the Urban Jungle Tour. We were playing in Wembley; it had been postponed because Keith had hurt his finger, so we ended up playing when England were playing Germany in the semi-final of Italia 90. Half the audience had little radios. In the middle of the concert, Ronnie Wood stepped forward and played one note and half the crowd cheered, because that was the moment Gary Linker had scored.”
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Glastonbury 2020 cancelled with “severe financial implications”
The organisers of Glastonbury 2020 have announced the cancellation of the 2020 edition of the festival.
“This will be an enforced fallow year for the Festival,” Michael and Emily Eavis said in a statement published on their website and shared on social media.
“Clearly this was not a course of action we hoped to take for our 50th anniversary event, but following the new government measures announced this week – and in times of such unprecedented uncertainty – this is now our only viable option.
“We very much hope that the situation in the UK will have improved enormously by the end of June. But even if it has, we are no longer able to spend the next three months with thousands of crew here on the farm, helping us with the enormous job of building the infrastructure and attractions needed to welcome more than 200,000 people to a temporary city in these fields.”
Ticket holders will have the opportunity to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, and be guaranteed the opportunity to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2021.
The organisers added: “The cancellation of this year’s Festival will no doubt come as a terrible blow to our incredible crew and volunteers who work so hard to make this event happen. There will also inevitably be severe financial implications as a result of this cancellation – not just for us, but also the Festival’s charity partners, suppliers, traders, local landowners and our community.
“We were so looking forward to welcoming you all for our 50th anniversary with a line-up full of fantastic artists and performers that we were incredibly proud to have booked. Again, we’re so sorry that this decision has been made. It was not through choice. But we look forward to welcoming you back to these fields next year and until then, we send our love and support to all of you.”