SEPTEMBER | FEATURE
distanced deck chairs, has seen more
than 35,000 tickets sold.
The return of major events
The German government’s support for
the arts and events sector has been far
more substantial than that offered in
the UK. In March it committed to a €50
billion (£44.5bn) aid package.
Large scale events such as festivals
are banned in Germany until
November unless organisers are able to
prove that trace and track infections,
hygiene protocols and social distancing
guidelines can be met.
In early July promoters Newado
Entertainment and Mö PR Event
Productions teamed with event service
supplier Major Compact Units to stage
two 960-capacity outdoor concerts in
Saxony, the first standing concerts in
the country since lockdown began.
Not long afterwards Semmel
Concerts announced a series of openair
concerts at the 22,000-capacity
Waldbühne amphitheatre in Berlin in
September. Social distancing measures
at The Back to Live seated concerts
mean the shows will operate at a
reduced capacity of 5,000 per day.
Semmel CEO Dieter Semmelmann
says the project has been an enormous
challenge from a technical and
organisational standpoint: “There are
only two or four seats next to each
other,” he says. “Only members of the
same household may sit together, and
masks must be worn throughout the
Waldbühne apart from the seat.”
He says there has been huge interest
in the shows, with 10,000 tickets for the
five concerts sold within 12 hours, but
the shows will not turn a profit: “They
are made possible with big financial
compromises by everybody involved.
These concerts are about sending a
signal: a sign of life by the live-music
industry.”
The biggest show to be announced
in Germany so far is Live Nation’s
Return to Live, which will take place
in September at the 54,000-capacity
Merkur Spiel Arena, an outdoor
stadium, in Düsseldorf. Acts including
Bryan Adams will play to an audience
of 12,000 socially distanced, seated
fans.
Germany Promoter, ticket agent and
venue owning powerhouse Deutsche
Entertainment AG (DEAG) is one of
the country’s biggest players. In a
normal year DEAG, and its subsidiaries,
promote around 4,000 events per year.
It has a majority stake in numerous
companies including Kilimanjaro Live
in the UK, Switzerland’s Good News
Productions and Germany’s Wizard
Promotions.
Navigating regional restrictions
According to CEO Prof Peter
Schwenkow, DEAG was in the rare
position of being insured against
Covid-19. That has given the company
enviable financial stability. It has staged
drive-in shows and has a series of
Christmas Gardens events planned but
Schwenkow says the fact that Germany
is made up of sixteen states, whose
officials are taking different approaches
to enabling shows, makes it extremely
challenging.
“Regulations are different from
region to region, which creates huge
problems; you can’t really do any
touring at the moment because in one
area there is a ban on shows over 1,000
and in another it is 5,000 people. It’s
total chaos,” he says.
Schwenkow is pleased with the
Government funding awarded to the
live sector so far and he expects it to be
increased: “The politicians now really
understand that music is soul food and
people are hungry.”
Like all the country’s promoters,
Schwenkow is eagerly awaiting
the findings of a series of concert
simulations carried out on 22 August
at the 12,000-capacity Quarterback
Immobilien Arena in Leipzig, with
the aim of investigating whether the
spread of Covid-19 at large indoor
events can be prevented.
In neighbouring Switzerland,
Europe’s eighth biggest live music
market, events with capacities of more
than 1,000 people will, after much
delay, be allowed from 1 October.
Over the border in France, there is a
ban on events with audiences of more
than 5,000 at concerts until September
but among the events planned after
that is heavy metal festival Storm
the Arena at The Accor Arena (cap.
20,300) in Paris. Running from 11 to 12
December, it will host 14 acts across
three stages.
The venue was one of the first
to host a significant concert with
social distancing in the country, with
Christine and the Queens performing
to 2,000 socially distanced fans there
on 9 June.
Some way ahead of the UK on the
17