Country Profile: South Africa
South Africa enters 2025 on the back of two record-breaking years that have seen stadiums packed, new venues emerge, and young audiences more engaged than ever.
Big Concerts, Live Nation’s South Africa operation, has played a crucial role in driving these efforts, alongside other legacy players such as Glen21 Entertainment, Breakout Agency, and Showtime Management, each navigating the post-Covid landscape with their unique strategies.
The market reopened later than many others after the pandemic, meaning global routing conversations largely bypassed it until late 2022. “We weren’t really part of touring conversations until quite late,” explains Justin Van Wyk, CEO of Big Concerts. “But since then, it’s been a fantastic run.”
That run has included one of the most striking moments in recent memory with Chris Brown’s two-night stand at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium. The shows not only smashed the all-time attendance records for an artist at the venue but also…