Pioneering promoter and producer Michael Cohl has tipped the world of touring entertainment to “continue to grow, much like music did” in a keynote interview with IQ‘s Touring Entertainment Report 2025.

Known for paving the way for global touring as we know it today, the former Live Nation chair promoted groundbreaking outings for the likes of the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, U2, Prince, Stevie Wonder and Barbra Streisand.

After building Concert Productions International (CPI) into one of North America’s dominant touring companies, he sold it to Live Nation forerunner SFX Entertainment in the late 1990s.

In more recent times, the Canadian has focused on theatre, producing Broadway shows including Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, The Lion King, Spamalot, Rock of Ages, Hairspray, The Producers and Bombay Dreams. He now helms S2BN Entertainment, where he has built a diverse slate of entertainment projects, including concerts, theatre, films, immersive exhibitions and next-generation touring.

In exhibitions, he has produced Bodies: The Exhibition, Jurassic World: The Exhibition, Imagine Picasso, and The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains.

“People think I started with all those other things when I left Live Nation,” Cohl tells TER 2025. “I didn’t do anything after Live Nation that I wasn’t doing my whole career.

“I was doing theatre long before there was even an embryonic thought about what became Live Nation. I’ve always done theatre. We advised on exhibits in the 70s, when we were just operating in Toronto. Then Southern Ontario. Then Canada. It’s always been there.”

“I think in 15 or 20 years, we’ll have truly immersive exhibits that are phenomenal”

S2BN has also toured family hits like Yo Gabba Gabba!, and The Marvel Experience, and has also been behind films and live talks with Oprah and Al Pacino. Cohl reveals his process when picking and choosing his projects is based on part instinct, part strategy.

“My personal method is: if I like it, I’m interested,” he says. “So my first question is, do I like it? Second is, will people like it? And third is, will it make money?

“When the act comes on stage or the curtain rises and I’m standing there, thinking, ‘I played a part in this.’ That’s still the greatest feeling.”

Moreover, Cohl says he remains optimistic about where the touring entertainment world is heading.

“I think it will continue to grow, much like music did,” he says. “The world still loves storytelling. People who immerse themselves in stories are happier. As the quality grows, and I assume it will, things will get better. I think in 15 or 20 years, we’ll have truly immersive exhibits that are phenomenal.”

The full interview with Cohl can be read in the Touring Entertainment Report 2025, which is available exclusively to IQ subscribers in print or as a digital magazine. Subscribe now and view the full report.

Now in its third year, the Touring Entertainment Report augments ILMC’s one-day Touring Entertainment LIVE event, which brings together the world’s top show and exhibition producers, rights holders, venue operators, and promoters.

A preview version of TEG 2025 is below.

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Many of the ground-breaking advancements in touring entertainment come from the integration of technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) into touring experiences.

Traditionally the realm of museum exhibitions designed to bring historical artefacts to life and encourage engagement, AR has also transformed theatre shows and immersive experiences by adding layers of visual effects and interactive elements. Devices such as smartphones and tablets or specialised AR glasses are instrumental in enhancing the visitor experience, in which users can also see virtual characters and scenarios playing out in the real-world stage.

Since its inception in 2001, immersive environment specialists Moment Factory has created over 550 unique shows worldwide. Some of its projects include illuminating outdoor Lumina Night Walks (across North America, Asia, and France), the AURA series (combining light, orchestral music, and video mapping to offer new POVs of iconic landmarks such as Paris’s Dôme des Invalides and Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica), and stage visuals for tours and concerts by Billie Eilish, Childish Gambino, Nine Inch Nails, Halsey, Muse, and The Killers.

The company’s executive director of ticketed experiences, Jonathan St-Onge, cited the Casino de Montreal’s ARcade as a prime example of how AR and gamification combine to meet audiences’ fascination with taking part in immersive entertainment. “It’s a 500ft2 floor with projectors, sensors, and a library of games, and the human body is the controller,” he says. “You can compete against yourself or against two to seven other players with a scoreboard to keep track, as well as avatars that record future sessions as well.”

At the time of writing, Moment Factory was preparing to launch The Messi Experience in Miami before it embarks on a world tour. Co-produced by Primo Entertainment, The Messi Experience will be a 75-minute interactive multimedia showcase that promises to take fans on a unique journey through the famous footballer’s life and career – including the chance to take selfies and have a conversation with the star of the show using advanced AI.

“Visitors won’t just enjoy the original music scores in the background but will also take part in augmented reality games”

“It’s an immersive experience that begins from his early years in Argentina through to his time at Barcelona and Paris Saint- Germain, all the way to winning the World Cup in 2022,” St-Onge explains. “It’s going be special because it’s not about showing pics and footage but recreating his bedroom when he was a kid in Buenos Aires to the playground where he started to play football in his own neighbourhood to moving to Spain and becoming a global superstar from there. Visitors won’t just enjoy the original music scores in the background but will also take part in augmented reality games that allow them to replay some of Messi’s greatest career highlights.”

With mixed reality also representing another innovative landmark in immersive entertainment, The Messi Experience is set to be a prime example of how the seamless integration of physical and digital worlds offers unparalleled interaction and immersion. The integration of AR, VR, and MR into touring entertainment has not only transformed the visitor experience but has also opened up new avenues for artistic expression and creativity. Producers and creators now have the ability to craft immersive narratives, transport audiences to distant realms, and blur the lines between fiction and reality like never before.

Following a triumphant world premiere in Germany last winter, which saw over 138,000 tickets being sold before its grand opening, NEON and Warner Bros. Discovery teamed up to take their immersive spectacular Harry Potter: Visions of Magic to Southeast Asia in 2024.

Scheduled to open in Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa in the fourth quarter of this year, the interactive art experience invites visitors to explore the most mysterious corners of the Wizarding World, such as the Ministry of Magic, the Room of Requirement, and many other iconic spots in the Potterverse. Having already captivated audiences using responsive video content, quirky soundscapes, and the striking architecture we’ve grown accustomed to via the books and movies, Harry Potter: Visions of Magic places huge emphasis on interactive technology to “illuminate the invisible” and bring the beloved franchise to life.

Another major IP that’s been doing the rounds since last year is Semmel Exhibitions’ Disney100: The Exhibition. The commemorative walk-through exhibit, which debuted last year in Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute to celebrate a century of the pop culture phenomenon’s imprint on the world, has already stopped over at Munich, London, and Chicago, and will be touring the globe until 2028.

“We didn’t want you to just read things on the wall, we wanted you to see and look at the really beautiful things that we’re sharing”

Made up of ten imaginatively themed galleries, from 1937’s Snow White all the way to Encanto via Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel, the Walt Disney Archives and Semmel Exhibitions co-produced installation summons visitors on a quest throughout the 15,000ft2 space to uncover over 250 rare props and pieces of memorabilia, “experience” a stroll down Disneyland’s Main Street USA and be welcomed by a life-size statue of Walt Disney himself – powered by super-resolution AI.

Despite the evergreen appeal that big-brand IPs like Disney have over audiences of all ages, Disney100: The Exhibition stands out due to its unwavering commitment to including interactive elements that make it more than just another museum exhibition. “We wanted to take that extra step above and beyond by taking Disney100 to cities where people may not have been to one of our theme parks,” Becky Cline, director of the Walt Disney Archives, told Variety. “We didn’t want you to just read things on the wall, we wanted you to see and look at the really beautiful things that we’re sharing. You could spend the whole day in that exhibition
because there’s so much to do and see.”

After a successful March opening in Melbourne, Grande Experiences’ Leonardo da Vinci – 500 Years of Genius is another immersive experience set to go on a world tour this year. Having partnered with Rome’s Museo Leonardo da Vinci on the project, it will not only allow visitors to see pages from his Codex Atlanticus (Da Vinci’s original writings) but also interact with the Italian polymath’s myriad concepts and inventions.

Advertised as a unique glimpse into the mind of one of history’s great innovators and inventors, the travelling exhibition uses state-of-the-art audio-visual technology to engage audiences in multisensory methods. Audiences will have the chance to spot previously unseen details in the Mona Lisa or fly over Florence on Da Vinci’s famed ornithopter via VR simulations.

“A good immersive experience should be akin to being around a campfire while telling stories”

However, what truly makes Leonardo da Vinci – 500 Years of Genius unique is an admirable dedication to authenticity and storytelling. “To deepen the connection between curious visitors and this particular subject matter, we’re blending a digital experience with physical artefacts,” Gary Moynihan, head of creative design at Grande Experiences, told Blooloop. “There isn’t any evidence to suggest he ever built these machines, but his ideas and inventions are all sketched out in his notebooks,” adding that the inventions being showcased were crafted by Italian artisans using the same materials that would’ve been available to Da Vinci at the time.

With the rise of touring content producers placing a bigger emphasis on implementing more interactivity in shows and exhibits powered by cutting-edge tech, expect more immersive experiences to continue astounding people in the years to come. However, it’s widely accepted that these revolutionary showcases must be driven by dynamic storytelling in order to truly captivate audiences and encourage them to take part.

“A good immersive experience should be akin to being around a campfire while telling stories,” St-Onge says. “Immersive experiences haven’t just been a recent trend – I think they’ve existed for thousands of years. Back then, there weren’t any screens to amplify the stories they were trying to tell and express. Nowadays, people are more curious and more knowledgeable at the same time, and a lot of them want to do more than just sit in a space next to hundreds of people. They want to take part, and producers have caught on to this amazing shift in audience demand. I think this tech-powered trend of storytelling will continue to grow, and we’re set for some exciting experiences ahead.”

The latest edition of the Touring Entertainment Report is available exclusively to IQ subscribers in print or as a digital magazine. Subscribe now and view the full report.

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When an organisation is chaotic or dysfunctional, people often describe it as “a circus.” But I want to tell you why you should run your business like a circus – based on my experience at one of the world’s most famous circuses – Cirque du Soleil.

At any given time, Cirque du Soleil has 1,400 individuals on the road across nine shows. These individuals entrust their lives to one another – dropping a colleague during a high wire act could have dire consequences. Therefore, when people use that phrase to describe poor organisation, it’s the exact opposite of what it actually takes to keep the show on the road.

Circuses have refined their operations over centuries. In 1895, the US Army dispatched officers to observe Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey, recognising their unparalleled logistics in moving a massive operation from city to city. The officers marvelled at their efficiency, describing it as “a kingdom on wheels… picking everything up in its magician’s arms, whisking it all miles away, and setting it down before sunrise in a new place.” Today, over a century later, this precision persists, albeit on a grander scale. Many fail to grasp the sheer effort required to transport our Big Top shows across not just countries but continents.

So, what can businesses learn from circuses like ours? It boils down to four essential principles: chemistry, communication, creativity, and customer experience.

Chemistry is the bedrock of our organisation. We operate as ‘a team of teams,’ with nine shows cooperating seamlessly. If one tour lacks a rigger, another will offer theirs. We’ve fostered a decentralised structure where each tour functions autonomously with support from headquarters. A show like Kurios or Alegría comprises 130 individuals on the road, including 50 artists and 80 technical or management staff, along with accompanying family members. This family-oriented approach, while unconventional in other industries, is integral to our success. When joining Cirque du Soleil, individuals aren’t signing up for a job; they’re embracing a lifestyle. This familial support fosters the chemistry crucial for our operations.
Communication is paramount. Tour directors anticipate upcoming shows by consulting counterparts from previous engagements, learning from past successes and failures. A network of conversations ensues, fostering collective wisdom.

“Creativity is key to our success but not always as you might assume”

Creativity is key to our success but not always as you might assume. Cirque du Soleil’s productions are renowned for their imagination, but there are two types of creativity: the sort that creates the shows, and operational creativity. Every day, we have something happening where people have to be resourceful, whether that’s visas not arriving in time, a truck being late, or a new show to create. The best thing you can do as an organisation is not just give people permission to be creative but nurture the mindset that it’s okay to try something and that it’s okay if it goes wrong, as long as we learn from it.

We also recognise that show creatives speak a different language to operational creatives, so we encourage them to be bilingual, just like in our base of Montréal, where people speak French and English.

Lastly, customer experience transcends the stage performance. While our shows are renowned for their spectacle, the overall experience encompasses much more. We recognise that a great performance can be overshadowed by a poor parking experience or a long line for the toilets or merch stand. So, we meticulously orchestrate every element under our control to ensure an unforgettable experience for our patrons.

In essence, running a business like a circus demands cohesion, effective communication, a culture of innovation, and unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction. Embracing these principles can transform an organisation, fostering resilience and excellence akin to the greatest spectacles under the Big Top. So, next time someone compares your business to a circus, take it as a compliment and strive to embody the ethos of the “kingdom on wheels.”

Duncan Fisher is president, Touring Shows Division, Cirque du Soleil.

• The Touring Entertainment Report 2024 is available exclusively to IQ subscribers in print or as a digital magazine. Subscribe now and view the full report.

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When it comes to balancing the books on touring entertainment shows, a solid merchandise strategy can make a significant difference. But it’s not just about the bottom line; the right products can build audience loyalty, elevate a brand’s status, and even work as a marketing tool.

Richard Lewis, managing director of the Limelight Group, which creates merch on behalf of licensees and live touring entertainment show adaptations (including Peppa Pig and Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom, which he also produces through his company Fierylight), says: “A good merch strategy can contribute nicely to the bottom line. If we do a Peppa Pig tour and play to 300,000 people, we target an average spend of around £4.50 to £5.50 per head. That could be about £1.6m overall.”

Meanwhile, Paul Goldsmith, director of UK-based Event Merchandising, which has provided the merch for family-friendly live shows such as Paw Patrol and Hey Duggee, adds: “You could have anything from a small regional theatre doing £1 per head or you could make £20 per head on merch for a show by one of the big kids’ creator acts. What’s really important is that your talent is actively pushing your merch! If they are confident about selling the product, then the crowd will naturally want to buy it as part of the experience. Young kids know more about merch now than ever before. ‘Merch’ is terminology that their favourite YouTubers use all the time.”

However, with global conflicts contributing to increasing fuel prices, rising import costs due to Brexit, and more, Lewis is keen to stress that creating successful merch lines is a long and drawn-out process and will only succeed if not rushed.

“You’ve got cargo ships being attacked in the Red Sea, which might add four weeks onto shipping,” he explains. “Then there’s additional costs because of other global conflicts. When we brought in our Christmas stock last year, a 40ft container of merch – which usually costs $4,000 to bring in – cost us $14,000. There are so many market forces that might hit you at the moment, so you have to plan a long time in advance. If someone comes to me eight weeks before their show starts and asks me to do the merch, I turn them down: you might as well burn the money.

“If you want to do something great, you need a lead-in time of at least a year to get everything created and perfected, especially when you have to deal with production in China. Everything takes time.”

“You can be thoughtful around the product, too. Could it be a limited edition? Or specific campaigns for an area or city?”

So what about the products themselves? Can a merch product line create something that genuinely elevates the experience of a live show? Natalie Setton is VP at Herschend Entertainment Studios and the shepherd of the famous Harlem Globetrotters’ merch strategy. For products to really sell, she says they must prompt audience participation and tap directly into the emotive themes of the interactive basketball show, ideally also cutting across age groups. “In a Harlem Globetrotters crowd, you might see anyone from five years old to 95, so having things that tap into history while also feeling contemporary is crucial,” she says.

“There’s nothing more special than seeing kids and adults buying basketballs and then getting them signed in the fifth quarter. They can take them onto the floor during halftime and have a bounce; they can recreate all the tricks they saw in the game.”

Outside of the live arena shows, you can find the HG logo on clothing lines exclusively sold in British high-street fashion retailers, including Zara and Next. “If you’ve already got a popular merch line outside of the show, the fans will show up game-ready and hopefully already wearing your products,” Setton adds.

“You can be thoughtful around the product, too. Could it be a limited edition? Or specific campaigns for an area or city? Can we create merch that taps into a community outreach programme we’re already doing? People have an infinite choice right now of where to spend their money, so it is important to give them those emotional reasons. That’s what prompts loyalty.”

Steve Steinman is the producer of touring musical shows such as Vampires Rock and Anything for Love featuring the songs of Meatloaf. “Vampires Rock is a phenomenon in its own right and has been touring for 22 years in different forms. If you’re in the tribute market, it’s very difficult to sell merch because your brand is probably somebody else’s. But Vampires Rock has gone from a jukebox concert to using my own music and it’s grown to a point where I have a fanbase that will buy into the brand. I’m now at a point where merch puts the cherry on the cake of a tour – it’s probably 10-20% of the revenue, although I don’t rely on it to make a tour work financially.

“As well as being an income source, merch works as marketing for my shows. We have people who buy a new T-shirt for every tour. And they share photos of them wearing it, which drives awareness.”

“If there are hundreds of merch products for kids to choose from, they can end up getting confused and buy nothing at all. You need a really tailored line”

Event Merchandising’s Goldsmith says creating products that appeal to kids and their parents works well. For the Hey Duggie live shows, his company created parent-and-child matching clothing, which “sold well.” But he cautions that offering huge never-ending ranges can do more damage than good. “If there are hundreds of merch products for kids to choose from, they can end up getting confused and buy nothing at all. You need a really tailored line.”

Limelight’s Lewis agrees. An industry veteran, he says in the past, he would make elaborate products, such as a Cinderella shoe for a Christmas panto but came to realise the bespoke plush products weren’t selling. “The age group don’t want merch you take home and play with; they want things they can use right now,” he explains. “We do a spinning fan with a figure of Peppa Pig or George attached. That, along with the light-up sticks, does 50-60% of all our merch sales. Then there’s 10% on programmes, another 10% on balloons, and whatever is left tends to go on T-shirts or backpacks. When you break it down like this, it shows there are only really four main hero products.”

Light-up products can also add to the narrative told onstage, he says. “One of the areas that I find interesting is how shows now have wristbands that flash during special sequences. During the VR ABBA concerts, when certain chords hit, the wristband might turn blue. The merch can therefore have real production value.”

Creating ethical merch is another key consideration. On the aforementioned Peppa Pig spinning fan, Lewis says he spent years and years working with suppliers before finally launching a 95% biodegradable version. “We put a lot of our effort into the plastic issue, and over the years, we’ve developed an eco-friendly light-up toy. It’s been a real journey, but it’s also too expensive to create at the moment. Creating eco- friendly products is very important but it can be a while before they’re profitable.”

Creating merch lines that go viral is the current buzz, but Lewis says this can be both a gift and a curse. “It’s a question of supply. There are many examples of companies that go viral but then they don’t have any stock. People are buying and buying, and they only have 15,000 units but need 200,000. That means you have customers going crazy.”

This makes being reactive particularly important and having merchandise that’s easy to reprint or recreate should it suddenly take-off. Access to in-house production facilities is key to this, says Goldsmith. “You have to be switched-on and nimble enough to react to a viral moment. For example, when we worked on the merch for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, it totally kicked off. We created a pop-up shop near the Liverpool arena to fulfil the massive demand.”

“Sometimes we’re the first impression a show can make, which makes having a merch stand that looks colourful really important”

Analysing some of the possible pitfalls for touring merchandise campaigns, Goldsmith says pricing strategy is fundamental. He advises show producers and merch creative agencies to start pre-negotiating with venues on their cut of merchandise sales as early as possible, so they can secure the fairest possible price and the cost isn’t passed onto the consumer.

He’d also like to see more licensees providing more resources to their merchandise sellers. “They rarely give us any budget,” he says. “They should allocate at least £2,000-5,000 to branding and set-up to make the stand look good. Sometimes we’re the first impression a show can make, which makes having a merch stand that looks colourful really important.”

Ensuring you have a successful merchandise strategy for a touring entertainment show isn’t always about prioritising profit, either. Setton says if brands look at merch as a quick way to shift units, as opposed to being part of a wider plan, they won’t be sustainable. “You need a strategic, data-driven approach, where you are optimising the overall product mix. It goes beyond the numbers. We look at merch holistically as a ROI; we’re not just asking what is the financial contribution, but what is that product doing for brand recognition and engagement? Or how is it reaching new audiences and different touch points? When you consider all those things, the impact on the bottom line tends to be bigger.”

At the end of the day, getting the basics right is key, says Lewis: “You have to create a piece of merch that is idiosyncratic to the show itself. One of the phrases we use is: ‘We aren’t selling merchandise, but we are creating an experience.’ If you follow those principles and start your work early, you can’t go too wrong.”

• The Touring Entertainment Report 2024 is available exclusively to IQ subscribers in print or as a digital magazine. Subscribe now and view the full report.

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