German open-air concert series Biggesee Open Air is set to return next summer after a three-year hiatus.

Launched in 2022, the debut edition of the A.S.S.-promoted festival took place in Sauerland, the largest tourist region in North Rhine-Westphalia, across eight days in June.

Around 75,000 visitors attended concerts from international stars such as James Blunt and Paul van Dyk and domestic talent including Max Giesinger, Mark Forster, Cro, Wincent Weiß, LEA and JORIS.

Next year’s event will take place between 18-22 June, with German electro band Deichkind the first act to be announced.

Headquartered in Hamburg, the company also operates in Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux

Part of the Mehr-BB Entertainment Company, A.S.S. has operated as a booking agency and tour promoter for German and international rock, pop, folk, jazz, and world music artists since 1979, presenting up to 1,200 concerts a year. It also operates in Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux, and represents various artists throughout Europe as an agent.

The Hamburg-headquartered company works with acts such as 10cc, Bob Geldof, Crash Test Dummies, Donovan, Jack Savoretti, The Stranglers and Wishbone Ash.

Last month, the firm appointed a dual leadership team – Sabrina Sapone and Nils Max – to run its Düsseldorf office. It also has a Berlin branch.

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A.S.S. Concerts & Promotion has added Berlin-based Luca Selbmann, founder of boutique agency Pigalle, to its team.

Selbmann, who will work as an A&R and booking agent, promises to bring expertise in the emerging domestic and international talent fields to the German promoter.

Pigalle’s roster, which includes the likes of Traumatin, Urbannino and Gast, will be incorporated into the A.S.S. business.

“I am very pleased that Luca Selbmann has joined our team and is therefore one of the new and younger bookers in the house,” says MD Florian ‘Böde’ Böhlendorf. “We are at the beginning of a transformation process that is very important to us and will continue. This also includes rejuvenating the roster.”

Part of the Mehr-BB Entertainment Company, A.S.S. has operated as a booking agency and tour promoter for German and international rock, pop, folk, jazz, and world music artists since 1979, presenting up to 1,200 concerts a year. It also operates in Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux, and represents various artists throughout Europe as an agent.

The company works with acts such as 10cc, Bob Geldof, Crash Test Dummies, Donovan, Jack Savoretti, The Stranglers and Wishbone Ash.

A.S.S. Concerts opened a new branch office in Dusseldorf in 2018, located at the headquarters of Mehr-BB, which specialises in promoting and producing theatrical shows. The move expanded A.S.S.’s network beyond its headquarters in Hamburg and an existing branch office in Berlin.

Böhlendorf, who joined the firm in 2019, has led the company since succeeding veteran executive Michael Bisping in July last year and works in collaboration with A.S.S. Concerts founder Dieter Schubert and director Dirk Gehrmann.

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Hamburg-based A.S.S. Concerts & Promotion has elevated Florian “Böde” Böhlendorf to managing director.

Böhlendorf will succeed veteran executive Michael Bisping, who is stepping back from the role after four decades in the industry, but will remain a shareholder and offer advisory support to the new management.

Böhlendorf, who joined the company in 2019, working in business development and as an agent, will collaborate with founder Dieter Schubert and director Dirk Gehrmann to drive the firm forward, reports Celebrity Access.

A.S.S. Concerts opened a new branch office in Dusseldorf in 2018

Part of the Mehr-BB Entertainment Company, A.S.S. has operated as a booking agency and tour promoter for German and international rock, pop, folk, jazz, and world music artists since 1979, presenting up to 1,200 concerts a year. It also operates in Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux, and represents various artists throughout Europe as an agent.

The company works with acts such as 10cc, Bob Geldof, Crash Test Dummies, Donovan, Jack Savoretti, The Stranglers and Wishbone Ash.

A.S.S. Concerts opened a new branch office in Dusseldorf in 2018, located at the headquarters of Mehr-BB, which specialises in promoting and producing theatrical shows. The move expanded A.S.S.’s network beyond its headquarters in Hamburg and an existing branch office in Berlin.

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Hamburg-based promoter A.S.S. Concerts has opened a new branch office in Dusseldorf, in partnership with local company Mehr-BB Entertainment.

The Dusseldorf office – located at the headquarters of Mehr-BB, which specialises in promoting and producing theatrical shows – expands A.S.S.’s network beyond its headquarters in Hamburg and an existing branch office in Berlin.

According to A.S.S. Concerts, the new joint venture will organise “the best concerts in the Rhine-Ruhr market” by leveraging “the skills and capabilities of Mehr-BB Entertainment […] for marketing its own concerts and shows, as well as partners’.” Mehr operates three venues in the region: Musical Dome (1,640-cap.) in Cologne, Capitol Theater (1,750-cap.) in Dusseldorf and the Starlight Express Theatre (1,650-cap.) in Bochum.

“The Rhineland and Ruhr area is a very important location for concerts and shows in Germany”

Christian Waaga, formerly of SSC’s Rhein-Konzerte, will lead booking for the new office.

A.S.S. CEO Michael Bisping says: “NRW [North Rhine-Westphalia] and especially the Rhineland and Ruhr area is a very important location for concerts and shows in Germany, so it was only logical that after our first successful shows in Dusseldorf we would look to find a local partner.”

The company’s managing director, Dirk Gehrmann, who becomes Dusseldorf office manager, adds: “I am particularly pleased that we have found – in addition to the existing know-how of colleagues from Hamburg and Dusseldorf – an experienced staff member in the form of Christian Waaga, who is very familiar with the production of concerts and comedy events in the region.”

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German promoter and booking agency Artribute has appointed a new head of booking.

Fee Schlennstedt, most recently a booker at the 180-cap. Jazzclub Unterfahrt (‘Underpass’) in Munich, replaced Matthias Wendl on 1 April. Wendl had been in the role for ten years, and will continue to serve as a consultant to the Berlin-based agency.

Schlennstedt is highly regarded in the German jazz world, and her unexplained dismissal from the club last October spawned a petition demanding Fee Schlennstedt soll in der Unterfahrt bleiben! (‘Fee Schlennstedt should stay in the Unterfahrt!’)

“With Fee Schlennstedt, we have gained an excellent networker and an expert on the jazz scene”

Artribute, founded in 2001 by Björn Kloos, provides management, booking and tour promotion services to a roster that includes Snarky Puppy, Becca Stevens, Bokanté, the Pablo Held Trio and Jacob Collier.

It is a partner agency to A.S.S. Concerts, which announced the news.

A.S.S. managing director Michael Bisping says he is “convinced that Schlennstedt will be able to further expand [Artribute’s] jazz portfolio and continue to grow the company successfully”.

“With Fee Schlennstedt, we have gained an excellent networker and an expert on the [jazz] scene,” adds Kloos.

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