IQ presents the second part of our Austria market report, where we dig into their expansive festival sector and the shifting opportunities and challenges in the venue scene. Catch up on part one here.

Festivals
In the past couple of years, Arcadia Live’s Lido Sounds has quickly established itself as a fresh addition to Austria’s festival offerings: a genre-specific city festival beside the scenic Danube River in Linz, with Kings of Leon, Parov Stelar, Hozier, Deichkind, Sam Smith, The Libertines, and Idles on the bill this year across four days.

“The response has been encouraging,” says Potocki. “In 2023, we welcomed 66,000 fans, and 2024 saw even greater attendance. Looking ahead, we’re planning to expand capacity to 28,000 per day in 2025, creating opportunities for sustainable growth while gradually enhancing our environmental footprint. While we’re not a 100% green event yet, we’re committed to making meaningful progress each year, embracing innovative ideas to become more eco-conscious.”

No sensible festival launches in these tricky times without thinking hard about its model and its market position, and Arcadia Live has done plenty of that type of thinking.

“Lido Sounds offers a unique festival experience compared to traditional open-field events,” says Potocki. “It blends the culture and convenience of a city setting with the excitement of a diverse and carefully curated lineup. So far, we’ve brought a lot of incredible artists to the stage – and the momentum continues to build. As for the future, we remain open to exploring new opportunities while staying focused on delivering a memorable, inclusive, and continuously improving festival experience.”

Traditionally, Barracuda assumes a notably powerful position in Austria’s festival market with its Nova Rock and FM4 Frequency events. The former draws 55,000 a day over four days to Pannonia Fields in Nickelsdorf in June, with Green Day, Avenged Sevenfold, Måneskin, and Bring Me The Horizon on a heavyweight bill.

“We have seen a lot of competition this year that we did not have in the past”

Frequency, meanwhile, in the northeastern city of St Pölten, draws around 140,000 a year for a dance, rock, and hip-hop fusion – Apache 207, The Offspring, Rise Against, and Yungblud led the line-up this August, with Ed Sheeran on the same site the night before.

Other Barracuda events include Lovely Days, Clam Rock, and an ever-growing series of shows at the historic Clam Castle, one of Austria’s most popular and prestigious venues. This year, the promoter also inked a three-year partnership with the long-established Mörbisch Lake Festival to bring rock and pop artists to the site’s 6,100-cap lake stage, with James Blunt and Zucchero in this summer’s first crop.

“We have seen a lot of competition this year that we did not have in the past, like Live Nation’s Rolling Loud festival and the Lido festival from Arcadia,” says Hörmann. “So, there is more in the market, but all the festivals seem to sell well.”

Venues
In early November, CTS Eventim was awarded the contract to build and operate a new multipurpose arena in Neu Marx in Vienna’s third district. The win came after Oak View Group’s successful bid for the project was “declared void for formal reasons” by Vienna Regional Court in summer 2023, after an objection from CTS.

The opening of the 20,000-cap arena – which expects up to 1.2m visitors, with as many as 145 events annually – was originally planned for 2024, but the venue is now not expected to be completed until 2030 at the earliest.

“Vienna will secure its position as a must-play city for the world’s greatest stars and events for decades to come”

The estimated cost of the 100,000m2 CTS design reportedly comes to almost €800m, including a contribution from the city of €145.9m. The property will be owned by the City of Vienna’s Wien Holding organisation, which drives growth and creates jobs for the city.

“With this state-of-the-art venue, Vienna will secure its position as a must-play city for the world’s greatest stars and events for decades to come,” said city councillor Peter Hanke.

Promising arena news aside, in general, it is hard to extract much enthusiasm from Austrian promoters on the subject of venues. “We have a very, very bad venue situation,” says Hörmann. “If you compare Vienna to Munich, for instance, Munich has, I would think, seven, eight venues from 3,000 to 15,000. In Vienna, you have the Stadthalle, and the next venue is Gasometer B with 3,000. So that’s a nightmare.

“And obviously, everywhere is packed. If you look at the Stadthalle, they have a tennis tournament every October, so that doesn’t give us any availability for the whole month. So just this year, I lost Bob Dylan because I just couldn’t get the venue. And if you still have an act that is expecting to work, then you have to go to Graz or to Linz, and people have to travel.”

That’s not the only problem with Austrian live infrastructure, however, as Viennese promoters continue to wrangle with a new noise restriction that is spelling doom for outdoor concerts in the city.

In August, Arcadia Live warned that a 10pm curfew at could mean the end for its annual METAStadt Open Air concert series. The 8,100-cap site had initially filled a gap for open-air concerts with mid-tier artists, for whom the Arena Wien’s 3,000-capacity outdoor stage is too small and the 51,000-capacity Happel Stadium too big. The series has hosted international acts including Alt-J, The Kooks, Skunk Anansie, Korn, Patti Smith, Jungle, and Khruangbin, and its future remains in doubt.

“Racino is probably one of the most beautiful open-air locations in Austria”

“Noise restrictions and complaints from local residents continue to be significant challenges for open-air events,” says Potocki. “This is often compounded by a lack of political and financial support from city or district authorities, which would be incredibly valuable given the proven economic impact of live shows and open-air events.

“Resolving these issues requires more proactive collaboration with local stakeholders. Until then, navigating these restrictions will remain a challenge for our events in Vienna, including the METAStadt series.”

METAStadt, of course, isn’t the only venue affected. In fact, it’s easier to name those that aren’t. “The Danube Island and the Ernst Happel Stadium are currently the only open-air sites [in Vienna] that meet the strict criteria,” says Live Nation’s Rotermund. “Noise restrictions recently led to the cancellations of all planned events at the scenic Schönbrunn Palace in 2025, and there are similar challenges elsewhere.”

The palace, once the main summer residence of the Habsburgs, and located in Hietzing, the 13th district of Vienna, has been a popular concert spot since the 1990s, but in November, Semmel’s Show Factory announced the cancellation of all open-air concerts and musicals planned at the palace for 2025 due to the noise regulations. The decision affected its I Am From Austria musical and the Schönbrunn Classics series and followed penalties for previous noise violations.

Live Nation’s exclusive contract to use the Racino racetrack, 25 minutes from the city by train, seemed to be a smart way round the curfew. The promoters initially hoped to organise smaller 5,000 to 10,000-cap events at the site, as well as larger concerts for up to 60,000 attendees, but such plans remain under review. “Racino is probably one of the most beautiful open-air locations in Austria,” says Lieberberg. “The proximity to Vienna adds to the appeal.

“Our inaugural events were extremely successful, with a combined attendance of 150,000. However, numerous bureaucratic requirements, particularly exaggerated environmental regulations, present challenges and obstacles for future events, which need to be evaluated.”

“There has definitely been a slower return to normal after the post-Covid surge”

Among the major venues outside the capital, Messe Congress Graz (MCG), with its 14,520-cap Stadthalle, Messe Graz Open Air and six other venues, stages 400-plus events a year.

“2024 has been a good year for events in Graz and Austria overall, but there has definitely been a slower return to normal after the post-Covid surge,” says Christof Strimitzer, MCG head of marketing and communications. “One of the key challenges has been the high energy and personnel costs, which have made organising events more difficult.”

While the overall atmosphere was tough, says Strimitzer, a strong focus on family entertainment yielded highlights such as Cavalluna, The Ice Queen, and live music concerts including The Lion King and Avatar. “International shows have shown a slight decline in attendance,” he adds. “One standout moment of the year was the sold-out performance of Gigi D’Agostino, which attracted 14,500 people and was sold out in just 24 hours.”

Messe Graz is currently in the process of obtaining the Green Location eco-label, reflecting its commitment to sustainability and environmentally-friendly practices. “We are also working on introducing new formats in the outdoor area to enhance the visitor experience and expand our event offerings,” says Strimitzer.

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The optics of Austria in 2024, viewed from the outside, aren’t especially good.

The far right, embodied by the Freedom Party (FPÖ) made an emphatic point in the country’s September elections, taking 28.9% of the vote. The economy is technically in recession, with GDP expected to decline by 0.6% this year and exports to the all-important and somewhat ailing German market significantly down. Then again, whose optics are good these days? And where the Austrian live business is concerned, appearances can be a little deceptive, says Richard Hörmann, co-managing director of the country’s leading promoter, CTS Eventim’s Barracuda Music.

“I think, in general, the atmosphere is much worse than the real situation, especially in entertainment,” he says. “We aren’t seeing slower sales – we have [had] very strong figures for the last few years.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Austria isn’t in a cold spell; more that, in this prosperous, 9m-strong nation, shows and festivals remain fairly affordable luxuries. Even a price rise of around 10% to 15% on the average ticket has done little to stifle demand.

“In Austria, it’s more a situation [in which] people can’t afford to buy apartments anymore or maybe can’t afford to buy cars, but they invest in their entertainment,” says Hörmann. “They go on holidays, and they watch shows.”

After all, Austria still has the fifth-highest GDP per capita in the EU at €46,200. And to look on the bright side, the FPÖ, while resurgent, has been unable to find a coalition partner, leaving the way clear for a three-party coalition of the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP), the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), and NEOS (liberals).

“There’s still plenty of momentum, especially around large-scale events and innovative formats”

There are still underlying concerns, of course, just as there are everywhere in a candidly unpredictable world: from Vienna’s controversial noise restriction law and frustrating venue omissions to the shifting of the world’s political and macroeconomic centre of gravity.

“Everything is a bit difficult right now in Europe,” acknowledges Silvio Huber, co-MD of Live Nation-owned Goodlive Artists. “If Germany struggles, we struggle. We don’t know where Europe will be in the future, between the US, Russia, and China, and this and that. But we don’t see the effects of any of that yet. Let’s see how that will turn out in the next one or two years, the next decade. But basically, it’s still okay, it’s really solid.”

That view holds fast across the board, in a market that hungrily hoovered up most of the German and international tours on the circuit this summer, with appearances from Coldplay Metallica, AC/DC, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Nicki Minaj, Travis Scott, Ed Sheeran, André Rieu, and the rest.

“The market in Austria does feel like it’s gradually stabilising after the post-Covid surge,” says Filip Potocki, CEO at FKP-backed promoter Arcadia Live. “However, there’s still plenty of momentum, especially around large-scale events and innovative formats.”

Unfortunately, the most headline-grabbing piece of news from Austria’s live calendar this year was one about which there is little worth saying. In August, Taylor Swift and Barracuda were forced to cancel the Vienna leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour, which was due to be seen by 170,000 fans over the course of three nights at the Ernst Happel Stadium, after an apparent terror plot was foiled.

It was initially said the shows could go ahead with additional security, but the concerts were soon cancelled as Vienna police chief Gerhard Purstl said an “abstract danger” remained. Three arrests were made and investigations continue, and in an otherwise bountiful year, the promoter has made little comment about the affair.

“Austria has a very distinct individual national character”

“There’s nothing to add,” says Hörmann. “It is what it is, and within the company, it’s still an ongoing process. Obviously, it’s not going to be replaced.”

Austria also got its share of Europe’s alarming weather events this summer. A headline show by US band Agriculture scheduled for Arena Wien was among a number of shows called off due to flooding on the River Danube in mid-September. And in July, Barracuda’s 70,000-capacity Electric Love festival in Salzburg was forced to shut down for half a day due to a severe weather warning.

Nonetheless, the business rolls on. As far as concert hotspots are concerned, Austria doesn’t just mean Vienna, but for sheer numbers, the City of Dreams is very much the centrepiece. Between 70% and 80% of all tickets sold are for shows in and around Vienna, though there are decent secondary markets, too, from the second city of Graz to Linz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck.

“The focus is, of course, on the greater Vienna metropolitan area, where 4m people live – nearly half the Austrian population,” says Live Nation GSA chief executive Marek Lieberberg. “Hence, this is where most major events take place, similar to Zurich in Switzerland or Amsterdam in the Netherlands.”

Given the presence of powerful German-based promoters – including Live Nation GSA; CTS Eventim, whose umbrella extends across both Barracuda Music and Arcadia Live; and Semmel Concerts, whose Show Factory offshoot is personally overseen by Dieter Semmelmann – it is easy to cast Austria as an unofficial extension of that larger market. However, Lieberberg declines the characterisation.

“Austria has a very distinct individual national character, and the dark times when it was regarded as a German province are definitely over,” he says. “Everybody has to recognise this fact and the unique appeal of Vienna as the political, cultural, and historical centre. The EU allows individuals and companies to operate in all countries of the union, and this opportunity is respectfully used.”

“We live in a strong market, but we obviously have strong competition”

Promoters
Formerly a proudly independent market, Austria these days broadly shakes down into a two-way battle between CTS Eventim (via Barracuda and Arcadia), and Live Nation GSA (in its own right and through its 2022 acquisition of Goodlive).

Barracuda – formed in 2016 from leading Austrian indies Skalar, Red Snapper, and NuCoast Entertainment, before Eventim took a 71% stake in 2019 – handles around 350 events a year and dependably sells between 1m and 1.2m tickets, making it the market leader, albeit in an increasingly spicy field.

“We live in a strong market,” says Hörmann. “But we obviously have strong competition. Live Nation realise that Austria is a good market, so they have enforced their operation here and will be doing more and more shows. But so far, the market seems to soak up whatever you offer.”

A rising tide of stadium shows, particularly heavy in 2024 with Coldplay, AC/DC (promoted by Marcel Avram), the abortive Swift residency, and others, does not appear to have dramatically distorted the market, suggests Hörmann, who has Robbie Williams and Iron Maiden on sale for 2025.

“Barracuda averages about a million tickets a year, and that didn’t drop [as stadium shows have increased]. So it’s not that the stadium shows take away any other markets at the moment. The very small club situation might get difficult, but other than that, figures are pretty stable,” he says.

“Undoubtedly, Coldplay were the highlight of the year, with a record attendance of 250,000”

Inevitably, the Taylor Swift drama led to heightened tensions around subsequent shows in Vienna this summer. Enhanced security was in place for Coldplay’s four-night residency at the same venue a fortnight later, with armed police stationed on the roof of the stadium, uniformed and plain-clothed officers in the crowd, and extensive video and aerial surveillance.

Live Nation Austria managing director Matthias Rotermund chalks up the resulting gigs as the peak of Live Nation’s year in Austria.

“Undoubtedly, Coldplay were the highlight of the year, with a record attendance of 250,000,” he says. “We were very pleased that despite the challenges – particularly after the cancellation of Taylor Swift’s shows – we successfully presented all four concerts without any incidents.”

Elsewhere, Live Nation inaugurated its Racino open-air venue in Ebreichsdorf near Vienna – usually an equestrian park, but this summer, the site of the three-day Rolling Loud Europe (with Nicki Minaj, Playboi Carti, and Travis Scott) and the one-day Racino Rocks, with Metallica, Five Finger Death Punch, Ice Nine Kills, and Mammoth WVH.

“Metallica showed their exceptional potential, drawing 55,000 fans,” says Rotermund, who also picks out some family entertainment highlights. “OVO, another highly attractive Cirque du Soleil show, sold 45,000 tickets, and the international tour of Mamma Mia! sold 30,000.”

Live Nation worked on the Racino shows with frequent local partner Leutgeb Entertainment Group – which also contributed to Adele’s summer shows in Munich – and this year also saw the first collaboration between the local Live Nation operation and Goodlive who together brought Big Time Rush to Vienna’s Gasometer B.

“We’ve noticed growing potential in more niche offerings”

“That sold out in five minutes,” says Huber, who anticipates more team efforts. “There’s still the question of how we can work together best, but we will work together more, for sure. They are experts in stadiums, huge shows, and we have lots of club-level, mid-level, and we can build artists. Actually, we complement each other very well.” Goodlive also chalked up satisfying larger-scale successes with The National and Cigarettes After Sex this year at the 16,000-cap Wiener Stadthalle – the latter particularly gratifying to Huber, who recalls promoting a 250-cap club show in Vienna for the same band in 2016.

“That is always the nicest thing as a promoter,” he says. “We have had a journey from that club show to selling out the Stadthalle, which I never would have expected ten years ago.” Arcadia Live, formed in 2015 from Potocki and Bernhard Kaufmann’s full-service Arcadia operation, with backing from German players FKP Group, Four Artists Booking Agency, Chimperator Live, and KKT, has established a new fes- tival of its own in Linz’s Lido Sounds, as well as a concert series in METAStadt Open Air in Vienna, whose headliners included Jungle, Cypress Hill, Air, and Korn this year.

“Headliner-driven single shows have been the strongest performers this year, with a series of standout open-air events in Vienna during the summer,” says Potocki. “Beyond that, we’ve noticed growing potential in more niche offerings, such as spoken word events, exhibitions, and podcast-based formats.”

Among Austria’s remaining indies, meanwhile, is Alex Nussbaumer of al-x, long-term promoter of Iggy Pop and The Cure, whose late-2024 shows include a three-date Austrian tour for Roachford. Meanwhile, Soundportal, promoter of Styrian Sounds festival and numerous local shows, is a stalwart of the scene in Graz.

Other companies
Austria’s advantageous location on the cusp of western and eastern Europe makes Austria a popular spot for numerous outward-facing live businesses, from trucking company Beat The Street, based in Fritzens near Innsbruck, to prominent Salzburg-based boutique metal booker Cobra Agency, whose acts include Sepultura, Sabaton, Slipknot, Danzig, Testament, and Amon Amarth.

“The rock and metal market has shown incredible resilience and growth across Europe,” says Cobra Agency co-managing director Günther Beer. “A few years ago, there were only one or two metal arena tours in the fall. This year, our agency alone had multiple rock acts touring arenas, all of which delivered outstanding results.

“It’s a sad development when too many decisions about Austrian talent are made in Germany”

“Austria has proven to be an excellent base of operations for us,” he adds. “While the market itself is relatively small, its strategic location and strong connection to Germany, Europe’s largest rock and metal market make it incredibly valuable.”

For Vienna-based independent artist agency Georg Leitner Productions, which books Earth, Wind & Fire, Dire Straits Legacy, and Gipsy Kings around the world, the local market is just one more market, though it is a healthy one.

“With Barracuda, we have the Clam Castle shows, where we always have artists perform, and Lovely Days,” says Leitner, who steps down as CEO in December in favour of partner Harald Büchel, while remaining an agent and company owner. “So yes, for us, it’s very much a market like any other. The only difference being that when we have acts booked in Austria, suddenly we get a lot of calls for guest tickets. Which is a pain in the ass,” he laughs.

Leitner does, however, have misgivings about Austria’s status in the German-language music business. “There’s a tendency, especially on the record company side, to diminish Austria to a province. Universal Records have laid off half their employees. And those employees that they laid off were those who were sourcing Austrian talent, which is a very vibrant market.

“Austria also has a unique culture, even language. There are Austrians who perform, not in German, but in Austrian languages, and they will be understood up to the borders of Bavaria but not any further,” he says, pointing to Austrian dialects such as Austro-Bavarian and Alemannic.

“So it’s a sad development when too many decisions about Austrian talent are made in Germany, in my view, because it doesn’t recognise the uniqueness of Austrian culture. But then I think new types of companies will evolve who will see the potential and take it into their own hands.”

Part two of the Austria market report can be accessed here.

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Austrian promoter Arcadia Live says that new regulations at Vienna’s METAstadt could end its annual concert series METAStadt Open Air.

The summer series launched in 2019 at the venue and has hosted international acts including Alt-J, The Kooks, Skunk Anansie, Korn, Patti Smith, Jungle and Khruangbin.

However, noise complaints about this year’s concert series have prompted METAstadt to change its closing time from 11 pm to 10 pm.

“This makes METAStadt unattractive or unplayable as an open-air event location not only for major international artists but ultimately also for us,” said Arcadia Live in a statement posted today (21 August).

“Even if an hour doesn’t seem like much, many of the big artists rely on darkness in their set-up (light, visuals, LEDs, etc.) and make it an unavoidable prerequisite for their performance. Moving the curfew forward to 10 pm will unfortunately be a reason for many big musicians to stop coming to Vienna in the summer.”

The promoter says the future of METAStadt Open Air is now “uncertain” and that there may not be another suitable venue in Vienna that can host it.

METAStadt (cap 8,100) closed a gap for open-air concerts with mid-tier artists in Vienna, for whom the Arena Wien’s 3,000-capacity outdoor stage is too small and the 51,000-capacity Happel Stadium is too big.

Recognising this, Arcadia invested “considerable financial resources, time and passion” into developing METAStadt into a fit-for-purpose entertainment venue.

“After just three summers (and a forced break due to Corona), the Metastadt in the 22nd district has become an institution: international artists play exclusive sets there and sometimes celebrate their Central European debut to a completely sold-out crowd,” the statement continues.

“Moving the curfew forward to 10 pm will be a reason for many big musicians to stop coming to Vienna in the summer”

“Thanks to the large number of spectators from home and abroad, the [concerts] are also becoming a significant economic factor.”

The Vienna-based promoter says it has been committed to being a “good neighbour” since the first edition, inviting residents to the concert series and listening to their concerns.

“We have always meticulously adhered to various official regulations (keyword: volume) and obtained all the necessary permits,” Arcadia continues. “We have also not always pushed the previous official curfew of 11 pm to the last minute and have even finished 45 minutes earlier if the programme, the act or the management allowed it.”

Arcadia – a German-Austrian joint venture between FKP Group, Four Artists Booking Agency, Chimperator Live and KKT – said it would not give up hope about the continuation of METAStadt Open Air.

“We wish for an opportunity to discuss with the City of Vienna, its subordinate authorities and the district, to see how we can save one of the most beautiful concert locations in Vienna!” the statement concludes.

Arena Wien, which hosts around 30 open-air concerts annually, also had to contend with noise complaints last year.

An early closing time of 10 pm was initially threatened but instead, a modern sound system was purchased in spring 2024 for around one million euros, with the City of Vienna contributing €595,000.

The municipality was satisfied with the system, which is said to keep volume constant, and 11 pm curfews have been approved on a case-by-case basis.

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Austria’s Arcadia Live has reflected on the successful premiere of open-air concert series Lido Sounds.

More than 66,000 fans flocked to Austria’s third-largest city, Linz, between 16 and 18 June to watch performances from 35 artists, across two stages.

International stars Florence + the Machine, Alt-J, Phoenix, Arlo Parks, Interpol, Anna Calvi, Ashnikko and Sleaford Mods topped the bill, with support from German-speaking acts.

FKP Scorpio, parent company of Vienna-based Arcadia Live, hailed Lido Sounds as “an exciting addition to our festival cosmos”.

“I see the potential to firmly establish this event as a prominent highlight in the city’s cultural calendar”

“I am happy that Lido Sounds’ first edition was such a great success and that our concept for a city festival in Linz is working out,” says Folkert Koopmans, CEO of FKP Scorpio. “The team has done a great job and I see the potential to firmly establish this event as a prominent highlight in the city’s cultural calendar.”

Arcadia Live managing director Filip Potocki added: “I see people’s faces and it seems that a lot of people liked it. We got great feedback from the artists. A lot of them couldn’t believe that this was the first time Lido Sounds was happening, because a lot of things already worked so smoothly and were well thought out.”

Potocki says that Arcadia Live will use the coming days and weeks to assess areas of improvement and discuss the future of the festival with city officials.

“The following weeks will decide how Lido Sounds can be constantly integrated into the FKP festival program and establish itself within the European cultural scene,” he adds.

In addition to music, Lido Sounds featured culinary offerings, emerging domestic talents and afterparties at the nearby concert hall Brucknerhaus.

The event’s location, on the left bank of the Danube river (Urfahrmarkt), was easily reachable from neighbouring Germany and the Czech Republic.

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Austria’s Arcadia Live is launching a new open-air concert series in 2023, featuring artists including Florence + the Machine.

Lido Sounds will take place in Linz, Austria’s third-largest city, on the left bank of the Danube river (Urfahrmarkt).

The 30,000-capacity event, presented in conjunction with LIVA & radio FM4, will see more than 30 artists perform across two stages between 16 and 18 June 2023.

Alongside Florence + the Machine, headliners include German punk rock band Die Toten Hosen and German singer Peter Fox.

The 30,000-capacity event will see more than 30 artists perform across two stages

“The area of ​​the Urfahranermarkt offers the perfect setting for balanced music days: in the middle of the city, and yet with enough space for two stages and around 30,000 visitors,” reads a statement from Arcadia Live.

“Oases of peace and a balanced culinary offer included. Because here, too, we value and focus on the highest quality and – in contrast to the top-class international line-up – on regionality and cooperation with local restaurants.”

Vienna-based Arcadia Live is a German-Austrian joint venture between FKP Group, Four Artists Booking Agency, Chimperator Live and KKT.

The agency supervises numerous national and international acts such as alt-J, Frank Turner, George Ezra, James Bay, James Blunt, Marteria, Mac Demarco, Nothing But Thieves, Revolverheld, Two Door Cinema Club, The 1975, The Wombats and more.

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Two key players in Austria’s live music business, Arcadia Live and Ink Music, have announced a new partnership.

In August this year, Ink Music announced that it was saying goodbye to its live division after 20 years but would continue to grow its label, management and publishing services.

This week, the pair has announced that FKP Scorpio-backed Arcadia Live will be taking responsibility for the future live and touring business of a large number of the artists that were previously represented by Ink.

Arcadia is also welcoming former Ink staffer Corinna Maier to the team at the beginning of 2022.

Maier, who worked at Ink between 2011 and 2016, will sit alongside Jonathan Zott (head of booking, Arcadia Live) for the live agendas of Inks’ domestic acts. This includes My Ugly Clementine, Mira Lu Kovacs, Garish, Kerosin95, Farewell Dear Ghost and others.

On an international level, American alternative rock band Nada Surf will also join Arcadia’s live roster.

“We are taking this step with the positive expectation of breaking boundaries with united forces”

Arcadia says the cooperation opens up a network of event organisers, festivals and agencies for the artists through its shareholder and parent company FKP Scorpio, which now has operations in 11 countries in Europe.

“Our journey as Arcadia Live – from the indie company to the Europe-wide part of the FKP Scorpio group of companies – was and is essentially determined by the love of music,” says Filip Potocki, founder and managing director, Arcadia Live.

“And the tireless effort to offer both the artists and the audience unforgettable and lasting live moments. Hannes [Tschürtz, founder and MD, Ink Music] and Ink Music have a similar philosophy. Since our first steps in the music industry that we took at the same time.

“Since those beginnings, our paths have crossed again and again. Professionally and privately. Other commonalities that define our work: mutual appreciation, loyalty and professionalism are the top priorities. That’s why I’m looking forward to a successful future together on the international stage.”

Tschürtz added: “We have known each other for many years and are taking this step with the positive expectation of breaking boundaries with united forces.”

Vienna-based Arcadia Live is a German-Austrian joint venture between FKP Group, Four Artists Booking Agency, Chimperator Live and KKT.

The agency supervises numerous national and international acts such as alt-J, Frank Turner, George Ezra, James Bay, James Blunt, Marteria, Mac Demarco, Nothing But Thieves, Revolverheld, Two Door Cinema Club, The 1975, The Wombats and more.

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Hamburg-based concert promoter FKP Scorpio has grown its European footprint, launching a division in Poland.

FKP Scorpio Poland, headquartered in Warsaw, is headed up by Filip Potocki, who has been managing director of Arcadia Live since 2015.

Other members of the Polish branch include Jan Brzoza (administration, marketing and ticketing) and Krysztof Czarniakowski (project management and ticketing).

“I’ve been following the development of the Polish live music market for a long time and see great potential there,” says FKP Scorpio chief executive Folkert Koopmans.

“I’ve been following the development of the Polish live music market for a long time and see great potential there”

The company had its first foray into the Polish market in 2018, says Koopmans, promoting an Ed Sheeran show in “the fantastic atmosphere of the PGE Narodowy Stadium (58,145-cap.) in Warsaw,” as part of Sheeran’s record-breaking ÷ tour.

The first concert organised by FKP Scorpio Poland will be 2019 Eurovision Song Contest winner Duncan Laurence on 25 November at Proxima, Warsaw.

Poland is the ninth country office for the promoter, adding to branches in Norway, Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, the UK and Germany.

The Polish expansion follows on from FKP’s recent acquisition of Stockholm-based promoter Woah Dad Live, through its Swedish arm.

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Sitting in a mountain range – the Eastern Alps, which covers nearly two-thirds of the territory – and with a population of 8.7m, around a fifth of whom live in the capital, Vienna, the country of Mozart, Mahler and Falco these days draws music from everywhere.

For instance, at the time of writing, the calendar of Vienna’s alternative art complex Arena Wien is a multicultural stew featuring Franco-German reggae-punks Irie Révoltés, US hip-hopper Joey Badass, Finnish rockers Sunrise Avenue and German electro-poppers Lali Puna, along with Austria’s own Julian Le Play. And when the Ernst-Happel-Stadion prepares itself for blockbuster shows, it’s for the likes of Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Robbie Williams and German star Helene Fischer. Yet there’s still something distinctive about the Austrian music business, where highly individual independent festivals remain the norm, and where “you can still develop things based on quality rather than quantity,” in the words of veteran indie promoter Alex Nussbaumer.

“Austria is a very sensible market,” says Nussbaumer, who operates as al-x, with offices in Vienna and Bregenz. “I often liken it to Switzerland because it has the same, very healthy scene, whereas in Germany, you don’t really have the middle range anymore. My experience here has always been that you can really develop an artist from scratch with touring.” However, times change, as Nussbaumer concedes, and it’s possible that the Austria of the near future will be different from that of recent decades. Like Switzerland, Austria was built by indies and has only lately attracted the undivided attention of multinational operators.

Live Nation and FKP Scorpio/CTS Eventim are now a couple of years into their respective Austrian ventures, and though Barracuda (the 2016 amalgam of leading indies Skalar, Red Snapper and NuCoast Entertainment) remains the biggest player in both shows and festivals, it is safe to say the gap has closed

“To be the only big, independent player is not easy when Live Nation, DEAG and CTS all have offices in Vienna,” says Barracuda CEO Ewald Tatar, whose recent projects have included the Rolling Stones at Spielberg; Robbie Williams in Vienna and Klagenfurt; and the perennial Nova Rock festival. “But for us,” he adds, “business is still very, very good.”

“You can definitely play one big arena or one big stadium. For the second or third show, you need to be really careful”

For now, this is a view more or less shared by indies and multinationals alike. Austria may not be huge but it’s in reasonably good shape, especially after the festival market pulled back from the edge of saturation a year or two ago.

“In general, it’s been a pretty good year – possibly the best year ever,” says Arcadia Live head of booking Silvio Huber. “The Rolling Stones pulled a massive crowd; there’s been a significant rise in stadium shows in Vienna; and, of course, a steady growth of club and arena shows. It seems we have not reached a critical peak in Austria yet, but we should be aware that no business grows endlessly.”

Nestled beneath Germany with borders into Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, Austria has always been a well-connected sort of place, part west and part east, so a well-placed show in Austria can often draw part of its crowd from elsewhere.

A show such as Barracuda’s 95,000-capacity Stones show, for example, which took place in September at Red Bull Ring in Spielberg bei Knittelfeld in the central part of the country, is only an hour or two by road from the borders of Italy, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia.

Nonetheless, Austria is a relatively small country, and its ticket-shifting powers have limits. Roughly 70–80% of all tickets sold are for shows in and around Vienna, and though Austria has many fetching cities, from Linz and Graz to Salzburg and Innsbruck, acts of any size can’t hope to play more than one or two of them.

“Basically, in Austria you can definitely play one big arena or one big stadium,” says Tatar. “For the second or third show, you need to be really careful. Outside Vienna, the other cities in Austria are not big. We play arena shows in Linz or Graz but you can’t do both – you need to decide if it’s Vienna and Linz or Vienna and Graz.”

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Austria’s festival market is reaching saturation point, a leading music industry figure has said, as news emerges of the cancellation of a third high-profile event in as many months.

The 2016 editions of Nuke Festival, in Graz, and One Drop Festival and Jazz Fest, in Wiesen – all promoted by Vienna-based Arcadia Live – were called off due to poor ticket sales, in what Music Austria (MICA)’s Rainer Praschak calls a symptom of a market overwhelmed by “too many festivals”.

Speaking to IQ, Praschak stops short of calling the current situation unsustainable, but notes the Austrian festival business is in a period of transition following the entry into the market of a number of new promoters. “There was only one really big festival promoter [Skalar] for quite some time,” he explains, “but in the past few years there has been a big change.”

Praschak says there are now “more promoters than ever before”, and while he cautions that “we have to see how this develops”, “at the moment”, he says, there are simply “too many festivals with too many artists”.

Arcadia Live, a joint venture between FKP Scorpio, Chimperator Live, Kikis Kleiner Tourneeservice and the Four Artists booking agency, signed a deal last September giving it exclusive use of the historic 8,000-capacity Wiesen festival site for five years. In addition to Nuke, which returned last year after a five-year hiatus, and the long-running Jazz Fest, which was scheduled to return on 18 June, the company earlier this year unveiled a raft of new events for 2016, including genre festivals One Drop (reggae), HipHop Open Austria (rap), Out of the Woods (indie/alternative) and Nu Forms (drum and bass) – all of which, with the exception of One Drop, went ahead.

“At the moment there are too many festivals with too many artists”

Aracadia Live’s head of booking, Silvio Huber, says 2016 was an “interesting year” for festivals in Austria, with one in particular “doing really well; better than expected” and others struggling.

Part of the problem for the country’s promoters, says Praschak, is that Austrian festivals traditionally relied on tourists from eastern and central European countries, which traditionally lacked their own world-class events. This influx of foreign visitors, he explains, has slowed in recent years, with more choosing to visit homegrown festivals such as Sziget in Hungary, Exit in Serbia, InMusic in Croatia and Positivus in Latvia.

Huber “absolutely” agrees: “They’ve grown a good festival scene over there,” he says. “There aren’t that many reasons left for them to travel abroad [to go to a festival].” Praschak says the lost custom will be “hard to lure back”.

Huber adds that festival traffic is actually now increasingly heading in the opposite direction, with Austrians taking advantage of the eastern events’ strong line-ups in countries where “everything is cheaper” than at home.

The picture is further complicated by the explosion in popularity of other live entertainment of the non-festival variety – much of it free. “Fifteen years ago there was not much going on in the summertime,” comments Praschak. “Now there is a lot more stuff to do.” He gives the examples of the free Popfest and dance/performing arts event ImPulsTanz in Vienna as alternative distractions for Austrians who don’t want to trek to a village on the country’s eastern border for their live fix.

“They’ve grown a good festival scene in eastern Europe. There aren’t that many reasons left for them to travel abroad”

Praschak says next year “promoters will learn” from 2016, adding that he expects to see several festivals “get smaller, and some might focus on a specific genre”.

Huber, whose company’s line-up of small, specialised festivals met mixed fortunes in its first year at Wiesen, says Arcadia was “maybe” too ambitious with its plans for the Austrian market this summer and is currently considering its options for next year. “Right now we’re thinking, ‘OK, if there’s too many festivals, what should we do next year?’,” he says. “Maybe the time was not right, maybe we should reconsider certain things…”

However, he’s reluctant to attribute the cancellations solely to a glut of festivals, saying instead it’s going to “take some time” to establish Arcadia Live’s new festival offering in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

“Booking a festival is an endless development and adventure,” he says. “Does any booker ever have a point where they say a festival is so perfect they won’t change it for another ten years?”

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