Outdoor shows are expected at full capacity
Live Nation’s president expects live shows to fully return outdoors by summer of 2021. Joe Berchtold shared the expectations with CNBC News on Thursday (Dec 10th), saying a lot of progress towards fighting COVID-19 is helping secure the return of live music worldwide.
“We feel very good right now at this point given the vaccine news, we start to see — with some much greater clarity — what the path to return to live is and certainly we have a lot of confidence about that return to live. At this point, on a global basis, we’re already starting to see in Asia already some shows coming back — New Zealand operating at full capacity [and] other Asian markets that have made more progress are getting back more quickly.”
Berchtold says that a combined four thousand shows and festivals have been rescheduled for 2021 with 86% of fans holding onto their tickets and two-thirds holding onto festival passes.
“In the key US/Western European markets, it continues to be our expectation that by next summer we’re back with our major outdoor shows, our amphitheaters in the US, festivals globally and we’ll be able to do those shows,” he states. “As a reminder, what we had originally scheduled in 2020, we’ve lifted and moved to 2021, so we’ve had almost 20 million fans who’ve held onto their tickets — really as we’ve talked in the past — almost all fans holding onto their tickets for over four thousand shows. We have those shows already set up, we have those fans already looking forward to getting back, and we think that by the time we get to next summer, we’ll really have restarted the live engine and get going with being able to bring the artist and the fans back together.”
It’s been rumored fans would be required to prove they’ve tested negative for COVID-19 before entering venues, upsetting many with privacy concerns. Berchtold doesn’t address those concerns directly. Instead, he says each market will vary depending on local public health authorities.
“It’s our expectation that in general, we’ll be able to get back to have full capacity shows, so we won’t need social distancing, certainly outdoors by next summer,” he says. “We’ve got a number of protocols that we’ll take with all of our venues in terms of how it is that we’re sanitizing, and creating a safe environment for our artists, our employees, and our fans, but we think by that point we’ll have enough distribution of vaccine, the expectation that it’ll be readily available to everybody, and we’ll work with all of the local public health authorities on a global basis. There will be different rules in different markets, and whatever it is that’s required, but in general, we think we’ll be able to get back to full capacity and people enjoying the shows.”
Live Nation, which is the world’s largest concert promoter, lost 98% of its income due to the pandemic. That translates to more than $431 million of revenue in 2020.
As the pandemic wore on, virtual events became the norm. Live Nation even launched socially distanced shows, where permitted, for fans who want to attend in-person events. Cities throughout the United States, New Zealand, France, Denmark, Spain, Germany and Finland have participated in these events.
