German Promoters ‘Fear For Existence’ Over Coronavirus

Messe München, Munich’s exhibition centre, has cancelled the Command Control cyber trade fair, scheduled for March 3-4. Berlin scrapped the world’s leading travel trade show ITB.

Seeing that government in Italy, Switzerland and France have all banned large public gatherings from going ahead for the time being, German promoters are apprehensive. 

BDKV president Prof. Jens Michow said the association has been observing a significant drop in ticket sales for its members. What is more, ticket holders are increasingly returning their tickets for a refund in fear of attending large-scale public gatherings. 

He added that numerous promoters in Germany could face economic collapse, should authorities decide to follow the examples of aforementioned countries, and place a ban on public gatherings. 

Stock-listed CTS Eventim, the largest live entertainment company in the country, has suffered a double-digit percentage drop in prices over the past days.

A pan-European promoter, CTS Eventim will be affected by decisions made in other country’s as well, like Italy for instance, where it owns promoters D’Alessandro e Galli, Vertigo and Friends & Partners, as well as ticketing agency Ticketone.

DEAG’s shares have been declining as well. Pollstar has reached out to both companies to find out what they have been telling investors.

A CTS Eventim rep provided the following: “Naturally, we are closely monitoring and analysing the situation with regard to the further spread of COVID 19. At present, we can only identify isolated effects on our business, such as in (northern) Italy and Switzerland, where events are currently having to be postponed. 

“According to our current status, there are no restrictions or postponements for live entertainment events in Germany due to COVID-19. In the medium term, we must look at whether and how customer behaviour with regard to attendance at major events may change.”

Update: A DEAG rep told Pollstar that the company didn’t suffer any drop in presales nor any incidents during events.

That being said, it’s the independent promoters that will suffer the most if public life comes to a standstill in Germany.

The entire live entertainment sector generates some €5 billion ($5.5 billion) annually, plus another €5 billion per year in music tourism spending. 

Michow emphasized, that while the association absolutely appreciated all measures taken in order to protect health, the nationwide cancellation of music and other events would kill many promoters – which would in turn affect artists, venues and suppliers, from tech suppliers to security.

BDKV has therefore urged the country’s department in charge of economy to come up with a financial aid program, in case it decided to cancel events. “Most of all, however, I’m hoping the relevant authorities will examine each individual case very carefully to determine if an event cancellation is absolutely necessary because of an actual, concrete threat, rather than an abstract one,” said Michow.