Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino has stated that U.S. music festivals could reopen this summer.
So far, large-scale events in the UK are starting to come back in rapid fashion. Festival tickets in the UK have surpassed over 170,000 just this week and on Monday the British government laid out a timetable that states large music events in the U.K can resume at 100% capacity starting on June 21st. Shortly after that announcement, Live Nation released 100,000 tickets for the Reading & Leeds festival which is scheduled for August 27-29 which sold out in less than a week. Live Nation also put out tickets for their dance-music-based Creamfields event which takes place from August 26-29. The event has already sold out; 70,000 tickets in less than 48 hours.
When asked about the possibility of large-scale events returning to the U.S, Michael Rapino (CEO of Live Nation) disclosed that,
“Every day we seem to have a new state or country talking about when they’ll open up, so we’re feeling more optimistic than we were a month ago,” he said. “Lots of artists are calling, looking at how we start up in July, August, September. So for right now, we still believe we’ll have enough open in the U.K., Australia, Canada and the U.S. to keep what we have on the books in amphitheaters booked for now. We might have certain states that might not be ready, but we have enough states and enough artists willing to play the open slots if we get to that level in the right markets.”
Rapino goes on to comment that the situation in the U.S. is not as “clear-cut.” Meaning there has not been an official time-table laid out like there has been in the UK. Although there is hope, it is still unclear whether or not large-scale events will return in the United States this summer. We will keep you updated as this story develops.
With more artists than ever wanting to tour and fans eager to make up for lost time, all signs point to even more concerts ahead. Thank you to all of our @LiveNation employees for their endless resilience and creativity – none of this would be possible without you pic.twitter.com/gdiapVYSyk
— Michael Rapino (@Michael_Rapino) February 25, 2021
Feature Photo – Insomniac
Source: Variety
