Live Nation’s Roger Field talks touring post-COVID: ‘2022 is looking huge – globally’

Concerts are back, but not quite as we know it.

The federal government’s bungled vaccinations roll-out has ensured Australia’s borders remain closed to anyone not willing to kill a fortnight in quarantine.

And in the absence of anything approaching “herd immunity,” live music venues in most states continue to operate with limited capacities. 

Live music, like any business, can be boiled down to a numbers game. Right now, the numbers don’t add up.

Australia is said to have administered 12 doses for every 100 citizens, with New South Wales and Queensland at the back of the line, with 3.8 and 3.3 doses per 100, respectively.

That’s a long distance behind the U.S. and U.K., both at about 80 doses per 100 folks.

Clearly there’s some catchup to do. 

Hang in there. Jabs are coming, and so are the tours. 2022 is looking “huge,” explains Live Nation’s Roger Field.

The live entertainment giant is banking on a bumper year ahead, one which (hopefully) puts COVID-19 in the dust and sees venues of all sizes crank up for a splurge of concerts.  

LNE’s President and CEO Michael Rapino recently said the pipeline for shows in 2022 is “much stronger than usual,” with almost twice as many major touring artists on cycle than a typical year.

The company is “already seeing confirmed major tour dates for 2022 up double digits from the same time pre-pandemic in 2019 for 2020,” he says, and many of these artists will have “multi-year tours, spanning the U.S., Europe and often either Asia or Latin America, setting us up for a strong multi-year growth run.”

Australia is very much part of the conversation.

TIO caught up with Field, President Asia Pacific at LNE, for a glimpse into the future. 

Pressing the flesh. Packed concerts will be a reality.

How is the touring calendar looking for Australia and NZ in late 2021 and early 2022.

2022 is looking huge – globally. Artists are keen to get back on the road, there is pent up demand from fans to see their favourite artists, and we’re all projecting that there will be enough certainty in freedom of movement and protocols for gatherings.

I’m optimistic about the rest of this year as well, and feel it’s really going to come down to the outcome of work we’re doing around getting artists into and around the country.

We desperately need some consistency and need to continue working with the state governments, particularly in their responses to outbreaks.

As Bluesfest illustrated, health actions can have devastating financial consequences and we need to keep the dialogue open with governments all over the country, particularly in relation to Business Interruption Funding.

The rivalry between promoters has been put aside during COVID, and with the loss of Michael Gudinski we’re moving into a great unknown. After everything live has gone through, together, are we going to see a new “collegiate age?”

I believe that collegiate age is here, and has been for some time. Theatre is what we do so why would you expect anything other than some bluster and jibing.

Sure there’s some commercial tensions at times, and of course lots of emotion, but we’re always able to come together for a cause and I always enjoy catching up with my counterparts.

It’s healthy competition that keeps us all challenged and having fun. There’s some really good people out there, and our careers have developed together so why wouldn’t we get on.

Roger, you wore two hats in those meetings in Canberra…LEIF and Live Nation. Was there a sense that, if government weren’t engaged in those meetings, the live sector was done for? How close was it?

We saw the immediate impact of the meetings in the significant increase in RISE funding and extra $10 million for Support Act, which was fantastic.

Going in we honestly didn’t know what to expect, however as an industry we’ve made considerable efforts either directly or via peak bodies such as LEIF and LPA to provide numerous case studies highlighting the complexity of what we do.

Also articulating the value of the industry in jobs and economic benefit.

As an industry we are very self-sufficient and rarely make any noise or have had cause to engage with government, so we have had to play catch-up in illustrating the breadth of the business.

Something clearly stuck in what we sent, because we were able to secure meetings with the Prime Minister, Treasurer and Arts Minister all in one day. It was clear that they are engaged in trying to understand how we can be supported and assisted in getting back to work.

We’re also working with the federal government on how we can bring international talent into the country so that the volume of large-scale events can return later this year.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.