Country profile: Sweden | Global Promoters Report
Sweden is a well-developed, very prosperous market with a plethora of festivals and three lively touring cities in Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg. And like all Nordic countries, it is a strong Live Nation territory, albeit with committed competition.
In addition to taking a big chunk of the arena and arena tour business – Iron Maiden, the Rolling Stones and Lady Gaga came through this year, along with many others – the company owns Way Out West founder Luger and festivals including Summerburst, Sweden Rock and, since 2019, Lollapalooza Stockholm.
“It’s been an incredibly challenging year, but it’s been an amazing year in terms of the talent coming through Sweden,” says Lollapalooza Stockholm festival director and Live Nation
SVP touring international Anna Sjölund.
“It’s been an incredibly challenging year, but it’s been a fantastic year in terms of the talent coming through Sweden,”
“Next year we have four Coldplays, three Springsteens, we have Ozzy Osbourne, and many more announcements to come, so 2023 looks like a very big arena and arena year. Festivals had a great year in 22, and we’re obviously looking to repeat that and be even bigger next year,” she
adds.
“We had a record attendance at Way Out West and Lollapalooza Stockholm had 70,000 attendees – it has such a great location in the middle of town and has so much potential to grow bigger and bigger.” Luger is one of the Nordics’ leading promoters, as well as acting as an agency and tour producer for Swedish artists.
The company markets over 300 shows a year – Dungen, Belle & Sebastian, Loyle Carner and Weyes Blood are on the calendar through early 2023 – in addition to its festivals, Way Out West and Åre Sessions. The Swedish collective Ladieslovehiphop (LLHH) is more of a cultural and creative movement than a promoter, but it partnered with Live Nation Sweden and Luger this year on Ladieslovehiphop Festival 2022.
The Swedish collective Ladieslovehiphop (LLHH) is more of a cultural and creative movement than a promoter
FKP, a major challenger to Live Nation in the Nordic markets and elsewhere, has had a full set of Scandinavian offices for around five years and grew its Swedish footprint significantly in 2019 when it absorbed Håkan Hellström promoter Woah Dad Live, led by ex -Luger execs Niklas Lundell and Joel Borg. Among FKP’s Swedish bravado in 2022 were ten Ullevi arenas for Ed Sheeran, Rammstein (three), and Swedish stars Laleh (one) and Hellström (four), as well as shows for Gorillaz and others, a new festival, Rosendal Garden Party, and an older one, Where’s The Music in Norrköping.
The Waterland-backed All Things Live was born in 2018 as a pan-Scandinavian operator built by Denmark’s ICO, Norway’s Friction and Atomic Soul, and Sweden’s Blixten & Co and Maloney Concerts, and had barely formed when Covid struck. All Things Live Sweden has this year run an exhaustive Sweden tour in smaller towns by arena rockers Sabaton, as well as shows for Green Day, Swedish star Eva Dahlgren and others. and the newly acquired Big Slap Festival in Malmö, which jumped from a 15,000-cap, one-day event to 50,000 over two with the addition of Justin Bieber and a move to Nyhamnen on the city’s waterfront.
But while there are clearly plenty of successes, the bankruptcy in November of TADC, formerly Triffid and Danger Concerts, illustrates the treacherous nature of the market. “The past few days have been very tough both for us and other players in the concert industry,” founder Edward Janson said in a statement.
“The last few days have been very tough both for us and other players in the concert industry,”
“Due to lingering effects from the pandemic and sharply increased costs, combined with reduced ticket sales, the situation has finally become unsustainable.” Originally a rock specialist, TADC had recently diversified and opened offices in Oslo and Copenhagen, releasing sell-out acts this year that included Manowar, Uriah Heep, WASP, 50 Cent and The Beach Boys, as well as its Gefle Metal Festival and Atlas Rock events.
Veteran Julius Production, based in Alnarp, near Malmö, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year and its projects included Whitney Houston, Tina Turner and Queen tribute tours, as well as the Soweto Gospel Choir and a range of family entertainment productions. This year promises more along those lines, including productions based on the music of The Lion King, Les Misérables and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
“Naturally, the market is very unstable and unpredictable,”
“Naturally, the market is very unstable and unpredictable,” says producer Emelie Löfmark. “For us, productions sell okay – not good, not bad, just okay. I think this is partly a post-pandemic effect – we are still hurt by the signals the restrictions have sent to the public.
But inflation, the war in Ukraine and rising prices are also part of the shaky environment. My feeling is that entertainment that signals “happy” – laughter, feelgood – are all genres that will work in the coming year. We are lucky to have that kind of production in our repertoire.”