Berlin, Germany. Photo Credit: Stefan Widua
Berlin-headquartered concert and festival promoter DEAG Entertainment Group turned in a more than 70 percent Q3 2022 revenue increase compared to the same period in 2019, according to a newly released earnings report.
DEAG just recently posted its preliminary financials for July, August, and September of 2022, when revenue is said to have cracked €101.7 million (currently $105.73 million). (A full earnings report is expected to be published on Wednesday.) Besides representing a roughly 72 percent boost from Q3 2019, as mentioned, the sum reflects an approximately 509 percent improvement from Q3 2021’s income total.
Meanwhile, DEAG execs communicated that their business’s EBITDA had reached €10.2 million during 2022’s third quarter, a hike of 110 percent or so from 2019 and around 134 percent from Q3 2021. DEAG says that its more than 30 annual festivals will attract north of 580,000 “visitors” in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, and the UK, with “sold-out” Q3 events including Switzerland’s Sion sous les étoiles.
The “main reason” for the growth is “the significant upturn in operating activities as a consequence of lifting most of the corona restrictions in DEAG’s national markets,” per the company, which last month bought a majority stake in the operator of Tickets.ie and “the renowned Psytrance/Goa Festival ‘Indian Spirit.’”
Through 2022’s initial nine months, the entity behind the UK’s Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival identified €235.1 million in revenue (up 91 percent from the identical stretch in 2019 as well as 876 percent from Q1, Q2, and Q3 of 2021) and EBITDA of €20.3 million (up 155 percent from 2019 and 53 percent YoY).
Addressing his company’s showing in a statement, DEAG CEO Peter L.H. Schwenkow said in part: “We are extremely satisfied with our performance in the third quarter. … We successfully staged countless concerts and events and recorded a record summer in ticketing with 3 million tickets sold between June and August alone.
“We are experiencing unabated high demand for tickets to events and concerts. 2022 will be a record year for DEAG. The first quarter of 2023 is already characterised by high visibility. We expect our dynamic growth to continue beyond 2022,” finished Schwenkow.
DEAG’s seemingly strong Q3 performance follows a €2 million raise from European events platform Xceed and the “highest quarterly attendance ever” for Live Nation during the third quarter.
With a multitude of acts hitting the road amid rising costs and a jam-packed live-music calendar, though, several artists have been forced to cancel their tours (or at least their European dates, for North America-based professionals) for financial reasons.
And Lorde in a thorough analysis of the crowd-based entertainment space elaborated upon the “almost unprecedented level of difficulty” associated with touring at present.