Live Nation is revving up for a big reopening of the U.S. economy, with more shows planned next year than 2019. In addition to EDC’s October return, the company is planning to move forward with Bonaroo in September and Rolling Loud in Miami come July.
The company only hosted 664 events in 2020, losing over $700 million in revenue. That 76% drop was a result of the few events the company was able to hold with satisfactory restrictions, like the Insomniac’s Park n’ Rave series. Thanks to the country’s accelerating vaccine rollout, Live Nation has seen a rapid rise in ticket sales.
“Around the world, people are showing the need to get out and socialize once again which reinforces our expectation that a return to concerts will be the logical progression as vaccines are readily available to everyone who wants to get one,” says Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino in an earnings call on May 6. “This is generally already the case in the U.S. where we are confidently planning our reopenings, particularly for outdoor shows, and we expect many of our other major markets will follow this summer.”
“We are already seeing confirmed major tour dates for 2022 up double digits from the same time pre-pandemic in 2019 for 2020,” Rapino added. “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.”
The entertainment company has used its $2.1 billion of liquidity to keep up with operations costs through this period before their events start up again. While several state and local public health recommendations require a large sum of the population to be vaccinated to hold larger gatherings like EDC, nearly half of the total population of the U.S. has received at least one dose of the vaccine, with more than a third of the population fully vaccinated.
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