Live Nation has continued growing in the second quarter and for the first half, with revenue up 12 per cent and AOI (adjusted operating income) up 6 per cent on a constant currency basis in the second quarter.  The increase in revenue was led by our concerts business as we continued attracting more fans to more shows globally, which in turn drove AOI growth in our advertising and ticketing businesses through the first half of the year.

With the majority of our tickets sold for the year, we are confident that we remain on track to deliver our 2015 plan, and all key leading indicators reinforce our expectation of continued top- and bottom-line growth as we build global market share in our core concerts, advertising and ticketing businesses.

We have built the industry's most scalable and unparalleled live platform, bringing 450 million fans in 40 countries to that magical two-hour event each year.  Concerts are the flywheel for our high-margin on-site, advertising and ticketing businesses and this year we expect to deliver record operating results, increasing the revenue and profitability of each of these businesses.

Concerts Continuing To Build Global Platform

Starting with the concerts business, we have now sold approximately 75 per cent of our projected tickets for the year, and through July we are pacing 7 per cent ahead of last year's ticket sales; this is our top leading indicator that we will increase concert attendance again this year.  We continue to be the world's leading promoter with about three-quarters of the top 25 global tours, including U2, Imagine Dragons, Lady Antebellum and One Direction.  Along with attendance growth, we have also grown per-fan on-site revenue this year by 18 per cent to over US$20 per fan in our amphitheaters and festivals as our sales initiatives, particularly those focused on the high-end fans, pay off.

The strength of our global platform continues to deliver growth as we have increased year-on-year attendance.  In the second quarter over a million more fans attended our shows, also spending money at the concert, paying service fees on tickets and providing advertisers with an engaged audience.  For the full year we expect to grow our fan base by over two million, which on its own would be one of the top five promoters in the world, as we build our audience across our global portfolio, including arenas, festivals, amphitheaters, and theaters and clubs.

At the same time, we continue building our global platform for the future, most recently adding Marek Lieberberg to establish our concerts business in Germany.  Germany is one of the top three concert markets in the world and Marek has a history of promoting more than 700 shows for over two million fans each year.  Adding these shows to Live Nation can make us the top promoter inGermany, and moving these two million tickets to the Ticketmaster platform will substantially increase our scale and market position in ticketing in Germany.  With this move, Live Nation now has a promoting presence in all the major Western European markets, and along with our presence now in nine Asian markets, we are the only promoter able to provide global and regional touring support at scale for artists.

Our artist managers continue to provide a strong pipeline of shows to our concerts business aligned with this growth.

Sponsorship & Advertising Delivering Accelerated Growth

In the sponsorship & advertising business, we have delivered strong growth through the first half, with both revenue and AOI up over 20 per cent on a constant currency basis.

Our key leading indicator for advertising, contracted net revenue, is up 19 per cent on a constant currency basis as of the end of the second quarter and we have sold over 80 per cent of our planned sponsorship & advertising for the year.  This now gives us confidence that our AOI growth rate in sponsorship & advertising for the year will be in the low teens, an acceleration from recent years.

Our online advertising continues to build rapidly, growing revenue by 36 per cent and AOI by over 30 per cent at constant currency for the first half.  We now have over 65 million unique monthly visitors to our sites and broader network, making Live Nation one of the top three online music networks.

On the content side, we have entered the second year of streaming live shows with Yahoo! Live, with an increased focus on festivals this year, including EDC in Las Vegas and the Wireless Festival in the UK so far, and Creamfields, Landmark and Voodoo to come.  Our Live Nation TV network with VICE Media is launching this month, and will provide music fans with the combination of Live Nation's access to 24,000 concerts and VICE's unique story-telling ability.

With the growth of our festival business we are also continuing to build our base of major advertising clients, increasing the number of companies that pay us over US$1 million a year by 15 per cent; now delivering a collective $200 million to Live Nation in 2015.

With all parts of our advertising business now performing and growing rapidly, we expect a record level of AOI growth in 2015, with continued strong runway.

Ticketmaster Marketplace Continues to Grow

Ticketmaster has continued building its global leadership as a ticket marketplace this year, with 7 per cent growth in site visits leading to a 10 per cent increase in combined primary and secondary Gross Transaction Value (GTV) at constant currency.

A key driver behind this growth in site visits and GTV has been our mobile first strategy, building our products for ease of use and viewing on mobile devices.  Mobile now consistently accounts for more than half of our traffic, both in North America and internationally, and year-to-date we have deployed 27 updates to our apps globally, as we are enhancing the fan experience.

As a result, we continue seeing growth in mobile ticket sales, up 21 per cent through the first half, and now accounting for 21 per cent of total ticket sales.  Our app install base continues to build as well, now at about 19 million, as more fans are seeing the benefits from improved search and ticket management functionality.

I am confident that 2015 will mark the true point of conversion of Ticketmaster to a technology company.  We have the right leadership and technology teams in place, building a marketplace and delivering products with great fan features, while also capturing cost savings for the business.  With all this, Ticketmaster has never been better positioned.

A year of growth

After growing the business in the first half of the year, we expect 2015 to be another year of growth and record results for the company, and we are confident that we will deliver the final year of our three-year plan.  Based on the strong position of our leading indicators in concerts, sponsorship & advertising, and ticketing, operationally we expect revenue and AOI growth in each of these businesses and overall for Live Nation this year.  And more fundamentally, we continue to see a wide set of both organic and acquisition opportunities to further grow each of our businesses beyond 2015, directly building on the success we have achieved to date.

Michael Rapino

President and Chief Executive Officer

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. 

MTV is returning to Glasgow to stage MTV Live Lockdown on 30th September – the second MTV live music event to be produced in the city in less than a year. 

The news builds on the success of Glasgow’s hosting of the MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) in November 2014 and the MTV Crashes in 2010.

MTV Live Lockdown is an eight-part series in which a selection of high profile artists travel underground and emerge for a special showcase performance in front of a live audience.

MTV UK is partnering with Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB) and EventScotland to deliver the event, which will be produced by JJ Stereo and filmed and broadcast as a 3 x 30-minute series set to air on 30th October on MTV Music and MV Live HD. 

Confirmed performers include English rapper and dance phenomenon, Example, two piece band, Slaves and chart topping British duo, Sigma. 

The acts will perform in a coliseum style set, providing a 360 degree view for an intimate and exclusive audience of approximately 500 fans. 

Paul Bush, Director of Events at VisitScotland:  “It’s fantastic to welcome MTV to Scotland once more and hold the first production of MTV Live Lockdown outside of London.  MTV Live Lockdown forms part of a legacy from the 2014 MTV EMA which was also hosted here; further reinforcing Scotland’s reputation as the perfect stage for events”. 

Paul Bush is speaking at HOST CITY 2015 in Glasgow, the leading EU-based meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events, on 9 to 10 November.

In this age of constant access to entertainment, sports events are under pressure to become ever more entertaining and offer more activities within the schedule. But is this phenomenon of festivalisation – part of the DNA of mega events  – a good thing for smaller events?

“It’s definitely a good thing for promoting and reaching out to new target groups and bringing communities together and entertaining them,” says Georg Spazier, who brought several events to the Region of Tirol following heading up marketing and communications at the 2012 Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee Company.  He is now running his own agency, ITS GR8, with which he organises Europe’s biggest mountain bike festival.

“But for organising committees it’s additional work, additional budget, additional staff and coordination and so on. You probably need an extra team running it. If it's the one organising committee, doing everything can be overwhelming in many ways.

“There is a threat that sport moves out of the spotlight. We have to look at it more from a holistic entertainment perspective.”

The 2023 Olympic and Paralympic Games will incorporate a number of different cities beyond Brisbane, the nominal host. “I think it's great thing because I think it just gives more cities more opportunity,” says Alana Vought, Program Manager, City of Gold Coast’s Olympic and Paralympic Games Brisbane 2032.”

Involving wider regions can help to involve more diverse communities and in events, especially those communities that lack sports infrastructure, Vought says. “The Pacific islands have no training infrastructure at all. So to be able to bring some training camps into the country, to Australia, into the Gold Coast and have them train – it's a great opportunity for them and it's also a fantastic opportunity for our athletes to share.”

Birmingham, in the UK’s West Midlands, hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2022. “Festivalisation was good for Birmingham because it suited what we wanted to do with the Games, and that was could we involve more communities and different types of audiences,” says Nicola Turner MBE, CEO, United By 2022, who was Director of Legacy for the Games.

Birmingham 2022 wrapped a cultural and festival event around the Games for six months. “We eventually sold more tickets for the cultural and arts festival than we did for the Commonwealth Games itself, and actually then the community decided to put on Festival 23 the next year because they liked it so much.”

Triathlon is a sport which has seen huge rise in in popularity, and the events are getting bigger and bigger. This brings challenges as well as commercial opportunities, according to Kris Gemmell, Head of Marketing and Commercial, World Triathlon.

“There was an opportunity to give sponsors more bang for their buck, and they had more time to activate, but it was taxing for them to be in one place for a greater length of time,” he said.

“The question is, how big is too big?”

Coldplay aims at reducing emissions related to their next world tour by 50 per cent, and to remove the remaining unavoidable emissions with a portfolio of carbon removal solutions.  
“Playing live and finding connection with people is ultimately why we exist as a band,” said Coldplay. 
“We’ve been planning this tour for years, and we’re super excited to play songs from across our whole time together. At the same time, we’re very conscious that the planet is facing a climate crisis. 
“So we’ve spent the last two years consulting with environmental experts to make this tour as sustainable as possible, and, just as importantly, to harness the tour’s potential to push things forward. We won’t get everything right, but we’re committed to doing everything we can and sharing what we learn. It’s a work in progress and we’re really grateful for the help we’ve had so far.” 
Nature-based carbon removal solutions to be used include reforestation, soil restoration, rewilding, and blue carbon projects, such as seagrass meadow restoration. Other solutions include sustainable aviation fuels, and a direct air capture and storage solution from Climeworks – the only technological approach included. 
Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks said: “It is already proven that carbon removal at scale is a must on the current emissions pathway and technological solutions will be needed. 
“We are very inspired to see public figures like Coldplay seizing the magnitude of the challenge and acting boldly by working towards ambitious emissions reduction and removing the unavoidable part. Supporting them with our carbon dioxide removal service takes us one step closer to our vision of inspiring 1 billion people to remove CO2 from the air.” 
To limit global warming to 1.5°C, humanity needs to drastically reduce emissions (also called mitigation), which prevents new CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Historic and unavoidable emissions must also be removed from the air to achieve net-zero and net-negative emissions globally. 
According to Climeworks, some scientific studies indicate that by mid-century 10 billion tons of CO2 will need to be removed from the air every year to keep global warming in the line of the limits of the Paris Agreement.

National reopening plans, pent-up customer demand and digitalisation will all contribute to the revival of the live events sector, according to Joe Berchtold, President of Live Entertainment.

The head of the world leading event promoter cited the UK government’s announcement of a roadmap to lifting lockdown in England as a great enabler to reopening the events business.

“The UK is the leading example of what’s working well. They got out fast with the vaccines. They came out with a plan last week,” he told Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on 4^th March.

Subject to the progress of the virus and vaccination, the UK aims to remove all lockdown restrictions in England in a phased approach by 21 June. “Because we have those dates, we can make an informed decision. It has a big impact on consumer side.”

The announcement of the roadmap created a rapid surge in sales of festivals, with Live Nation selling 170,000 tickets in three days, including Creamfields and Reading and Leeds which sold out rapidly.

“We needed a 90-day plan that gives the ecosystem the ability to plan.

“We’re waiting for that in the US, or if not on a state-by-state basis,” he said. “It looks like the south is moving fast. And there are more aggressive plans from some of the big states like California and New York; others are more conservative."

Fortunately outdoor events, which reopen soonest due to the lower risk of transmission, serve the promoter’s biggest customer base. “The benefit for us is the large volume of fans. our most valuable customers are our fans in amphitheatres and our festivals. That’s the best way for us to economically get moving.”

With pressure building on both the supply and demand side, Live Nation’s post-pandemic strategy is to drive more fans into its ecosystem and monetise more effectively.

“We are looking at an elevated supply and demand as we come out of this. We have a very large pent up supply issue,” he said, highlighting a roster of big name artists who have been unable to tour during the pandemic.

“You have latent demand of people wanting to see artists. 95% of fans want to go as soon as they can – so we’re going to have an accelerated supply and demand dynamic.”

Although Live Nation’s revenues were hit dramatically in 2020, their cost base has also reduced.

“We’ve took $950 million out of our cost base last year, and we’re putting $750 million back in. So that’s making us nimbler and more effective.

The promoter is also looking for new revenue streams.

“We’re looking into streaming. There are fans out there that are not going to be able to go to the show, if it’s not in their city or if it’s sold out, who will buy a stream. We can very efficiently provide our thousands of artists with the option of adding a stream to a show or a  tour.

“Most people want to go to the show rather than stream, which reinforces the value of the live proposition. But there are a lot of people who just can’t make it. so it opens the scale of distribution on a global basis. For most artists it will be integrated into touring – an additional element of their live show.”

The pandemic is also accelerating the deployment of digital ticketing. “People will go into the venue on a ticketless basis. This will improve the fan experience and reduce friction. If you reduce friction, you’ll sell more food and beverage and merchandise. That will have direct benefits for the fan, for the venue, it helps us to know and understand our fans, to add value to the sponsors – so the whole system starts to work better.

“Across the whole business, we’re finding ways to do it better.”

Future growth will also be driven beyond the UK and the US. “We’re doing this on a global basis in 40 countries. We have teams in all the markets, taking a market by market approach.

“We are excited about new markets and how they come out of this.”

These comments were made in conversation with Ben Swinburne, Head of U.S. Media Research at Morgan Stanley

The organisers of Glastonbury 2020 have announced the cancellation of the 2020 edition of the festival.

“This will be an enforced fallow year for the Festival,” Michael and Emily Eavis said in a statement published on their website and shared on social media.

“Clearly this was not a course of action we hoped to take for our 50th anniversary event, but following the new government measures announced this week – and in times of such unprecedented uncertainty – this is now our only viable option.

“We very much hope that the situation in the UK will have improved enormously by the end of June. But even if it has, we are no longer able to spend the next three months with thousands of crew here on the farm, helping us with the enormous job of building the infrastructure and attractions needed to welcome more than 200,000 people to a temporary city in these fields.”

Ticket holders will have the opportunity to roll their £50 deposit over to next year, and be guaranteed the opportunity to buy a ticket for Glastonbury 2021.

The organisers added: “The cancellation of this year’s Festival will no doubt come as a terrible blow to our incredible crew and volunteers who work so hard to make this event happen. There will also inevitably be severe financial implications as a result of this cancellation – not just for us, but also the Festival’s charity partners, suppliers, traders, local landowners and our community.

“We were so looking forward to welcoming you all for our 50th anniversary with a line-up full of fantastic artists and performers that we were incredibly proud to have booked. Again, we’re so sorry that this decision has been made. It was not through choice. But we look forward to welcoming you back to these fields next year and until then, we send our love and support to all of you.”

“The world has changed how we consume sports and entertainment. I’m lucky to be between the two and see both sides,” composer Matt Clifford says. “One of the first things I said to UEFA when I started working with them was, you know all these stadiums – I’ve played in them with the Rolling Stones.”

How do you get to join the Rolling Stones? “Like anything in life it’s like being in the right place at the right time,” he says.

Thirty years ago, Clifford was recording with a producer, Chris Kimsey, whose next project was a Rolling Stones record, Steel Wheels – which went on to achieve multi-platinum sales. “He saw me as someone who would fit in with working with those people. I was sent off to Barbados where Mick and Keith were working at that time. I walked in and said is this the gig, and Mick says yes, every Thursday night – so off we went. And the next day I was having lunch with Princess Margaret on the beach in Mustique!”

There are very close parallels between the way sports events and entertainment events are presented in a stadium. He went to the Stade de France recently to watch France versus England in the Six Nations, five years after playing there with the Rolling Stones.

“It’s very much the same thing. There is this incredible sense of anticipation, and the emotion that it unleashes in a crowd of 50 or 60 thousand people. It’s very much the same experience waiting for a big concert as waiting for the Champions League final, when you are walking up and see the lights. It’s extraordinary, you get the same buzz and excitement from both.

An element of spontaneity helps to create these levels of excitement in both sport and music. “You don’t know the outcome either way – you don’t know who is going to win the match, or which songs the band is going to play.

“With a band like the Stones it’s all about live performance, it’s all in the moment. There’s a lot of unpredictability with the Stones. You have to keep your wits about you! There are moments on stage with the Rolling Stones where, after 60 years, they’ll be out playing a song, something will go wrong, Mick will turn around to Charlie Watts and they are exactly still the same 18-year-olds who played in a tiny club in Richmond in London, and they’ve kept that alive. You see the same thing on the football pitch – that extraordinary telepathy that elevates it to a different level.

“There are so many parallels between music and sport. You have soloists, you have great teams. A rock group is all about being a team and knowing what your role is.

“The infrastructure is the same, you need many of the same facilities and we use many of the same suppliers”

But the way people consume and experience sports and music has changed immensely over Clifford’s career.

“The live experience has changed on technical levels. The sound reproduction and the experience of a concert is incredibly different – with HD LED screens and incredible lighting. PAs are smaller and so much better.”

But when it comes to sports events there is still much room for development of the audio experience, he says. “It’s an area that could be improved, especially now there is a lot of broadcasting in surround sound.

“So much of the experience when you go to a game is the sound. And the volume, when you’ve got a band playing here and another band over there, is extraordinary. It’s difficult technically because when you are watching you have to hear the commentary.”

Bringing gravitas and energy to event experiences

When not on the road with the Stones, Clifford writes anthems and official music for major sports events, which play a huge role in the event experience. Music is used in many different ways and for different moments on TV, on online platforms and in the venue.

“You come in as the composer and present two or three very different ideas, which are passed through several very large committees at a glacial pace. Because music is such a subjective thing, everyone on a committee will have a different emotional reaction to it. Once you’ve gone through that process and got the approval, the next stage begins, which is being able to do all these difference versions for different purposes, at different lengths and at different tempos, but keeping the brand theme. I find that exciting and challenging.

“When you get a brief for music for sport they often give the same words – inspiring, powerful, spirit of togetherness – but every sport is different, so you have to find that essence, the energy that is going to contribute to a broadcast of a live event.”

Clifford’s musical background was in the classical world, growing up playing in orchestras and singing  as a choirboy in Gloucester cathedral – a world apart from sports.

“Italia ’90, where the BBC used Nessun Dorma as the theme music, was almost the first time that you used the gravitas and emotion that you get from classical music to go behind sport and take it to another level. Before that, football songs had mainly been pop songs.”

Once again, Clifford found himself in the right place at the right time. He was hired in 2003 by the anthem creator Tony Britten to modernize the Champions League theme – probably the most recognisable sports audio brand.

“It’s the theme that everyone aspires to – everyone would love to have that recognition. Tony Britten who composed the piece was inspired by Zadok the Priest by George Frederic Handel – and he absolutely hit the nail on the head. With my experience of working with different genres of music I was able to extend the reach of the Champions League music.”

For example, Clifford’s added a modern beat to the recognisable choir element for the walk-on music. Another key moment in a sports event is the cup lift.

“The first Champions League final I was invited to was 2005 in Istanbul, which is still the most amazing game I’ve ever been to. When Steven Gerrard lifted the cup, they played a piece of music I had written, which was amazing.”

Clifford also composed the anthem for the Six Nations, combining instruments from all of the six nations, which is played in the stadiums at every Six Nations game. He also worked with FIFA 2010 in South Africa, for which he won the pitch as part of a graphics company. As a result, he was able to take Mick Jagger as his guest, “to watch England being knocked out against Germany, despite a disallowed goal that was clearly over the line. Mr Blatter was very friendly before the game, but after the game we couldn’t find him at all!”

Clifford has never written an anthem for a club. “I think that would be a tricky situation – it’s like you’re trying to impose something. You can do that on the top level – the global level, or the broadcast level – but to say to fans you should sing this on the terraces, that’s not the right way to go.”

Fans tend to choose their own songs anyway. “Sometimes the song relates to football, but I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles – where does that come from? There are these associations that just happen. They are so ingrained into the culture of the club – when you listen to Liverpool fans singing You’ll Never Walk Alone at the Champions League final it’s amazing.”

This exclusive interview was conducted by Ben Avison of Host City at Global Sports Week, following Matt Clifford’s Meet the Artist Q&A

Singing unites nations. A very international audience will make this experience first-hand at the Opening event of the Host City conference and exhibition in Glasgow on November 25th, where the Scottish Gaelic choir ALBA will perform as an ambassador of the World Choir Games – the world’s largest international choir competition.

Earlier this year ALBA and its conductor Joy Dunlop represented Scotland at the TV choral talent show “Eurovision Choir 2019,” an international choir competition inspired by the Eurovision Song Contest and the World Choir Games. The show took place in Gothenburg and marked the Opening of INTERKULTUR’s European Choir Games 2019, which aired live to 10 European countries at prime time. For its performance at “Eurovision Choir” ALBA was awarded the International Award at the Scottish Gaelic Awards on November 19 as the group that “best promotes Gaelic outside Scotland”.

The enthusiastic group of singers drawn from all over the country, who make up the ALBA choir sing in Scots Gaelic, the indigenous language once spoken all over Scotland, will provide a lively program showcasing Gaelic language and tradition as a prelude to the Host City Conference in Glasgow.

INTERKULTUR will be part of the well-known Host City Conference in order to promote the idea of the Choir Games, to inspire people of all ages, cultures, and ethnical backgrounds to experience the power of music as a universal language – turning the respective host cities into one huge festival stage full of voices and international atmosphere.

About INTERKULTUR

INTERKULTUR is the world's leading initiator and organizer of international choral competitions. In over 30 years since the organization was established, more than 10.000 choirs and roughly 435.000 male and female singers from 107 nations have taken part in the World Choir Games and INTERKULTUR's regional choir competitions. Since 1988 a total of 230 competitions and festivals have been held, cities like Barcelona, Vienna and Hoi An have been hosting various competitions for years. The famous World Choir Games are held every two years on different continents. The 11^th World Choir Games 2020 take place in Flanders, Belgium with Antwerp and Ghent as host cities.

About Host City

Host City conference and exhibition brings together cities and sports, business and cultural events for two full days of unrivalled insight, networking, workshops and business on 26-27 November at the Technology & Innovation Centre in Glasgow.

This is where representatives of host destinations, federations and other rights holders, organisers, event suppliers and services from all over the world meet to discover opportunities and discuss the challenges of major event hosting.

www.hostcity.com

[Source: EventScotland] The city of Aberdeen is set to host BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2019, the biggest awards night in the sporting calendar, on December 15 live on BBC One from the brand-new events venue and arena, P&J Live.

This is the first time Aberdeen will host the event. The city is known for its sporting heritage as the birth place of Manchester United legend Denis Law and Open-winning golfer Paul Lawrie, and it is also home to Aberdeen FC, the club where Sir Alex Ferguson first made his name as a manager with such extraordinary success.

Presenters Gary Lineker, Clare Balding and Gabby Logan will take to the stage to celebrate a huge year of sport in front of an audience of 10,000 with millions more watching live on BBC One.

Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events, said: “I’m delighted the BBC has chosen Aberdeen’s brand-new venue, P&J Live, to host this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards. This world-class venue along with Aberdeen’s sporting pedigree makes it the ideal venue for the awards. It has been a great year of sport and I look forward to celebrating all the amazing achievements in Aberdeen this December.”

Director of BBC Sport Barbara Slater said: “It’s been an extraordinary year of sport so far with many incredible moments and surely more to come. I have no doubt Aberdeen will be an excellent host city to help us celebrate them.”

Louise Stewart, Head of Entertainment at P&J Live commented: “This is a gamechanger for the venue and the city. We are ecstatic to be working with the BBC sports team and the wider Aberdeen stakeholder group on this flagship event. Hosting an event such as this was absolutely at the forefront of the city’s vision when planning this transformational project.”

Saan Trucking is a young independent company that originated in 2012 from Royal Dutch Saan, a family-based company with a great history in logistic services.

For the last couple of years, many touring-shows and complicated logistic projects have been trusted to our expertise. We strive for quality and continuity, which results in long term partnerships with our clients, the allocation of extraordinary one-off projects and a growing market share in fast trucking services. Our focus lies on the road in front of us, but our view is beyond the horizon.

Saan Trucking makes sure that live entertainment can be truly live. Any time, any place in Europe. We offer custom-made transport solutions for live entertainment productions. Our strength is characterized by high quality service and our engagement with our customers all along the road. With a small committed team, we provide the best trucking service for the best price.

We do many different types of live entertainment trucking projects; family entertainment, one-off projects, some smaller orchestras, sports events, music performances.

Disney on Ice

As one of the most popular family-entertainment shows in the world, Disney on Ice has been around for many years. This special show casts more than 50 well-known Disney-stars, performing over 30 sing-alongs from the entertainment company.

The show “100 Years of Magic” was touring Europe in the winter-season 2016-2017, performing more than 250 shows in 31 cities within 6 months. For this show, Saan Trucking was chosen to arrange the transports within the continent, deploying 22 trailers on average and driving over half a million kilometres. The show includes two ice-sets that move separately to the other equipment. The result is a production that requires three separate planning and routing operations that need to be overseen.

Holland Heineken House

Holland Heineken House is the national home of the Dutch Olympic Committee and the overseas home to all the Dutch athletes, families, fans and sponsors during the Olympic Games. In 2014 Saan Trucking was granted the full logistics operation for building the Holland Heineken House in Sochi, Russia during the Olympic Winter games.

This logistics project took about five months and covered the whole operation from planning until the return of all equipment to all vendors. Due to safety regulations and driving bans as an effect of the Olympic Games, we faced a tight timeframe to get all the equipment into Sochi. The operation consisted of loading on various locations, transfer, parking and just-in-time delivery at the venue.

We executed the transfer of 19 trailers from the Netherlands to Sochi using two ferry transfers. The first from Germany to Latvia was used to reduce turnaround time and economic reasons. A 2,500 km drive brought us to the second ferry; this ferry was mandatory due to a driving ban for the route to Sochi. Together with all the extra safety regulations, this was the biggest challenge for this job.

Thanks to our experience and extending network in Russia we concluded this project with a quick return home. The Holland Heineken House is a typical example of a close cooperation with our client and our experience with a-typical one-off projects.

Volvo Ocean Race

The Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier offshore race which is held every three years since 1973. It belongs to the largest sailing events in the world and it is considered the toughest sailing competition for teams. For the 2014-2015 edition Saan Trucking supported the official logistics supplier GAC Pindar with extra coordination, storage and flexible transport service.

We supported the race in three different ways. First, we provided full coordination and storage of an extra mast and accessories in a strategic location in Amsterdam. The mast should be 24/7 available if it was to be used as a substitute on one of the boats of the race.

Secondly, we transported several supplies from suppliers of the Volvo Ocean Race in the Netherlands to the start of the race in Alicante, Spain. Therefore, we used 10 trailers to Alicante, collect containers, lift-offs and one of the chassis was provided by us at the suppliers. Finally, we provided the transport for several stopovers in Europa, from Lisbon to the finish in Gothenburg, Denmark. Because of the tight race schedule, the challenge was to provide all the equipment in time. Therefore, we combined ferry and road transport, most of the time overnight.

The Volvo Ocean Race is a typical example of a successful sports event collaboration between the client, Saan Trucking and a third party in logistics.

Our fleet consist of tractors, box, softside and flatbed trailers, both mega and standard. All our trailers are equipped with the necessary facilities such as e-tracks at various heights, ratchet straps and load-bars. Recently we have expanded our fleet with five new trucks, all branded in our company colours to match with our current fleet.

We believe it’s not only about the trucks on the road, it’s about the people who drive the trucks. Our dedicated drivers speak fluent English and are very experienced in handling any live entertainment production successfully. Our drivers think beyond transport and provide additional services on site where possible. We offer transport solutions suitable to your needs. We put great care in personal contact with our clients, therefore you can contact us 24/7 by email and phone. If necessary, even in the middle of the night. So please do not hesitate to contact us about the possibilities of supporting your live event.

This article was contributed by Saan Trucking. For more information visit www.saantrucking.com