concert production
How Bad Bunny Staged His Record-Setting Stadium Tour: 36 Trucks, a Cargo Jet & 100 Tons of Equipment
Few things faze Noah Assad, Bad Bunny’s manager. But even he admits that launching a stadium tour barely three months after an arena tour was a bit daunting. “We knew it was going to be a learning experience and something none of us had done before,” Assad says now, “but we went for it and worked through it with the help of old and new partners and set new industry standards.” Bad Bunny ends the year as the top touring act of 2022, grossing $373.5 million from 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore, and that number doesn’t even include his last 20 Latin American stadium shows. This makes Bunny — born Benito Martinez Ocasio — the first act who doesn’t perform in English to ever top the year-end tally. World’s Hottest Tour broke venue revenue records in 12 of th...
Concert Business Moves From Pandemic to Endemic as COVID-19 Restrictions Lift
The live event industry fought hard to implement COVID-19 vaccine mandates and mask requirements in order to bring back shows, but with dropping cases and high inoculation rates, promoters and venue owners are steadily moving away from strict safety precautions. When Coachella announced in February that it is dropping all COVID-19 safety restrictions for its upcoming event in April, it set the stage for the entire festival season to come. Coachella producer Goldenvoice, which also runs the country music-focused Stagecoach in the same location, said both Indio events would no longer require fans to show proof of vaccination, obtain negative COVID-19 tests prior to entering or need to wear masks. Coachella — with headliners Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Kanye West – was the first major fes...
