Ticket sales down in 2013, but still a great year
Shows like Osheaga kept Evenko in good shape
The overall number of tickets sold was down in 2013 for Evenko, but the folks who run Canada’s leading concert promoter aren’t in the least worried by this statistic. Jacques Aubé and Nick Farkas — respectively executive vice-president and vice-president of Evenko — say it was still a great year for the company, which is owned by the Montreal Canadiens, and they are confident 2014 will be even better.
One of the highlights of the year was the eighth edition of the Osheaga Festival, which sold out three weeks before the first note of music was played, with 135,000 fans heading to Parc Jean-Drapeau for the three-day event. More than 65 per cent of the ticket buyers came from outside the province to see artists like Mumford & Sons, the Cure, Imagine Dragons, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, New Order and Beck.
Evenko produced 107 events at the Bell Centre, down from 141 the year before, and headliners at the Habs rink included Pink (two soldout shows), Rihanna (in March and May), Muse, five performances by Quebec rocker Marie-Mai, One Direction, Bruno Mars and Beyoncé.
Evenko presented 1,049 events overall. In addition to the Bell Centre gigs, the company produced 433 shows at other Montreal venues, 69 in Quebec City, 309 across the province and 131 outside of Quebec.
Aubé and Farkas note that a couple of major shows in 2012 made that year a huge one for the company, with 2.2 million tickets sold. Last year, Evenko sold just under 1.8 million tickets, which is almost the same as the totals in 2011 (1.9 million tickets sold) and 2010 (1.7 million tickets sold).
Evenko had the Star Académie tour in 2012, with nine shows at the Bell Centre and additional concerts in six other cities. In addition, that same year the Bell Centre hosted five nights of the Michael Jackson Immortal Cirque du Soleil show and the show also played another four nights at the Colisée Pepsi in Quebec City.
The dip in ticket sales is also a reflection of the cyclical nature of concerts. Promoters are at the mercy of the artists and the number of shows is determined by which major acts decide to hit the road in any given year.
“It’s nothing alarming,” Aubé said.
And 2014 is already looking to be mighty action-packed. In July alone, the Bell Centre will host shows by Michael Bublé (two nights during the jazz festival), Justin Timberlake (the two shows postponed from last fall), Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. All of these will be sellouts, Farkas said.
In December, it was announced that the Canadiens, which owns Evenko, had acquired L’Équipe Spectra, which owns Metropolis and L’Astral, and runs the jazz and FrancoFolies festivals. Evenko and Spectra will remain separate entities, but will work together to bring bigger acts to town.
“There are opportunities there,” Farkas said. “They have access to more European stuff and we have access to agents and managers that they don’t have access to as often. So as the dialogue increases, we’re just going to have more and more opportunity to grow everybody’s business. I think it’s safe to say there will be more shows.”
Farkas said most of this year’s Osheaga headliners are already in place, with the lineup set to be announced in early to mid-March.
The other big project is the 10,000-capacity Place Bell in Laval. Last year, Evenko won the contract to promote shows at the arena, after a call for tenders, and it’s expected to be open in the fall of 2016 or early 2017.