Live music and entertainment has been necessarily put on hold during the advent of the coronavirus, where close proximity and large crowds are too risky as “super spreader” events to be legally happening. But now that vaccine rollout has begun, the booking behemoth has made it clear that next year, live events and live music will be back in full force. On a call with investors yesterday, May 6, Consequence reports that Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino let concerned parties know that the bookings for 2022 have already doubled the pre-pandemic rate in 2019.
“We are already seeing confirmed major tour dates for 2022 up double digits from the same time pre-pandemic in 2019 for 2020,” Rapino said. “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. 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.”
Particularly in the US, the interest in tours has skyrocketed due to increased vaccine availability, and Rapino said he expects other markets will react similarly. “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,” Rapino continued.
Finally, he noted that large scale events like festivals are slated to resume this summer.