While tents, cereal bars and loo rolls still spark joy for many making their the pilgrimage to the likes of Reading & Leeds, Download and Parklife, some of us would like their summer festival at the end of a tube ride home. 

I promise you, this article isn’t throwing any shade at those massive five-day music bonanzas – this writer cut her teeth eating lukewarm noodles at 5am while watching drunk lads set fire to their trainers – but if the sound of a longdrop door slamming starts to sound like a death knell, you know you’ve entered the era of day festivals

Universal Music’s little-discussed Global Talent Services (GTS) Latin artist services agency has officially acquired Rosa Lagarrigue Management (RLM). Global Talent formally disclosed the buyout today, seven months and change after setting sail “independent of UMG’s local music labels.” As part of the latter pivot, GTS became “a standalone company” and tapped longtime Universal Music Spain exec Narcís Rebollo to serve as president and CEO.

One of Glastonbury’s best loved stages, The Park Stage, has unveiled its full line-up for 2025.

Anohni And The Johnsons, Caribou, and The Maccabees are set to headline over the weekend, and they’ll be joined by new wave icon Gary Numan, Self Esteem, Beth Gibbons, and Future Islands.

Billie Eilish has announced 23 additional global arena dates for her current “Hit Me Hard and Soft” tour, with performances revealed for Japan and a second leg in the United States. The newly announced extension brings the total dates to 106 shows, with a pair of performances slated for Tokyo on Aug. 16-17 before she touches back down Stateside in Miami, New Orleans and Phoenix. Eilish plans to wrap the trek at San Francisco’s Chase Center with a pair of shows on Nov. 22-23.

Last week we wrote about a new rule in the US requiring the total price to be shown for tickets being sold online. Now regulator the Federal Trade Commission has issued StubHub with a public warning to abide by it.

“It appears to have misrepresented the total price of some of the tickets displayed for sale on its website, in violation of the agency’s new Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees,” explained the FTC in its announcement.

In his latest effort to distinguish himself as an insult-slinging music critic, President Donald Trump laid into Bruce Springsteen in an early-morning social media post, calling the rock legend “highly overrated,” “not a talented guy,” “a pushy, obnoxious jerk” and a “dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker,” among other epithets.

This came right on the heels of Trump similarly taking an early a.m. shot at Taylor Swift. These two broadsides against leading entertainers led the president of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) to denounce the president’s attacks, saying the union “will not remain silent as two of our members — Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift — are singled out and personally attacked by the President of the United States.”

New analysis from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) has suggested that a possible price cap on resale tickets for live events in the UK could cost the economy up to £183m (€217m/$243m), should 25% of those who currently utilise resale platforms choose to not attend nor resell.

The report from independent consultancy Cebr highlights that a cap on ticket resale prices could reduce the number of tickets resold through regulated platforms, with ticket-holders pushed towards unregulated resale channels such as social media to get their money back.

NFT ticketing is an important step toward a more secure, more open, and more interactive event experience. It won't immediately replace old-school ticketing systems, naturally, but it is a solid option that addresses several problems at once.

Outback Presents, one of the leading indie North American promoters, promoted Andrew Farwell to president, the company announced today.

Farwell previously served as vice president and worked with founder and co-CEO Mike Smardak in music, comedy and other spoken-word events, having had a hand in the thousands of shows in theaters and arenas across the U.S. and Canada.

Call us Captain Obvious if you like, but: quite a lot of people want to see Bad Bunny in concert. Now Live Nation has put some figures on that, announcing that the Puerto Rican superstar has sold more than 2.6m tickets for his ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour’ so far.

This is for 54 stadium gigs in 18 countries being visited by the tour after it kicks off in November, with tickets yet to go on sale for two more dates in the Dominican Republic and Japan.

The Texas-based rock band Lord Buffalo has cancelled its European tour after its drummer, Yamal Said, was detained by US Customs and Border Protection on Monday.

Said was removed from a plane en route to the band’s summer tour and has had no contact with his bandmates for two days, according to a message posted to the band’s Instagram account. Said is a Mexican citizen but a legal permanent resident of the United States, holder of a green card and resident of Austin since the 1980s, according to the Austin Chronicle.

Manchester, UK’s Co-op Live arena had a sticky launch in 2024, but once its technical gremlins were sorted out the concerts came thick and fast.

A public inquiry into the live concert and entertainment industry has been launched by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to identify “unfair” and “anticompetitive” practices.

The move follows President Donald Trump signing an Executive Order in March which directed the FTC to ensure competition laws are appropriately enforced, that there is price transparency throughout the ticket buying process, and that the FTC “rigorously” enforced the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act).

Breakaway, an independent live entertainment brand and touring music festival company, has signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for representation.

Working within CAA’s media and entertainment partnerships division, Breakaway will launch a newly structured sponsorship platform in efforts to scale its national footprint and build out original intellectual property. Breakaway exists as Breakaway Projects, or an in-house record label and artist incubator, and Breakaway Presents, which covers its pop-up experiences.

Muddy fields, warm beer and questionable food stuffs were once synonymous with the festival experience.

Sure, should you be searching for weekend revelry in all its mud-soaked glory, there’s no shortage of options out there. But nowadays, festival-goers increasingly want gourmet foods and clean toilets alongside a great line-up, especially for older generations who no longer have the desire to rough it in the rave.

Live Nation Entertainment announced plans for its first Colombian concert venue as the company assumes operation of Arena Cañaveralejo in Cali, Colombia.

The venue, originally a bullfighting ring, first opened its doors in central Cali in 1957. The arena underwent a recent round of upgrades in 2020, reducing its capacity from approximately 17,000 fans to 14,368 as part of a multi-million dollar investment.

Bad Bunny has sold more than 2.6 million tickets for his upcoming world tour, which has also been expanded to 54 dates. The Puerto Rican rapper first announced his ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ (I Should Have Taken More Photos) World Tour earlier this month. The tour is being promoted by Live Nation in partnership with Rimas Nation, and tickets went on sale on May 9.

Brockwell Live, the promoters behind London’s Field Day, Wide Awake and Cross The Tracks festivals, has announced that all of its festival will run as planned at Brockwell Park. The news comes after a local campaign group won a High Court legal dispute that found Brockwell Live did not possess the correct planning permission for its summer events.

The U.S. Justice Department has reportedly launched a criminal antitrust probe of major U.S. concert companies including Live Nation and AEG over the cancellation of concerts in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Bloomberg, who first broke the story, the probe is examining whether the live events companies illegally colluded to establish refund policies and deals with artists for concerts that were impacted by public gathering restrictions during the pandemic.

Creative Artists Agency announced the promotions of Sloane Fuller, Mary Harrington, Calhoun Rawlings, and Sam Schaumberg to Agent/Executive in the Global Touring department.

Based in Los Angeles, Fuller has been promoted to Agent. She began her working for CAA in 2021 in the Global Touring department in Nashville before relocating to the Los Angeles office in 2022. She served as an assistant to Brian Manning, Joe Mott, and Jenna Adler, before her promotion to Booking Professional in 2024. She earned her degree in corporate communications from Southern Methodist University with minors in Arabic, public policy, Africa/Middle East studies, and songwriting.

The Department of Justice is investigating concert promoters Live Nation and AEG in a criminal probe regarding their responses to refunds for pandemic-era concert cancellations, Live Nation confirmed Thursday in a statement, denying any wrongdoing.

Bloomberg first broke the news of the investigation, reporting that it is linked to an initiative Live Nation, AEG and the major Hollywood booking agencies had announced during the early days of the pandemic in 2020. As Bloomberg reported, the DOJ started investigating during the Biden era, but the efforts increased during the Trump administration. It’s unclear if the investigation will result in any formal charges filed.

With Ticketmaster offering all-in pricing on its website and mobile apps, both secondary ticketing marketplaces SeatGeek and StubHub have done the same.
The move among ticketing platforms was driven by new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations and mounting consumer frustration at ticket prices. Research has revealed that up to 50% of abandoned purchases from consumers are the result of hidden fees only disclosed at checkout. Ticketmaster’s adoption of all-in pricing happened earlier this week—now all fees except local taxes are included in the advertised price.

Live Nation is turning the music up this summer. The entertainment ticketing company just dropped a “$30 Ticket to Summer” deal, unlocking access to more than a thousand concerts across the U.S. and Canada. Participating concerts span multiple genres, from hip-hop and country to metal and pop.

Starting May 21, fans can snag $30 tickets to more than 1,000 concerts, including artists like Avril Lavigne, The Offspring, Nelly, Halsey, Rod Stewart, Kesha, and even the Kidz Bop Kids. Live Nation also says more shows will be added throughout the summer.