EAA president Oliver Toth expects another rough year in the industry

While the music industry continues to rebuild from one of the toughest years in recent memory with the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and following in 2021, the hope to see a resurgence in 2022 is a shared wish between fans and companies. However, in a recent interview with IQ Magazine, European Arenas Association president Olivier Toth warns that a significant recovery might not happen until 2023.

Toth states that while the trend is moving in the right direction, people should expect another year until the industry is back on its feet and at “full strength.” While many venues across Europe are beginning to get numerous bookings Toth says there is also an expectation that there will be several postponements due to new variants and a rise in cases. He also mentions that many of the safety protocols that are in place now for Covid-19 will most likely stay post-pandemic.

“In order for our industry to recover, we are going to need a coordinated re-opening effort that is adopted by all member states across Europe and applied to all those venues wanting to attract international tours and get back to hosting a wide mix of high-quality, full-capacity, safe live events.” – Olivier Toth, EAA President, IQ Magazine

Over the past year, the world has seen multiple approaches from different countries on how to deal with live events during the pandemic. While places like the United States put on many big-scale events in 2021 such as EDC and Lollapalooza, many countries in Europe continued to postpone events and reimpose previously lifted restrictions. Regardless of approach, all can agree that the industry is nowhere near where it once was before 2020 and could use as much help to get back to where it was.

“I think we must accept Covid-19 is not going to go away, and as we learn to live with the virus so must we continue to adopt and integrate extra safety measures into the live event journey as seamlessly and painlessly as possible.” – Olivier Toth, EAA President, IQ Magazine

Image Credit: Matic Zorman