Belgium’s Tomorrowland festival proved the popular return of live music events, after organisers sold 600,000 passes for 2022. The event had been cancelled for the past two years due to the pandemic. The ticket sales were a mixture of new sales amounting to 200,000 and rolled-over tickets from postponed events.
English Premier League club Leeds United decided to take on third-party ticketing agents and fans that were trying to resell their tickets. Leeds identified a number a number of supporters that had resold tickets to resale sites, and subsequently cancelled their season tickets and memberships. The club also issued lifetime bans.
Spanish teenagers were given a €400 (£349/$425) voucher to help rebuild the country’s cultural sector. Up to €200 could be used on events such as festivals and music concerts, and up to €100 could be spent on physical cultural products such as books, and those for digital consumption like audiobooks and podcasts.
March also saw the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group for Events (APPG) give its backing to the introduction of the so-called ‘Martyn’s Law’ which would legally force venues to provide protective security at events.
The APPG said it would support the progress of the Protect Duty legislation, which is named after Martyn Hett, one of the victims of the Manchester Arena attack in 2017.
In December this year, it was announced that ‘Martyn’s Law’ would be introduced in the UK.