We round up the latest movements from the ticketing sector and associated industries… Vastly experienced music industry executive Caron Veazey has joined the board of directors at DICE. In addition to working alongside the artist development, content, and leadership teams, Veazey will also utilise her leadership experience in diversity, equity and inclusion spaces. Veazey is the founder of …
Tech Stack: Brentford FC, HUMBL and more
Our weekly tech round-up from the world of ticketing and associated industries… HUMBL’s AI chatbot HUMBL, which operates the HUMBL Tickets platform, has launched its new HeyBLUE! artificial intelligence chatbot. HUMBL users can now perform a variety of tasks, including chatbot interactions, document generation, text generation, text summarisation, language translation, question answering and more. Brentford …
Accesso acquires theme park ticketing leader VGS
Accesso Technology Group has acquired VGS, the ticketing and visitor management system provider whose clients include some of the world’s biggest theme parks. Following the deal, VGS’s SnApp platform will be rebranded as Accesso Horizon and operate as part of the Accesso product set. VGS’ global team, who are based in offices in Milan, Dubai, …
NFT-Tix banks $10K record sale for Exit NFT ticket
NFT-TiX has sold its most expensive ticket ever after a music fan purchased a high-end VIP experience for the forthcoming Exit festival. NFT-Tix received $10,690 for the NFT ticket for Serbia’s Exit Universe via smart contracts platform Avalanche. The Exit Beyond Infinite Experience Diamond ticket gives two people access to a personal host and accommodation …
Festival organisers slam Government stance on drug testing
The UK Home Office’s withdrawal of support for drug safety testing at festivals has been labelled “dangerously irresponsible”. Sacha Lord, the co-founder of Parklife festival, and Melvin Benn, the managing director of Festival Republic, are among those to speak out after Home Office officials blocked testing organisation The Loop from carrying out its on-site work …
Live Nation Spain ready to sue local authority over Guns N Roses gig
Live Nation Spain is set to take legal action against a local authority after it withdrew its financial backing for a Guns N Roses gig earlier this month. Some 28,000 fans attended the American rock band’s concert at Vigo’s Estadio Abanca Balaidos on June 12, but the event had been temporarily cancelled just days before …
MLB baseball attendance surge continues with Sunday best
Major League Baseball (MLB) saw its best Sunday figures in 15 years over the weekend as more than 600,000 attended games. The 15 games played on Sunday attracted an average crowd of 37,706, which was the best average crowd on a Sunday since June 2014. MLB said last week that internal projections point to a …
Covid led to loss of 1 in 6 UK festivals, report shows
One in six UK festivals came to an end during and in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, new data from the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) suggests. A study carried out by AIF in the first half of 2023 shows there were 600 music festivals held in the UK in 2019, but only 482 …
LIVE backs UK Creative Sector strategy
LIVE has welcomed the UK Government’s new Creative Industries Sector Vision, which has promised £77m in new funds. The document was published last week, and features the expansion of Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Music Venues Fund, providing an additional £5m over two years to support around 400 grassroots music venues projects. LIVE, the industry …
BBC documentary claims Pollen wilfully overcharged customers
A new BBC documentary claims a senior employee at Pollen was behind a scam that overcharged customers before the music and festival company went bust last year. The programme, called ‘Crashed: $800m Festival Fail’, found that a huge proportion of Pollen customers it contacted were still owed money by the now defunct British company. Among …