Majority of Europe’s biggest music festivals owned by four companies, study finds

The majority of Europe's largest music festivals are owned by the same four companies, new research has determined.

According to a report from Live DMA and Reset!, more than 150 major festivals come under four umbrella companies: AEG, Live Nation, CTS Eventim, and Superstruct Entertainment.

The research, titled ‘Who Owns Europe’s Live Music Spaces?’, was published on February 5, and came alongside a visual map showing the connections between each company.

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It found that US entertainment conglomerate Live Nation operates around 120 subsidiaries in Europe with a reported turnover of around $16.7 billion in 2022 alone, while CTS Eventim generated around $1.9 billion in sales in more than 20 countries that same year.

It also found that Superstruct Entertainment - which was acquired by private equity firm KKR in 2024 and later came under fire for its owners' stakes in weapons manufacturing companies, the Coastal GasLink pipeline and a number of Israeli corporations that operate in occupied Palestinian territories - owns and operates "more than 80 music festivals across ten countries in Europe and Australia”.

“More than ever, the growing concentration in the live music ecosystem, highlighted by this new map and study, threatens cultural diversity and the independence of artists and producers,” says European Parliament member and Vice-Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education, Emma Rafowicz.

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“Europe must take action by limiting vertical integration, separating activities across the value chain, and restricting the ownership of multiple events within the same country or across Europe by a single operator," she says.

The research aims to show “the reality that has long been overlooked”, and how the majority of small or medium-sized grassroots events remain independent or “locally-owned”.

Major festivals owned by the four listed companies include Wireless, Sónar, Reading & Leeds, elrow, Lollapalooza, Field Day, Latitude, Creamfields, All Points East, Junction 2 and many more.

Check out the full research here, and see the illustrated map below.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Associate Digital Editor, follow her on X