We will not stand behind the stage – Newspaper Kommersant No. 223 (7424) dated 12/01/2022

Citizens’ interest in concerts, which fell sharply after the announcement of mobilization on September 21, is recovering faster than after the failure at the start of hostilities in Ukraine, according to Ticketscloud data. The trend is confirmed by ticket services. According to experts, the situation was influenced by seasonality, the beginning of New Year’s sales and “the desire of viewers to switch.” But growth will not save the segment from a general decline at the end of the year. The services expect to partially compensate for it through the sale of tickets to theaters and exhibitions.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the study of the service for event organizers Ticketscloud on the demand for concerts this fall. According to the company, from September 21 to October 2, there was a 30% drop in ticket sales, and the number of requests for ticket refunds more than doubled compared to the annual average. However, already three weeks after the announcement of mobilization (since October 12), the growth in ticket sales amounted to 25%, and in the period from October 31 to November 6, demand returned to the “pre-mobilization” level. Since November 7, Ticketscloud has recorded a 35% increase in sales compared to the period of the maximum decline and 5% compared to the week before the mobilization announcement. “The fall and subsequent stagnation during the February events lasted more than five weeks,” says Egor Yegerev, founder of Ticketscloud.

The September events did not affect demand in the long term, as it was at the beginning of the year, confirms the head of “Yandex Afisha” Dmitry Subbotin. At the turn of February and March, the drop in sales in the service reached 43%, and then “there was no sustainable uptrend for a long time.” In the week from September 19 to September 25, the decline was 21% compared to the beginning of autumn, since October 3, sales have already begun to grow and two weeks later they returned to the level of mid-September, says Dmitry Subbotin.

At MTS Entertainment (which manages MTS Live and Ticketland), concert ticket sales recovered at the end of October, a month later they grew by 72% compared to the first week after the announcement of mobilization, or by 16% compared to early September. Kassir.ru “did not record subsidence in the concert segment in the fall,” assured the group’s commercial director Ekaterina Kameneva. “The demand for concerts has not fallen, but the amount of content has significantly decreased,” says Ms. Kameneva. As Kommersant said on September 2, the number of concerts decreased due to the cancellation of tours by foreign artists and emigration or refusal to perform, up to 30% of Russian ones.

According to Yegor Yegerev, the main factor in the growth of the market in November was the “high season” – both concerts and discounts, including “Black Friday”. Growth is also affected by “a significant reduction in content in cinema and on TV,” MTS Entertainment notes. Dmitry Subbotin adds that tickets for New Year’s events appear in the services in autumn, in November they accounted for 8% of the total number of orders.

In general, there is a general increase in demand, considers the public ombudsman in the field of organizing cultural events Olga Shpigalskikh: “The viewer is tired of being in a state of endless anxiety and sees an opportunity to switch.” Some “remaining active Russian artists”, who previously collected only 60-70% of the halls, now fill them by 80-90% or “go out to a full house”, she adds. Although, the Ombudsman clarifies, in Moscow “sales are still sagging, demand is growing faster in the regions.”

The current recovery will not be able to cover the overall annual decline in the market, Ticketscloud expects it to be at the level of 15%. Services expect to compensate for it at the expense of other areas. “There have been more visitors to theater venues, the flow to museums and exhibitions has increased,” explains Ekaterina Kameneva. MTS Entertainment confirms that from the concert segment, the audience “flows into musicals, theaters, and exhibitions.”

Valeria Lebedeva