BIG Concerts, established in 1989 by Attie van Wyk, has been a pioneer of live concert promotion in South Africa, having sold more than 6 million tickets and produced concerts by over 300 international artists. The company promotes concerts in such major South African cities as Johannesburg (population 8 million), Durban (population 3 million) and Cape Town (population 2.9 million).
"This alliance provides us with a world class partner to expand our global concert platform into South Africa as the region emerges as an increasingly important touring destination for artists," said Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation. "This partnership is an example of the progress we are making in identifying growth markets to strategically monetize our tours on a global scale."
Attie van Wyk commented on the announcement: "No other company in the world has both the global platform and touring expertise of Live Nation and we are extremely proud and excited to be joining the team. With the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup around the corner, South Africa is set to benefit from vast numbers of tourists, strong consumer demand and added investment in local infrastructure, all of which we expect to benefit our business as we continue to bring even more global superstars to our country."
Additional information about the company can be found at www.bigconcerts.co.za
ABOUT LIVE NATION
Live Nation’s mission is to maximize the live concert experience. Our core business is producing, marketing and selling live concerts for artists via our global concert pipe. Live Nation is the largest producer of live concerts in the world, annually producing over 22,000 concerts for 1,600 artists in 33 countries. During 2008, the company sold over 50 million concert tickets and drove over 70 million unique visitors to LiveNation.com. Live Nation is transforming the concert business by expanding its concert platform into ticketing and building the industry’s first artist-to-fan vertically integrated concert platform. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol LYV. For additional information about the company, please visit www.livenation.com/investors.
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SOURCE: Live Nation