Live Nation Estonia’s head promoter says that the country is losing out on international tours due to a lack of suitable venues.
The country’s largest venue for live music is Tallinn’s 10,000-cap Unibet Arena but according to Eva Palm it cannot accommodate large touring productions.
“Due to the hall’s capacity and technical parameters, we are unable to bring most A-class artists here – over the years, for example, Robbie Williams, Harry Styles, Depeche Mode or Dua Lipa have not come to Unibet Arena,” the head promoter told Kultuur.
“You can’t hang anything there, there is no ceiling and there are ventilation pipes, which often means that the stage has to be moved forward, which in turn means that there will be fewer people in the hall and you can sell even less.”
“There should be at least a hall that can accommodate 12,000 people so that we can bring normal foreign productions”
The arena has previously welcomed the likes of Bob Dylan, Muse, Rihanna, Iron Maiden, Sting, Pink, Elton John, Ed Sheeran, Kylie Minogue and The Weeknd – but according to Palm it was a two-year process to get the Canadian star there.
Even Unibet CEO Siim Ammon told IQ last year that Latvia’s Arena Riga and various Finnish alternatives are hard to beat for those looking to maximise their trip to the wider region.
“In terms of large arenas in Europe, we are still a very small venue,” he said. “Riga [Latvia] has an arena for 14,000 people and Finland has many bigger arenas, so our 10,000 capacity means that even though we are the go-to arena in Estonia, we are still losing a lot of acts that require a larger capacity, and maybe a larger market.”
Palm added: “In Estonia, we don’t think big, we think that if you have a hall that can accommodate 10,000 people, that’s fine, but in the conditions of Estonia, there should be at least a hall that can accommodate 12,000 people so that we can bring normal foreign productions.”
She added that if a new bigger sports arena were to be built in Estonia, other parties should also be involved: “The impact of concerts on arenas is many times greater than that of sports competitions because the tickets are more expensive, people stay there for a longer time and buy both drinks and merch.”
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