Life Concert – Actions like Keith Urban turn into drive-ins to diversify

Have your livestream concerts been filled lately? There is also Keith Urban.

The country’s superstar said, “I’m grateful that we have the technology to do concerts at home, but come on – without the audience, it’s just a looooong soundcheck. That’s why he was thrilled to get some real humanitarian response on May 14, when he became the first major artist of the epidemic era to give a concert for a shelter for fans in vehicles (or on-going), when he played 122 for about 200 people. Car or truck at the Stardust Drive Inn Theater in Watertown, Tennessee.

“The only real challenge for me was [the absence of] Power from a mosh hole, “he says.” But the car’s horns, the flashing headlights – it was great. “

The city event was a secret, invitation-only free for medical staff at Vanderbilt University. But it was also a kind of road test to shape the idea of ​​a drive-in concert, which began popping up in Europe earlier this year, ranging from innovation to mainstream. The concert promotion giant Live Nation is looking to embrace the idea nationwide this summer, though it will avoid the drive-in theater middleman and make concerts in its 40 amphitheatres – outside the front gates in the parking lot.

See Thomas, president of Live Nations Venue for the U.S. Concert, hoping the company could soon arrange a cure for cabin fever for American music lovers. “I’m not ready to say tomorrow or the day after, but we’d like to go there next month or two with some active content,” he says.

The trend has already taken on smaller sizes. Live Nation has just helped D-Nice do a drive-in show for first responders in a parking lot in Florida (which was a live stream to the thousands of fans he picked up on his celebrated club Quarantine DJ sets).

A Corkier DJ, Mark Rebelit, has booked full drive-in theaters across the Mid-West for a June-July tour. The Benstolak Music and Mountain Festival, which usually takes place in the forests of Colorado, June 26-27, Fort Collins, Colo. Its Holiday will take Tuven Drive and will sell 380 available doubles in one day – Speed ​​Spot under the big screen.

Baseball’s Texas Rangers as well as concert promoters have been transformed, with bookings for artists such as Pat Green and the band Ellie Young booking for eight shows at the Globe Life Field Parking Lot June 4-June. All were instant sales.

Urban admits that “I had no idea the last time I drove in” but comments that the one closest to Nashville was found to be the “perfect format for it”: “Everyone [is] In cars, located neatly, all face a single point [with] A huge pre-built video-projection wall. All we have to do is park the flatbed truck at the base of the screen, show a camera on the stage, tap on the FM frequency so that everyone can hear us in their car, and we keep running. A PA was set up to provide audio for fans who prefer to sit on the roof in childhood seats.

At least initially, some drive-ins are telling fans to stay inside their vehicles, and it’s just running with FM-sound as a way to encourage it. But Live Nations C is working with local governments to determine when they will feel comfortable with setting up a fan-side chair for fans. “Ideally, we want to work in an environment where we’re using PA,” he said, not just FM. “It’s hard for people to try to stay in the car.”

The long-term possibilities for realistic, drive-in concerts are limited. “Can you really scale this big time? Probably not, “See consent.” It’s not something you’re going to do in thousands. But can you get a good number across the finish line with artists who want to go there and keep in touch with their fans? Absolutely. “

As for size, he says Live Nation is studying models that can accommodate between 500 and 1000 cars. He admits, “We’ll be underplaying with them for some activity,” but they know their fans will remember.
This is forever. “

Urban realizes that there are knots to work with. “Drive-ins are ideal from such a design point of view, the parking space of a stadium holds more cars,” he says. “But you’ll get on more equipment and how do you do this tour?
In the absence of traditional theatrical travel structures, this is a “think-tank-like puzzle.”