Summer 2025 concerts at l’Atelier

On Monday, the Green Day concert kicked off your summer schedule of major concerts. A dozen or so events that have become a key moment in the year for A-Promotions, the company that organises l’Atelier?

Yes, completely. To give you an idea, the concerts this month represent 65,000 to 70,000 tickets sold. Out of an annual total that we can estimate at 200,000. That’s a third of our year. And the figure is even higher when you consider sales, since tickets for these summer concerts are generally more expensive.

While we’re delighted with the pre-sales, our job doesn’t stop there. Now we have to produce these concerts and hope we’re lucky with the weather. I must admit that this last factor is making me more and more nervous.

Due to climate change?

As I’m not a climatologist, I’d rather not say. On the other hand, what I have noticed in our business is that insurance premiums for concert cancellations due to bad weather have risen sharply. If that’s not a good indicator…

The Guns N’ Roses announcement last December caused quite a stir, because of the ticket prices which started at €199.5. With just a few days to go, the concert is still not sold out…

But there’s a good chance we’ll be sold out on the day of the concert. After that, everything has to be seen in context. It’s not us who decide the price of the ticket, but the band’s management. It’s the band’s management that coordinates the tour and ensures that a concert is not priced at €45 in one place and €300 just 200 kilometres away.

Their management approached us, and told us the conditions for getting Guns N’ Roses. After that, as an organiser, you either accept them or not. We decided to say yes, knowing that it would be very expensive. We’ve probably reached our limits on this one. Even though we don’t regret our choice for a second. And we know that this concert will be profitable for us.

Are you going to be reluctant to book certain big names for the summer of 2026?

We always assess things on a case-by-case basis. We don’t want to close ourselves off to anything. And certainly not to a great opportunity that comes along. So there are no fixed rules.

If we had the opportunity to have, say, the Rolling Stones, then I’d probably be prepared to take a big commercial risk. But, on the other hand, I might be more prepared to close the door on another, less important group, which would require tickets to be priced at €250. Our business is very healthy throughout the year and we don’t want to risk everything on one big ticket.

Have you reached a certain glass ceiling with that €200 per ticket mark?

You should never say never, but I don’t think we’ll ever go over it. You have to remember that we’re the ones taking the commercial risk in organising a concert. And we have to ask ourselves whether it’s worth it every time. With ticket prices that high, you can quickly lose money.

The artist, on the other hand, will always receive his fee. Whether the Luxexpo hall or car park is full or not. In this respect, the organiser and the artist have very different visions. The latter wants above all to maximise his visit to us, until his next visit two or three years later. Whereas an organising company like A-Promotions takes a much longer view.

What we want is for our audiences, who have a limited budget set aside for their outings, to attend three or four concerts a year. Not for them to burn up all their money on a single event.

The Siren’s Call festival has been axed this year. Is that the end of festivals for you?

For the time being, yes. And there’s really nothing like that in the pipeline. It’s become such a complicated thing and we’ve already burnt our wings with Rock A Field [a festival that took place in Roeser between 2006 and 2016 and headlined by the likes of Muse, Arctic Monkeys and The Killers] in particular. As a private organisation, it’s very hard financially to organise an event like this.

Isn’t it a bit frustrating for an organiser like yourself to no longer be organising festivals?

No, not at all. First of all, it’s clearly a weight off our shoulders. Secondly, the six concerts we’re organising at Luxexpo are real headliners for major festivals. You have to realise that! Whereas those held in the courtyard of Neumünster Abbey are more akin to a Siren’s Call programme. So it’s quite comprehensive.

It’s also worth pointing out that the artists we’re presenting at Luxexpo, we couldn’t possibly programme as a festival over a weekend. Hosting a group like Muse on a Saturday or Sunday, as we did at Rock A Field in 2015, would be totally unthinkable for us today.

Because it would be unaffordable?

Exactly. The festivals programme is so crowded these days. Every weekend, you have to compete with three or four major events. The ones that, whatever you do, offer more money than you. And then, over the last ten years, prices have gone up at least tenfold. You have to bear that in mind too.

It was with all this in mind that we decided to adapt our strategy. And the Luxexpo concept was born a few years ago. With a beautiful space that can accommodate 16,000 people, a great partner (Luxexpo) and great opportunities to welcome festival headliners during the week. Take Justin Timberlake, for example. He’s only in Europe for ten or fifteen days. Having him here would just have been impossible over a weekend. But on a Tuesday, it works.

But the really big headliners – Linkin Park, Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan, to name but a few who are playing in Europe this summer – are still out of reach, aren’t they?

We’ll always try to attract them. That’s our job. But it would take a hell of a combination of circumstances for them to actually perform here. And that’s even if, with Justin Timberlake, we’ve only just scratched the surface of artists of that standing. With a 16,000 capacity there’s bound to be a whole series of artists we can’t attract. For example, I can’t imagine Taylor Swift in Luxembourg.

We shouldn’t be ashamed to admit that we’re not an attractive market and not a priority for certain artists either. But if you compare the music on offer in Luxembourg to the size of the population, you can only draw one conclusion. That we are already very spoilt.