If today’s front page story in The Boston Globe is any indication, we should have a good summer in the live events industry. The article titled “Music lovers pack halls, drown the money blues” was quite a surprise read for me this morning.
First off, I was happy that The Globe believes this is front page news. Second, I believe this proves we are on the “other side” of the recession. As I have mentioned several times before: entertainment is the first to feel the recession and the first to get out. The article states that the concert industry took a steep 20% decline between 2006 and 2007. If this is true, then this was our first recession indicator. Last year, despite the active recession the industry only dropped 2% from 2007.
When you watch a sporting event and a great play happens for the home team, the crowd goes crazy. This seems to change the momentum of the game and the home team feeds off the energy. We should take this news story as our crowd cheering. Our fans our telling us to “rock their sock off”. They want shows and events. We need to get out of the penalty box and score some goals.
What I took from the article is that people are sick of doing nothing. They are sick of staying home. They want to escape all the doom & gloom and have a little fun this summer. Our live events are fun and they are an escape. The live event and entertainment industry is coming out of the recession right now. We need to strike while the iron is hot.
The best quote in the story was from a live event fan. ”You might not remember a dinner you had two years ago at a restaurant, but you’ll remember a good show 20 years from now”. That’s the marching orders we need to hear!
Tags: concert industry, escape from recession, fun, live events, recession, recession ending, The Boston Globe
