Christopher BarrettEdinburgh-based independent concert and festival promoter Regular Music has been acquired by Berlin-based pan-European promoter, venue operator and ticketing conglomerate Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG).
Regular typically promotes around 200 shows per year, including the Castle Concerts series at Edinburgh Castle (cap. 8,450). Among the acts to play there this year were The Script, Texas and Elbow. Its other long-running concert series include Summer Nights at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park, which this year involved a 14-night run including sold out shows by Pixies, Happy Mondays, Belinda Carlisle and Van Morrison.
DEAG said it had acquired the Scottish business via its UK subsidiary Kilimanjaro Group, and that Regular Music CEO Mark Mackie will continue to manage the company in the long term while remaining a shareholder.
The acquisition of a majority stake in Regular is the latest move by DEAG to strengthen its position in the UK and Ireland. As well as owning Kilimanjaro, the company also has interests in the UK and Ireland including Tickets.ie, Gigantic Tickets, Ireland-based literary events production company Fane Productions and festival promoter UK Live. With Kilimanjaro already owning and operating the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival (20,000) near Inverness, the acquisition of Regular sees DEAG become a major player in Scotland.
Mackie said, “Lots of my agent friends have been telling me for years I needed more of a global presence but until I met with DEAG I had never felt comfortable enough with anyone to form such a partnership. However, it’s clear that DEAG care deeply about local identity and autonomy and with Stuart Galbraith and his team at Kili it has been proven to work so I’m delighted to be joining up with a like-minded group of people moving forward.”
DEG CEO Prof. Peter L.H. Schwenkow said, “We admire the achievements of Mark with Regular Music in Scotland and are excited about the opportunity to support the business in the future whilst creating synergies between all of our UK companies including Belladrum. DEAG’s success is based on entrepreneurship and Mark will be a valued addition to our group of entrepreneurs. DEAG‘s presence in the UK and Ireland will be significantly strengthened through this new partnership and it fits extremely well with our strategy to further grow our business in our core markets.”