Live Nation CEO is aiming for "full scale" concerts to return by 2021

The future of live music is still uncertain due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While some countries are slowly easing in drive-in concerts and attempting to host social distancing events at venues, the majority of 2020's festivals and tours have been cancelled, with some rescheduling for next year.

Michael Rapino, the CEO of Live Nation, has spoken to Variety about the future of live music, and what Live Nation is looking to do over the coming months, and year.

Rapino reveals that a recent survey they conducted with 10,000 ticket buyers, 90% of them are happy to retain their tickets for rescheduled dates. He also goes on to explain that the company can easily last the rest of this year without experiencing financial issues, "We have $870 million in available cash, $900 million untapped, so that’s $1.7 billion in untapped liquidity to start with. So we can go through this year without doing any shows at scale without any concern, even though we’re not likely to have a huge volume of shows ... Getting through this year without any additional liquidity is not a concern."

Discussing his thoughts on how events and live music might return, Rapino says, "So over the next six months, we’ll be starting slow and small, focusing on the basics and testing regionally. But whether it’s in Arkansas or [another] state that is safe, secure and politically fine to proceed in, we’re going to dabble in fan-less concerts with broadcasts and reduced-capacity shows, because we can make the math work."

He adds, "There are a lot of great artists that can sell out an arena, but they’ll do higher-end theaters or clubs. So you’re gonna see us [gradually reopening] in different countries, whether it’s Finland, Asia, Hong Kong - certain markets are farther ahead [in the recovery process]. Over the summer there will be testing happening, whether it’s fan-less concerts, which offer great broadcast opportunities and are really important for our sponsorship business; drive-in concerts, which we’re going to test and roll out and we’re having some success with; or reduced-capacity festival concerts, which could be outdoors in a theater on a large stadium floor, where there’s enough room to be safe."

Rapino also explains that this autumn there may be some trialling for larger-scale events to return in certain countries depending on if there's a second spike in coronavirus cases, "We think in the Fall, if there are no second hotspots, you’ll see markets around the world [reopening] - Europe, specifically, has talked about opening up 5,000-plus [gatherings] in September. And on the venue side, we’re dealing with federal, the White House, every government body you can imagine, and we’ve got a great task force around what we have to do with the venue to make you safe."

Wrapping up his expanation, he says, "So I think in the Fall you’ll see more experimenting and more shows happening in a theater setting, into some arenas. And then our goal is really to be on sale in the third and fourth quarters for 2021 at full scale."