The German awards known as PRG Live Entertainment Awards, will be given for the tenth time this year. The Festhalle in Frankfurt will once again be the venue for the presentation of the PRG Live Entertainment Award on 14 April 2015.
As a kick-off to the Musikmesse and the event-technology trade show Prolight + Sound, the past season’s outstanding event performances, managers, agents, and venue operators in Germany will be honoured. Last month, the LEA organisers and jurors announced the nominees in the categories Arena Tour of the Year, Club Tour of the Year, Show of the Year, and Artist Manager / Agent of the Year. Now, the jury has chosen the nominees for five additional categories.
Concert events from Lindenberg to the Stones
In the category Concert of the Year 2014, accumulated experience meets enthusiastic punk rock and Grammy-winning country pop, Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) lines up with its Rolling Stones concert, where on 10 June 2014 Jagger & Co returned to Berlin’s Waldbuhne, a venue at which they gave a legendary show almost 50 years ago. Also last year, German doyen Udo Lindenberg successfully ventured into the stadium dimension for the first time in his long career. Promoter Think Big is nominated for the Lindenberg concert in Leipzig’s Red Bull Arena on 14 June 2014.
Also nominated is Wizard Promotions, which brought country legend Dolly Parton to the O2 World in Berlin on 6 July 2014 for her only concert in Germany. Also, seven-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift performed only once in Germany last year on her Red Tour. Her concert on 7 February 2014, also at the O2 World, garnered an LEA nomination. Berlin was the showcase for four of the five concerts nominated in this category: Kikis Kleiner Tourneeservice rounds of the nominations with the show by the Beatsteaks, which took place in Berlin’s Max-Schmeling-Halle on 28 November 2014.
Lieberberg competes against northern German trio
Nominations for the Festival of the Year 2014 also feature the industry’s biggest stars. Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur might just manage to win a second LEA for Rock am Ring / Rock im Park, following its award in 2009. In the Festival category, the Frankfurt-based impresario Lieberberg has his hands full against the cumulative competition from the north of Germany. Wacken Open Air, promoted by ICS Festival Service, already has one LEA to its credit. The metal specialists from Schleswig-Holstein prevailed in this category back in 2008. Also in Schleswig-Holstein, but on entirely different musical terrain, was the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. The foundation of the same name that promotes it is nominated this year for the Festival LEA, as is the Elbjazz Festival, which promoters Tina Heine and Folkert Koopmans stage in Hamburg’s port district.
Talent shows and metal promotion
Three very different projects make up the nominations this year for the category Artists and / or Youth Promotion of the Year 2014. The Berlin concert agency Four Artists Booking and the youth-oriented programming on ARD radio are nominated for the concept “ARD New Music Award’, which they established in 2008. The competition, whose finale was held in connection with the Berlin Music Week, has already helped launch the careers of acts like Kraftklub, Bonaparte, and Tonbandgerat. Also, the TV show “The Voice of Germany’, is in the running for a Live Entertainment Award. In its reasons underlying the nominations, the jury cited, inter alia the fact that the talent show “refreshingly distinguishes itself from other casting formats’. The third nominee in this category is the Wacken Foundation. The charitable foundation, founded by the promoters behind the world’s largest heavy metal festival, the Wacken Open Air in Schleswig-Holstein, provides support for the long-term promotion of newcomers in the area of heavy and heaviest music.
Attractive venues and successful local promoters
This year, the LEA jurors put the focus on smaller arenas with a capacity of 2 000 to 5 000 visitors for the category Arena of the Year 2014. The spectrum ranges from the long-standing Haus Auensee in Leipzig, which is experiencing a renaissance in its 100-year history under new operator MAWI Concert, to the brand-new Emsland Arena in Lingen, which first opened its doors in 2013. The Tempodrom in Berlin is also nominated this season for an LEA. In 2014, nearly 400,000 guests attended events in the striking building located near the Anhalter railway station. Here, 25 German tour promoters were polled, and they decided on Handwerker Promotion from Unna, ARGO Konzerte from Wurzburg, and Global Concerts from Munich.
