By Jane Cohen and Bob Grossweiner
For the 17th consecutive year, DTE Energy Music Theatre was the top selling and most attended amphitheatre in the world, according to year-end data compiled by Billboard and Pollstar.
DTE Energy Music Theatre’s 61 events in 2007 were attended by more than 634,000 people, earning the Michigan-based facility the top spot on Pollstar’s Top 100 Amphitheatre Venues chart. The venue also topped the Total Attendance and Number of Shows categories in Billboard’s Top 10 Amphitheatres list. Neither publication released specific financial data.
Its companion venue, The Palace of Auburn Hills near Detroit, was listed as number one for hosting the most shows in Billboard’s year-end list of Top 10 Venues, and it attracted the second highest total attendance of all venues listed in the publication’s rankings of venues with more than 15,000 seats. The Palace was also listed as the 11th best-selling U.S. arena in Pollstar’s Top 100 Arena Venues list.
Both venues, owned and operated by Palace Sports & Entertainment, combined to host 21 concerts listed in Billboard’s Top 25 Tours for 2007. Combined with their sister venue, Meadow Brook Music Festival, the three facilities hosted 49 of the Top 100 Worldwide Tours on Pollstar’s Year End Ticket Sales chart.
“In the 20 years we’ve run The Palace, and in the 17 summers we have operated DTE Energy Music Theatre, we have worked hard to provide the concert programming to satisfy our area’s love of live music,” said Tom Wilson, president and CEO of Palace Sports & Entertainment, in a statement. “Through all of the challenges our area has faced, we are grateful to the concert-goers and sponsors who have continued to support the shows at our venues. Without their enthusiastic patronage, we would be unable to host the quantity and quality of concerts which has earned us our honors.”
