“Live entertainment booming across the regions”

LONDON, ENG (Seatwave) 1 December 2008 – Seatwave, the UK’s largest fan-to-fan ticket exchange, today revealed that the popularity of live events outside of London is steadily on the rise. An analysis by Seatwave indicated that attendance for live events across the UK is bucking the trend for a slowdown in consumer spending, growing by over 50 per cent in the year to date.

The top five regional hubs for live entertainment this year are Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow with each city showing an extensive level of growth.

Since January 2008, Mancunians have been responsible for 1 out of every 4 tickets exchanged on seatwave.com, indicative of its thriving live entertainment industry. This figure is almost double that of its nearest rival, Birmingham which alone saw an explosive 300 per cent growth in the exchange of tickets for music, sport and theatre on seatwave.com.

Glasgow took the title of most popular hub for live entertainment in Scotland, responsible for over half of all tickets sold in Scotland on seatwave.com, and Cardiff stole the title in Wales with Oasis as the band of choice – more tickets exchanged hands for Oasis’ stop in the Welsh capital, on the 23rd and 24th of October, than on any other regional stop of their tour.

Joe Cohen, CEO and Founder of Seatwave said: “The popularity of live entertainment is increasing across the UK and now, more than ever, fans are demanding to make their own decisions about where they sit and how much they are willing to pay for the tickets they want. Seatwave’s growth is testament to the shifting of control from the cartel of promoters to fans themselves.”

Venues across the UK are increasingly challenging those in London. The Manchester Evening News Arena was found to be the most popular regional venue, responsible for 1 in 20 tickets sold across the whole country and coming second only to the O2. Regional attendance showed that the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham came in second, followed closely by the City of Manchester Stadium, the NEC and the Welsh capital’s mega-venue, the Cardiff Millennium Stadium.

The Top 5 regional hubs (according to transactions on seatwave.com (Oct 07- Nov 08))
1. Manchester
2. Birmingham
3. Cardiff
4. Glasgow
5. Liverpool

The Top 5 most popular regional venues (according to transactions on seatwave.com (Oct 07 – Nov 08)) List excludes London venues.
1. Manchester Evening News Arena
2. National Indoor Arena
3. City of Manchester Stadium
4. NEC
5. Cardiff Millennium Stadium

About Seatwave
Seatwave is Europe’s largest fan-to-fan ticket exchange, an online marketplace for buying and selling tickets for theatre, sports, music and other live events. The company was launched in February 2007 by Joe Cohen, ex Ticketmaster and ex match.com and early stage Venture Capital firm, Atlas Venture. Seatwave has more than 250,000 tickets on sale at any one time, 10 times more than eBay.

Seatwave guarantees that tickets come only from legitimate sources and will represent them accurately and honestly. Seatwave operates two types of customer protection. TicketintegrityTM guarantees that buyers will receive the tickets they ordered and in good time for the event. If not Seatwave refunds 100% of what was paid. All tickets bought on Seatwave are also covered by TicketcoverTM. This provides for a full refund if an event is cancelled and even covers buyers for a range of circumstances that may prevent them from attending their performance. The company is based in London. www.seatwave.com

For more information please contact:

Wendy Timmons / Louise Rutter / Claire Thom
Portland PR
T: 020 7842 0135
E: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

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