Corporate News

DEAG acquires majority stake in “Airbeat One” electronic music festival

Berlin, 13 July 2022 – DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (“DEAG”) has acquired the majority of the renowned electro music festival “Airbeat One” in Neustadt-Glewe in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This acquisition strengthens DEAG’s Rock/Pop segment and significantly expands its business activities in the field of festivals. The acquisition is being made in line with DEAG’s strategy of consistent implementation of its expansion strategy. In the future, the company plans to continue to play an active role in the consolidation of the live entertainment industry in Europe and to drive its growth through M&A. Airbeat One was held for the first time in 2002 and is now the largest electronic music festival in northern Germany and one of the largest in Germany, attracting around 60,000 visitors annually.

By acquiring Airbeat One, DEAG expects synergy effects in the live entertainment business as well as positive impulses for the ticketing business, especially for DEAG Group company I-Motion, the organiser of the electric music festivals “Nature One,” “Mayday,” “Syndicate”, “Toxicator” and “Ruhr-in-Love.” In addition, the acquisition will result in significant cost synergies as well as added values in purchasing and artist acquisition, among other areas.

Sebastian Eggert from festival founder Music Eggert becomes managing director of Airbeat One GmbH, the new organiser of Airbeat One. With his team, which will remain entirely with the festival, he will continue to successfully run the event in the long term.

Oliver Vordemvenne, Managing Director of I-Motion: “We are all delighted about the partnership and the cooperation with Sebastian and the whole team, who have built up one of the biggest electro music festivals in Germany and inspire thousands of fans from all over the world every year. Airbeat One is an excellent addition to DEAG’s portfolio. With Airbeat One, we unite two of the most successful electro music festivals in Germany under one roof and are excellently positioned in this field with now a total of six electro music festivals with over 200,000 visitors annually. With the acquisition of Airbeat One, we have also created very good conditions for the further expansion of our business activities.”

Sebastian Eggert, Managing Director of Airbeat One: “We are all very pleased to have DEAG as a strong partner for the further development of Airbeat One. We share the same vision for the festival with a clear focus on the visitors and want to continue to offer them an exceptional customer experience in the future. We are strongly rooted in the region of Northern Germany and will stay here for the long term and drive our growth together with DEAG.”

About DEAG

DEAG Deutsche Entertainment Aktiengesellschaft (DEAG) is a leading entertainment service company and provider of live entertainment in Europe. DEAG has been present with its Group companies at 15 locations in its core markets of Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Ireland and Denmark. As a live entertainment service provider with an integrated business model, DEAG has extensive expertise in the planning, organisation, marketing and promoting of events.

Founded in Berlin in 1978, DEAG’s core businesses today include Rock/Pop, Classics & Jazz, Family Entertainment, Arts+Exhibitions and Ticketing. Family Entertainment and Arts+Exhibitions are the elementary building blocks for the further development of DEAG’s own content.

Up until 2019 – before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out – more than 5 million tickets were sold annually for over 4,000 events – a constantly growing share of which were sold via the Group’s own e-commerce platforms "myticket" and "Gigantic.com" for its own and third-party content.

Through its strong partner network, DEAG is excellently positioned in the market as an internationally active Live Entertainment service provider.

Investor & Public Relations
Axel Mühlhaus, edicto GmbH
Eschersheimer Landstraße 42
60322 Frankfurt am Main
Phone: 0049 69 905505-52
email: deag@edicto.de