Christmas Coming Early for Seasonal Tours

11/19/2004 10:43 PM, Reuters
Jill Kipnis

Deck the halls with concert tickets.

With more than a dozen Christmas tours launching this season, organizers say concertgoers are seeking out live holiday entertainment in impressive numbers.

Though this year was a dismal one for the concert industry, holiday tours are a completely different animal in the eyes of concertgoers.

"Ticket sales haven't been the greatest for some artists this summer, but it's all about playing the right building at the right time," says Jim Gosnell, agent for the Agency for the Performing Arts, which is booking Dave Koz's eighth annual Smooth Jazz Christmas tour. "We were half sold out before Halloween. Really, the biggest challenge is routing. We have more offers than we have dates."

Koz's tour is stopping mainly at theaters in major and secondary markets.

Michael Belkin, president of Clear Channel Entertainment's Belkin Productions in Cleveland, says ticket counts for the sixth annual Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) tour are "starting out stronger than last year, when we sold more than 400,000."

Organizers are confident that new and returning Christmas tours will sell well this year because of reasonable ticket prices, increased routing through secondary markets and niche marketing.

SPECIAL MUSIC, LOW PRICES

With the appeal of Christmas music as the holidays approach and with tickets for most of this year's shows priced at $50 or less, organizers say they are likely to attract lots of consumers.

Last year, a number of established holiday shows, as well as rookie tours, generated outstanding revenue.

According to Billboard Boxscore, Trans-Siberian Orchestra's holiday tour grossed $14.1 million from 78 dates. Harry Connick Jr.'s first 28-date holiday outing grossed $5.1 million, while Amy Grant and Vince Gill's second annual trek grossed $4.8 million in 16 cities.

Organizers and artists say the key to making Christmas shows even more appealing is to put a unique spin on their presentation.

"Every year we think about how to make next year better," says Paul O'Neill, founder of Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

On this year's tour, for which seats cost $30-$50, the act will perform one of its Christmas rock operas for the first half of the show. The 60-member group, which will split into two performing units to reach more than 80 cities, will also play material from its new album, "The Lost Christmas Eve."

For LeAnn Rimes' first Christmas outing, the artist is partnering with local symphonies to present music from her new holiday album, "What a Wonderful World," as well as hit material.

Tickets for Rimes' Symphonic Christmas tour range from $35 to $55. The pricing for Rimes is higher than other holiday tours, manager Scott Welch says, because of the symphony connection.

"The ticket pricing difficulties have been on the pop/rock side," Welch says. "Symphony tickets have always been expensive. We got routing that made sense and allowed us to keep the ticket prices reasonable."

Most of this year's Christmas tours are routed through secondary markets, and many are playing venues of various sizes.

Latin Christian artist Marcos Witt's tour, for example, will be held in churches, convention halls and arenas in large cities and even tertiary markets, ranging from Atlanta to McAllen, Texas.

"Marcos offers spiritual content, which works best in arenas that are not very large," says Mauricio Abaroa, Witt's manager at Houston-based Earth Town Entertainment.

Mannheim Steamroller creator Chip Davis says that its 20th-anniversary tour will include a "Christmas village" attraction that concertgoers can explore at the venue.

"From the minute you walk in the door, you are greeted by 50 costumed characters and are hearing Christmas music," Davis says. "We change the atmosphere to dilute the fact that we are playing in a cold cement building."

Reuters/Billboard