Shambala is using its bar tab to fund environmental repair 🇬🇧

Shambala Festival, the UK's first employee-owned festival, has partnered with Evrythng, a Welsh not-for-profit spirits company that returns 100% of its distributable profit to climate and nature projects, to supply all the gin, rum, and vodka served across its festival bars this year. The Evrythng profits will be distributed among three charities chosen by an audience vote: Kettering Nature Group, Roots and Shoots, and Avon Needs Trees. The move is part of Shambala's broader push “to go beyond sustainability and direct more money towards the actual repair of nature.”

A white-hat hacker used Claude to unlock free tickets to nearly every major US festival

Security researcher Ian Carroll used Claude Opus 4.7 in April to discover a vulnerability in Front Gate Tickets, (owned by Live Nation). The exploit gave him full super-admin access, allowing him to issue unlimited tickets to any event at any value, including sold-out shows and VIP packages, without triggering any security alerts. Carroll, who is part of Anthropic's Cyber Verification Program, didn’t score any free tickets for himself, instead he reported the flaw to Front Gate, and it was patched. 

His more unsettling takeaway: he believes Claude could have found the exploit end-to-end without any human input, and Front Gate has no evidence it wasn't previously exploited by someone less scrupulous. As he put it, the festival ticketing infrastructure is "held together by duct tape and prayers."

Two record-breaking concerts, one remarkable weekend 🇮🇹🇬🇧

Last weekend was a big one for live music records. Italian singer-songwriter Ultimo drew 250,000 fans to a single ticketed concert in Rome, surpassing Vasco Rossi's 2017 Modena Park record to become the largest paid concert in Italian history and one of the largest solo shows ever staged globally. Ticket revenue alone was estimated at €16 million ($18.3 million USD), with €90 million ($103 million USD) in total economic impact for Rome. 

Meanwhile in London, Harry Styles wrapped a 12-night Wembley Stadium residency, earning official Guinness World Records certification for the longest single-run residency by a musician at Wembley, surpassing Coldplay's 10-night record set in 2025. 

Oliver Tree's family launches artist grant foundation in his honor

The family of Oliver Tree, who died in a helicopter crash in Brazil last month at age 32, has launched Dr. Oliver Tree's Extremely Epic Art Grant for Baby Geniuses, honoring plans the artist had explicitly laid out months before his death. Tree said in an April interview that none of his wealth would pass to family members, with the exception of college funding for any future children, and that his residuals would fund the foundation for up to 100 years. Grants are specifically designed to fund the physical creation of art, “You’re not allowed to buy equipment with the money, you’re not allowed to get education or go to school with the money,” Tree said, “but you’re allowed to physically hire people to help produce stuff, you’re allowed to rent gear and equipment.” Application details are coming soon.

MVT's Everywhere at Once brings 2,000 artists to 400 UK venues 🇬🇧

On what would have been Glastonbury weekend, Music Venue Trust (MVT) took a different approach: instead of one giant field, it filled more than 400 grassroots venues across the UK simultaneously with over 2,000 artists, from Fatboy Slim and Becky Hill to local and emerging acts playing hometown rooms. Everywhere at Once was designed to shine a spotlight on the small venues that larger festival culture often overshadows, emphasizing that they serve as the primary pipeline for developing new artists, creating local jobs, and supporting cultural communities.

Live Nation 🤝Lowe's = tailgates on tour

Live Nation has announced a multi-year partnership with Lowe's that gives Lowe’s Rewards members exclusive perks at Live Nation amphitheaters this summer, including discounted kids' tickets, complimentary lawn chair rentals, and sweepstakes for free tickets. Lowe's is also the first presenting partner of a new pre-show tailgate experience Live Nation is launching at select amphitheaters. The collaboration is part of Live Nation's broader strategy to deepen fan engagement by integrating concerts into larger consumer loyalty ecosystems and - possibly more importantly - gives it a new experiential touchpoint before fans even get inside.

Bending Spoons goes public, following Eventbrite purchase

Bending Spoons, the Milan-based tech company that owns Eventbrite, Vimeo, Evernote, WeTransfer, and AOL, raised $1.68 billion in its Nasdaq debut this week, with shares jumping 40% above the IPO price to close at $40.50 and a market cap of around $25.7 billion. The company acquired Eventbrite in December for approximately $500 million at $4.50 per share,  a significant discount from its peak valuation,  and has since been restructuring the ticketing platform in line with its broader playbook: acquire underperforming but widely-used software, cut aggressively, and rebuild. CEO Luca Ferrari noted the company currently serves 500 million monthly active users but monetizes only about nine million of them, framing the IPO as a bet on organic growth rather than further acquisition. 

Illinois bans ghost tickets, junk fees, and bots

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed three separate ticketing bills into law last week, making the state one of the most comprehensive in the country on fan protection. The first bans hidden fees, effective January 2027. The second prohibits speculative ticket sales, effective immediately. The third bans the use of bots to purchase tickets in excess of posted limits - with the exception of venues “owned or operated by a professional sports team or franchise” - also effective January 2027. Live Nation publicly backed the bill, saying, “No one should be able to scam fans by listing tickets they don’t have or pretending to be legitimate ticket sellers.”

Three sellers control 72% of StubHub UK's arena inventory 🇬🇧

A new investigation by the Fan Fair Alliance (FFA) found that 72% of all arena tickets listed on StubHub UK over a recent one-month period (more than 50,000 tickets total), came from just three sellers: Ticket Evolution, Your Ticket Delivery, and PCE. Ticket Evolution alone accounted for 41% of those listings, and notably has a formal partnership with StubHub International. The findings lead to speculation that the resale marketplace is being driven less by fans and more by commercial operators controlling large inventories and follows last week’s news that UK's CMA fined StubHub for nearly £900,000 ($1.2 million USD) for hidden fees. 

StubHub sued over World Cup ticket cancellations

Woes continue across the pond for StubHub as two California fans have filed a proposed class action lawsuit against it in federal court in New York. The fans claim the platform's "false and misleading" sales practices left them without tickets they'd purchased for the World Cup after they had already booked travel and accommodations. The suit claims that hundreds or potentially thousands of buyers are in the same position, and asks the court to bar StubHub from selling any further World Cup tickets and return any profits to affected fans.

• MKTG Sports + Entertainment is hiring a remote Director, Hospitality & Events to shape premium guest experiences across Formula One global markets. Salary: $82,800 - $125,000.

• Sphere Entertainment is looking for a VP, Front of House to be accountable for delivering a world-class, end-to-end luxury guest experience at Sphere in Las Vegas, NV. Salary: $230,000 - $250,000.

• Pop Mart is seeking an Events Producer to plan, manage, and execute a dynamic mix of retail pop-up activations, experiential brand events, festival partnerships, conventions, and more in Culver City, CA. Salary: $75,000 - $90,000

Last Week's Results:

64% of BOH readers hope that Ryman Hospitality Group is purchased by private equity.

Lineups, Festival & Tour Announcements 

• Max McNown’s “Summer Vacation Tour” will travel through North America starting July 8 in Forest Grove, OR. 

• Thomas Dolby & The Lost Toy People will headline Totally Tubular Festival’s 15-city tour, along with A Flock Of Seagulls, Men Without Hats, Bow Wow Wow and more, starting July 17 in Phoenix, AZ.

• The Crossroads BBQ & Brew in Victoria, TX will be headlined by the Randy Rogers Band, November 14.

• Next summer, Elton John and the new Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, NV will launch a first-of-its-kind Las Vegas residency with the artist performing via hologram.

Cancelations, Changes

• Lil Wayne didn’t show up for his June 30 show in Maine which was supposed to kick off his “20+ Years of Carter Classics North American” tour. The show is rescheduled for July 28, without explanation. Then, on Friday, he showed up 2 hours late for his New Hampshire show.

• How the ultimate musical festival lineup . inspired this Gold Coast home

• World Cup ratings are getting massive lift from bars and watch parties.

• Legendary rap lyrics are getting printed on millions of Sprite cans thanks to a genius partnership.

• The surprising tactics involved in planning a secret celeb wedding.

• Olivia Rodrigo x LEGO.

• Best fiction and nonfiction books so far this year.

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