Australian Promoters Take Spotlight On Pollstar’s Year-End List

Australia’s vibrant concerts space is recognised with three homegrown promoters cracking the top 50 of Pollstar’s 2024 year-end list.

TEG Group, Frontier Touring, and Destroy All Lines lead the charge, with Untitled Group and Handsome Tours making their presences felt on the trade title’s Top 100 Worldwide Promoters tally, based on tickets sold.

Sydney-based TEG Group, the ticketing, tech and live entertainment giant, emerged as the nation’s highest-ranking promoter globally, coming in at No. 17 after selling over 2.1 million tickets and generating $182.3 million in revenue.

TEG’s 2024 calendar was a diverse one, its concerts arms producing treks for Matchbox Twenty, UB40, Niall Horan, Jerry Seinfeld, the Fisher-headlined Out 2 Lunch Festival and British electronic music star Fred Again…,. whose pop-up arena tour shifted 230,000 tickets and won the marketing award at the inaugural Variety Live Biz Breakfast.

Frontier Touring, part of the Melbourne-based Mushroom Group, ranked 24th on the Pollstar list, shifting more than 1.7 million tickets and earning $215.3 million.

Led by CEO Dion Brant, Frontier Touring was named promoter of the year at the Variety Live Biz Breakfast last June — recognition for a bountiful period of arena and stadium treks, including Taylor Swift’s seven-date The Eras Tour. “For every one person that’s bought a ticket, there’s probably another 20 in Australia that wants a ticket,” Mushroom Group CEO Matt Gudinski told Variety Australia at the time. Frontier’s big year included headline tours by British pop legends and homegrown electro-pop veterans Empire of the Sun.

The late Michael Gudinski’s ethos of putting artists and fans first remains central to Frontier’s operations, a strategy that Brant credits for the company’s enduring success. Brant, alongside COO Susan Heymann, emphasised the importance of building long-term relationships with artists and audiences alike—a philosophy that has propelled Frontier through a record-breaking post-pandemic resurgence.

Destroy All Lines, meanwhile, claimed the 48th spot on Pollstar’s Top 100, cementing its place as the go-to promoter for alternative and heavy music.

Their work in 2024 brought together fans of niche and heavy genres, with standout events like Good Things Festival and Knotfest drawing huge crowds. Also, iconic acts Parkway Drive, TISM, Bring Me The Horizon, The Butterfly Effect and Polaris headlined tours for the independent promoter, which shifted more than 659,000 tickets and posted revenue surpassing $55.3 million, Pollstar reports.

Outside the top 50, electronic music specialist Untitled Group came in at No. 65 and Handsome Tours, part of the TEG Group, dropped in at No. 74.

Untitled Group, according to Pollstar data, drew nearly half a million attendees across events like Wildlands, Beyond The Valley, and Grapevine, and a record-breaking standalone headline tour by Dom Dolla. Handsome Tours, acquired by TEG in 2021, demonstrated its versatility with tours by Fred Again…, country star Brad Cox, and Brisbane’s rising country-pop queen Thelma Plum.

As expected, Live Nation took out the global top spot, with over 71.6 million tickets sold, generating over U.S. $7.5 billion in revenue. Those results dwarf the competition; LN accumulated revenue, according to Pollstar, greater than positions 2-8, combined.

German promoter Eventim Live came in at No. 2 on the list, shifting $1.5 billion in inventory, and 22 million tickets. AEG Presents, the domestic partner for Frontier Touring, completed the podium with greater revenue ($2.4 billion) on fewer tickets sold (19 million).

Here’s a breakdown of the Aussie promoters’ stats per Pollstar’s figures:

TEG Group no. 17

2,142,238 tickets – $182,323,363 revenue

2024 Tours: Matchbox Twenty, Fred Again…, Out 2 Lunch Festival, Niall Horan, Jerry Seinfeld, UB40, Steel Panther

Frontier Touring no. 24

1,706,725 tickets – $215,320, 311 revenue

2024 Tours: Take That, Empire of the Sun, Jimmy Rees, Griff, Ridin’ Hearts Festival, Taylor Swift

Destroy All Lines no. 48

659,174 tickets – $55,337,130 revenue

2024 Tours: Good Things, Knotfest, TISM, Bring Me The Horizon, Slash, The Butterfly Effect, Polaris, Parkway Drive

Untitled Group no. 65

466,951 tickets – $48,010,931 revenue

2024 Tours: Wildlands, Beyond The Valley, Ability Fest, Grapevine, Dom Dolla,Rüfüs Du Sol

Handsome Tours (TEG) no. 74

398,818 tickets – $26,219,158 revenue

2024 Tours: Thelma Plum, Brad Cox, Middle Kids, Fred Again…, Beddy Rays