FRANKFURT, Germany (CelebrityAccess) — More than 1,400 guests and celebrities from culture, economy and politics celebrated on the 4th of April in the Frankfurt Festhalle Nominees and winners of the eleventh edition of the PRG Live Entertainment Award (LEA). The German Live Entertainment Award annually awards outstanding event performance, managers, agents and venue operators. Also this year, the LEA formed again the official opening ceremony for the exhibition Prolight + Sound and Musikmesse.
"We are pleased that the LEA has developed impressively and became a fixture in the cultural scene of the city," said Councillor Markus Frank, the head of the department for business, sports, security and fire the city of Frankfurt. Even Mayor Peter Feldmann emphasized in his opening speech the importance of the event show: "Frankfurt is an exciting place for creative people, and therefore includes the LEA as an important part of the creative economy." he said.
"With the bestowal of the German Live Entertainment Award we not only want to put those in the spotlight, which are entrust by over 120 million event visitors with substantial annual amounts, but also to illustrate the diversity and the many facets of the tour operating activities" said Prof. Jens Michow, President of the Federal German Association for the Concert and Promoters Business (bdv) and producer of the LEA Gala. "Although the event industry occupies a leading position among the German media markets, it is far less strongly perceived in their overall economic importance than other media sectors. But the induced musical events spending in tourism adds around five billion Euros per year.
Well-known presenters presented the coveted LEA 2016 trophies and entertaining short interviews presented by TV journalist Ingo Nommsen, who moderated the gala this year for the fifth time. He welcomed among others Helene Fischer, who was nominated for her arena tour with her organizer Dieter Semmelmann and manager Uwe Kanthak also among the winners of the evening. Udo Lindenberg received the prize of the jury together with his manager and organizer ‚Balou‘ Temme. Also Alexander Klaws, the former ‚Rosenstolz’ singer AnNa R. with her new band ‚Gleis 8’, the Hamburg entertainer Lotto King Karl, the British New Wave band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and the pop song icon Roland Kaiser joined the gala as presenters.
For the first time the neighboring countries Austria and Switzerland, besides Germany, were in the focus of the 24-member LEA jury, composed of representatives of the media and industry practitioners. After the LEA jury members awarded the project "Klasse! Wir Singen" in the category artists/young promotion of the year in advance, 13 additional winners were able to receive the coveted trophies in the Frankfurt Festhalle. The big winner of the evening became the Bayreuth Agency Semmel Concerts, which was awarded twice. In the category arena tour of the year CEO Dieter Semmelmann and his team received, along with the artist herself and her manager Uwe Kanthak, the award for the highly successful "Farbenspiel" – tour of Helene Fischer, which had lured more than 850,000 visitors to the stadiums in the past year. For the first time the LEA for the organizer of the year went Semmel Concerts. United promoters had to give up to Helene Fischer within the category arena tour of the year but was able to win the LEA within the category concert of the year with the Australian hard rockers AC / DC and their "Rock or Bust" tour. Together with the Vienna LS Concert Agency presented the Munich organizers AC / DC on the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg and wrote Austrian concert history: More than 100,000 fans stood for a record number of visitors.
Four prizes went to the Hanseatic city. In the category concert hall / arena of the year, which was focusing on small open-air venues, the Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion received the trophy with its summer events in the Hamburg city park, as the club of the year the LEA jury voted for the Grosse Freiheit 36, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. The award for the show of the year was "Disney's Aladdin – The Musical". Stage Entertainment brought the musical adaptation of the Disney animated film to the stage of the ‚Neue Flora’ in Hamburg. The artist manager / agent of the year also comes from the Hanseatic city: Nicolas Gundel from Hamburg Artist Management was honored for his work with Johannes Oerding. Other LEA awards went to Parookaville (festival of the year), Roland Temmes Think Big for tours with Udo Lindenberg (jury award), Wizard Promotions (concert halls tour of the year with Five Finger Death Punch & Papa Roach) and the Mannheim BB promotion (local organizer of the year). The lifetime achievement award went first to Switzerland, to André Béchir who works as a concert organizer for more than 40 years. Also the LEA for the best club tour of the year was a partial success for Switzerland: The artist Sophie Hunger from Bern and her Berlin concert agency Prime Tours & Promotion were honored for the successful "Super Moon" – tour. The organizers of the award ceremony it was also able to attract Sophie Hunger for the live music program at the Festhalle.
