D’Alessandro & Galli: 140,000 tickets sold this summer

The good news is that «public demand isn’t falling, especially if you put on high-quality events”. But to move in this direction, you have to deal with old and new challenges: ‘Artists’ fees have literally skyrocketed, sometimes without any rational basis. Bureaucracy is the usual enemy to contend with.” This is the view on the 2026 summer concert season from Mimmo D’Alessandro, owner of D’Alessandro & Galli, a long-establishedpromotion agency based in Tuscany specialising in rock legends. They have two festivals in their portfolio: one historic, the Lucca Summer Festival now in its 29th edition, and the other a newer one, La Prima Estate in Lido di Camaiore, which is returning for the fifth consecutive year.

“If we consider just these two events,” D’Alessandro points out, “our group’s summer 2026 should see around 140,000 paying attendees. A positive result, especially given the very unusual year we’ve had to contend with.” We start with Prima Estate, which begins on 19 June with Jack White, followed by Marlene Kuntz (20 June), Richard Ashcroft (21 June), Nick Cave & Bad Seeds (26 June), Gorillaz (27 June) and Twenty One Pilots (28 June). “This year’s event reached 60,000 paying attendees, an all-time record,” explains D’Alessandro. “Gorillaz and Twentyone Pilots were the main draws, with 20,000 tickets sold for each date. Nick Cave also did well, with 10,000 tickets sold.” La Prima Estate was launched with an innovative format for Italy: that of the ‘holiday festival’ (listening to live music in Versilia, a stone’s throw from the sea, over two long weekends in June), which has made the fortune of global live entertainment brands such as Primavera Sound. “Five years on from its debut,” notes the owner of D’Alessandro & Galli, “the public has grasped the concept and the event has literally exploded.”

Lucca Summer, on the other hand, is a well-established festival: it kicks off on 24 July with Ludovico Einaudi, featuring big international names such as David Byrne (25 June), Jamiroquai (4 July), John Legend (5 July), Ronnie Wood (17 July) and Katy Perry (19 July), before closing on 29 July with the Pooh. “Here we’re heading towards 80,000 paying attendees,” D’Alessandro points out. It hasn’t been the luckiest of years for the event: among the headliners, in fact, was Neil Young, with whom D’Alessandro & Galli had organised the highly anticipated return to Italy of the Canadian rocker who, in addition to the Tuscan city, was also due to perform in Codroipo. But in the end, ‘Old Neil Young’ cancelled the entire European tour. “A shame, considering that advance ticket sales were going really well: we were already at 18,000 paying attendees.” That’s how the refund process began, “and on top of that we were left with a gap in the programme, at a time of year when it’s not exactly easy to find alternatives. All in all, Lucca is still doing well: Einaudi is sold out, Jamiroquai drew 20,000 paying attendees, Katy Perry 16,000. Pretty much all the dates are going well.”

This very positive trend in demand for concerts “is a good thing”, according to D’Alessandro, “but those of us in this line of work now have to contend with a whole host of problems, starting with the skyrocketing of performance fees. Artists who, until a year ago, were offered to you for 500,000 euros, now expect to be sold to you for one or two million... Often, behind these valuations, there is no concrete assessment of the musicians’ ‘pull’ with the public. The trouble is that, when dealing with multinationals, everything is a bidding war. This isn’t good for the sector. Because, to stay in the game, you have to raise prices. But if you raise them too much, you risk losing the audience’. Bureaucracy doesn’t help either: ‘The burden we have to deal with is enormous,’ explains the promoter. ‘And the paradox is that, when new officials arrive, it’s as if you’re starting all over again. Finding qualified staff on the market, ultimately,’ concludes D’Alessandro, ‘is a real challenge.’