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Ancienne Belgique tops ticket sales in Pollstar’s club category

Ancienne Belgique (AB), a concert hall for contemporary music in Brussels, has topped Pollstar’s Magna Charta’s club category for a second consecutive year, with 207,000 tickets sold.

AB’s ticket sales surpassed the runner-up, Scotland’s O2 Academy Glasgow, by more than 127,353.

The 2,000-capacity grossed $6.05m between February 1, 2019 and January 31, 2020. That was more than $3m more than reported by the 2,500-capacity O2 Academy Glasgow.

The venue’s artistic director, Kurt Overbergh, said, according to Pollstar: “2018 and 2019 were the best years AB ever witnessed since our birth exactly 40 years ago – artistically, financially, as well as in terms of audience.”

Forty per cent of AB performers are Belgian, and the venue receives 20 per cent of its funding through state subsidies, and although Belgian’s current government has cut its cultural budget, Overbergh said “we stay strong.”

AB has several special events planned to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2020, as well as the creation of a new rooftop establishment that will serve as a bar, restaurant, and 60-capacity club for intimate concerts and avant-garde electronic music, which is currently booked in the AB Salon.

Image: Nenea hartia