Marek Lieberberg (born 7 May 1946)[1] is a German concert promoter, best known for founding and organising the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals. He founded Marek Lieberberg Concert Agency (MLK) in 1987, Germany's leading live music promoter. In 2014, the European Festivals Awards granted him the Lifetime Achievement Award. Lieberberg is the chief executive officer of Live Nation Concerts Germany and holds the same position for Switzerland and Austria.
Marek Lieberberg, the child of Jewish Shoah survivors, was born in 1946 in the Zeilsheimdisplaced persons (DP) camp.[2][3][4] His parents were from Poland. After obtaining the appropriate license from the American occupation authorities, his father produced chocolate and also ran a coffee roasting business. His mother, however, squandered away money earned by gambling. Lieberberg who described his parents as "broken", grew up in post-war Frankfurt.[4]
His parents' ethnic identity was intentionally indistinguishable in their lives, so they enrolled him in a boarding school in England to learn more about Jewish history.[4] His early musical interests emerged at the age of 16, and he formed a rock band.[5]Lieberberg studied sociology at the University of Frankfurt for a year, where he became involved in left-wing political circles, a characteristic trait of young Jews in the 1960s and 1970s.[4]
He trained as a news journalist.[1]Lieberberg then became a journalist for the Associated Press.[6] He was current affairs editor for the Associated Press in Berlin and Bonn. As a reporter, he had the opportunity to write occasionally about the music scene.[5]
By the late 1960s, Lieberberg found himself without "one penny" in his pocket. An individual asked him for help promoting artists such as Eric Clapton and Wilson Pickett, putting up posters for concerts in town, managing tickets and setting up the equipment.[5] In 1969, Lieberberg organised the first open-air event at the velodrome stadium in Frankfurt, two years after the Summer of Love.[2]
Lieberberg and his partner Marcel Avram founded their concert agency Mama Concerts in 1970.[5][7]Lieberberg shifted from journalism to concert promoter. He began his promoter activities by driving his old Volkswagen (VW) car in front of the Who's bus to secure the band's arrival times in each city.[5]Lieberberg and Avram then organised the first British Rock Meeting festival in September 1971 in Speyer, Germany. It was inspired by the model of the American festival and featured Black Sabbath, Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart.[7]
In 1972, the two men organised the second edition of the British Rock Meeting on an island near Germersheim, which attracted a larger audience. It featured, among others, the Doors, Faces and Pink Floyd.[7] His work in the early 1970s was recognised for bringing international bands and leading rock acts to German stages.[4]
It had been almost a decade since a major open-air festival had taken place in Germany, despite some failed attempts at amateur events. The press and politicians denigrated this type of event.[8]Lieberberg attempted to organise a festival on the Nordschleife[de] portion of the Nürburgring in 1980. However, the project ultimately failed due to protests from nearby residents and a lack of parking spaces.[2]
In 1985, Lieberberg wanted to bring to the German region of the Palatinate (Pfalz) the atmosphere that reigned in the American town of Bethel during the first Woodstock festival.[9] He decided to launch a festival, and the 1972 British Rock Meeting would serve as a model. Lieberberg and his collaborators had learned lessons from Woodstock's "chaotic conditions" and the "serious errors" of the Monterey Festival. Rainer Mertel, the first managing director of the new-fashioned Nürburgring complex, placed his trust in him.[8] Thus, Lieberberg founded the Rock am Ring festival in 1985.[7][9][10]
For 16 years, he headed the Frankfurt office of Mama Concerts.[5] In 1987, he founded Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur (MLK; Marek Lieberberg Concert Agency).[6]
Lieberberg, opposed to the Rostock-Lichtenhagen riots, organised the Heute die! Morgen Du![de] festival in 1992.[3] In the late 1990s, he wanted to expand his business in Hawaii, saying, "I am looking at being the No.1 promoter in this market". In 1997, he was responsible for Bush's concerts in Oahu and Maui. In February 1998, he brought Céline Dion to the Blaisdell Arena for two sold-out performances.[5] In 1998, his oldest son, Daniel, began working as a booker and talent buyer for his company, MLK.[11][12]
He was the ticketing partner working in collaboration with CTS Eventim.[13]
In 2009, he was awarded two Live Entertainment Awards in Hamburg: Concert Promoter of the Year and Festival of the Year for his two open-air festivals, Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park.[15]
In 2010, he won a Live Entertainment Award again as Tour Promoter of the Year. The previous year, he presented artists such as Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Green Day, Linkin Park, U2, and Xavier Naidoo through his agency, MLK.[16]
In 2011, Lieberberg received a Live Entertainment Award in Frankfurt "in recognition of his safety record over the last 25 years of promoting the Rock am Ring concert".[17]
In mid-2015, Lieberberg was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of the newly created Live Nation Concerts Germany.[13][18] It was the conclusion of a series of unsuccessful attempts by Live Nation "to gain a foothold in the German market".[6] The same month, Lieberberg left his own company, MLK, after 15 years of collaboration with CTS Eventim. MLK was still part of CTS Eventim, which continued to organise the Rock Am Ring and Rock im Park festivals. With his son André, he began working for the Live Nation German arm.[19] Elsa Keslassy of Variety described MLK as Germany's "leading concert promoter".[12]
He remained the head of the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals organisers in 2016.[20]
Lieberberg in 2017
On 23 June 2017, Lieberberg received the Badge of Honour from Frankfurt MayorPeter Feldmann. According to Feldmann, this distinction was awarded to him for his "commitment to rock and pop music", emphasising that he advocated philanthropy and took a stand against xenophobia and racism.[21]
Besides Germany, Lieberberg is also CEO of Live Nation Switzerland and Austria.[22] He is referred to as the CEO of Live Nation GSA. "GSA" is an abbreviation for Germany, Switzerland and Austria.[23] He and his son André run Goodlive, an acquisition of Live Nation presenting ten festivals in these three countries.[22]
In 2024, Lieberberg was the promoter of Adele's 10-date concert residency in Munich.[24][25] Also, in April 2024, he was included in Billboard's International Power Players list in the Live category for "executives who are driving success outside the United States" and have "contributed to a ninth consecutive year of growth for the global recorded-music business".[22]
He has been married to Ingrid. In 1998, it was reported that the couple lived on Maui for four months a year and had long visited the island in the Hawaiian archipelago. They have two children.[5]
As a musician
From 1964 to 1967, he played in the Rangers band alongside Ludwig Ickert, Robert Wolf, Jürgen Kessner, and Axel Schürmann. They also named themselves the Trembles and the Sad Sack Set.[26][27] On 21 October 1966, they were guests on the German television show Beat Beat Beat.[28] The band is also featured in the book "Die Beat Bible". In 1967, the newspaper Bild wrote articles about them. CBS sued them on 24 February 1967 because the name of a band under CBS's contract sounded very similar. They lost the case and gave the money they made by selling their music to CBS. They renamed it "New Rangers" but split up shortly after.[29]
Discography
Lovers Of The World Unite (1966)
The Trembles − Here Comes My Baby / Baby Stop That Playin' Around (7" Single, 1967)
The Rangers − Black Is Black (7" Single 1966)
The Rangers − I Found a Love (7" Single, 1967)
Sad Sack Set − Number One / The World For Us (7" Single, 1967)
The Rangers − The Rangers (LP)
The Rangers − These Boots Are Made For Walking (1967)
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