DEAG Q1 Revenue Declines to €62.1M, Company Cites Planned Performance

Deutsche Entertainment AG (DEAG) reports “a solid and on-track business performance” in Q1/2026. In the first quarter, revenue amounted to €62.1 million ($72.2 million), compared to the €67 million ($78 million) from the previous year. According to DEAG, this 7.3% decline reflects “the typical seasonality of the live entertainment business and the current event calendar.”

EBITDA came in at €2.1 million ($2.4 million), 31.4% less than the prior-year figure of €3.5 million, but still “slightly above expectations.”

As of the end of March, DEAG states it has sold more than 4.7 million tickets for concerts and events in 2026 and 2027. “This underpins strong visibility for the business development over the remainder of the year as well as for 2027,” according to the press release summing up DEAG’s Q1 earnings.

“Due to the volatility in the live entertainment industry and its event calendar,” the release continues, “DEAG expects revenue to remain at a high level, although this will be temporarily below the previous year’s level.”

With planned revenues of over €400 million ($465 million), the EBITDA margin is expected to improve. The live entertainment giant expects sales to remain at a similarly high level as in the previous year. For the years ahead, DEAG expects to enter a further phase of growth.

Part of DEAG’s buy-and-build strategy in Q1 is the acquisition of all minority interests in concert and tour promoter Wizard Live; the increased of its stake in the EDM festival Airbeat One from 55% to 75%; the acquisition of a majority stake in the Juicy Beats festival; the acquisition of a majority stake in conneccted: Events & Live Marketing GmbH, which expands DEAG’s activities in the corporate events sector and taps into additional business areas within the tourism-related events segment.

Event highlights from Q1 include the international literature festival lit.COLOGNE, which celebrated its most successful edition to date, attracting around 121,000 visitors; the “An Evening with…” event series, featuring, among others, actress and activist Gillian Anderson and author Donna Ashworth; entertainment shows with comedian Jeff Dunham; the arena rave format “The Holy Shit Show”; the Rapperholic Experience by Sarkodie; concerts with Airbourne, SANTA and Gorillaz as well as Family Entertainment formats such as Disney on Ice, PAW Patrol Live! and Cavalluna.

Upcoming highlights include concerts and events featuring the Berliner Philharmoniker, Die Toten Hosen, Till Lindemann, Böhse Onkelz, Tream, Tokio Hotel, as well as Judas Priest, Papa Roach, Iron Maiden, Yungblud, UB40 and Lenny Kravitz.

The group also expects a strong festival summer this year, with several hundred thousand visitors across more than 30 open-air events in the EDM, Rock/Pop and Classics & Jazz segments, including SPUTNIK SPRING BREAK, NATURE ONE, Ruhr-in-Love, ROCKHARZ, Barcelona Rock Fest, Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, Live at Chelsea and the Classic Open Air at Gendarmenmarkt.

“The event pipeline for 2027 is already well advanced and underpins DEAG’s growth expectations. Among others, Die Ärzte, Unheilig, Rush, Five Finger Death Punch and many more artists are scheduled to perform in the coming year,” the press release concludes.

Detlef Kornett, Group CEO DEAG: “The business performance in the first quarter was solid and in line with our expectations. We successfully continued our buy-and-build strategy and remain on track to achieve our full-year targets. For the 2027 financial year, we expect to return to our established growth trajectory.”

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_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/05/29/deag-reports-q1-revenue-drop-in-line-with-plan/)._