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Tengrinews.kz – Concerts by J.Lo and the Backstreet Boys have probably been among the most talked-about cultural events in Kazakhstan in recent years. People all over the country were hunting for tickets; audiences traveled from the regions and from abroad to Almaty and Astana. However, such visits still remain rare and are perceived as an exception rather than part of a stable concert market. And, to be frank, it is more often stars whose prime was many years ago who make it here.
Tengrinews.kz correspondents looked into why artists of the calibre of Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, The Weeknd or Coldplay do not include Kazakhstan in their tours on a regular basis.
Who are “A-level” artists?
In the concert industry, the highest “A” level refers to global-scale performers who consistently sell out stadiums, top the charts and plan worldwide tours years in advance.
So this is not just a “popular singer”, but a global brand that has:
- a world tour with a fixed routing logic;
- a team of 100–300 people;
- dozens of tons of equipment;
- strict requirements for the stadium, lighting, sound and security;
- a minimum financial threshold below which a concert simply makes no sense.
Music producer and director Marina Ozherelyeva stresses that A-level status is, above all, about the scale of the product the artist brings to a country. Such a performer does not adapt the show to local conditions, but expects the venue to be ready to receive it in its original form.
“It’s not just about capacity, but about compliance with international touring standards — acoustics, infrastructure, backstage logistics. A-level artists do not make compromises, because their show is a finished product,” she explains.
Concert promoter and head of the agency Zeppelin Concerts Oleg Khodykin clarifies that it is not only about popularity, but about a combination of factors: the size of the audience, venue requirements and the economics of the show.
“These are major artists who fill huge venues around the world and are at the top in several countries at once,” Khodykin says.
Producer at Astana Concert company Malik Khassenov adds that today belonging to the A-level is largely determined by digital metrics and global recognition.
“An A-level artist is an unofficial but generally accepted term. Today it is largely defined by numbers: views and streams on platforms and social networks. For example, Jennifer Lopez has almost 5 billion views in total,” he noted.
Market: Kazakhstan is too small to break even
According to Marina Ozherelyeva, fees for such artists start at 750,000 dollars per concert and can reach 2–5 million dollars or more — not including logistics, equipment and the team.
Oleg Khodykin explains that the economics of a top artist’s concert only work out when the venue capacity is very large.
“For concerts like these you need around 50,000 spectators. This is important for the artist, the promoters, and the audience — so that ticket prices remain affordable,” he says.
The ticket economics are directly tied to the scale of the event: the larger the audience, the lower the price per seat and the easier it is to recoup the costs of staging the concert.
Taxes eat up the margin
Taxation when working with foreign artists is an additional burden for promoters. Music producer and director Marina Ozherelyeva notes that it is precisely tax obligations that significantly affect the financial model of international concerts in Kazakhstan.
“Interest in concerts by foreign artists in Kazakhstan is growing, but for promoters such projects still remain financially challenging,” she explains.
According to Ozherelyeva, the main difficulty lies in the fact that taxation directly affects how profit and payback are calculated: promoters have to take into account not only the artist’s fee but also related expenses, which often makes the project less profitable.
“The promoter acts as a tax agent and is obliged to withhold 20 percent income tax from all payments to a non-resident. The tax base includes not only the fee, but also the costs of flights, accommodation, transfers, visa and other services directly related to the artist’s participation. At the same time, a significant part of these expenses is not deductible at all or is deductible with restrictions, which reduces the project’s actual margin,” Ozherelyeva adds.
The producer also gives a specific example of the calculations.
“To understand the scale: if a foreign star’s fee is 1 million US dollars, then at an exchange rate of 500 tenge that is 500 million tenge. Just the 20 percent income tax on the non-resident’s fee will amount to 100 million tenge, which the promoter is obliged to pay into the budget on top of the fee itself, not counting VAT and related expenses. As a result, international concerts in Kazakhstan are often projects with high turnover but limited profit,” Ozherelyeva notes.
Infrastructure: stadiums ≠ concert arenas
Another key stopping factor is the lack of world-class, purpose-built concert venues. The problem is that there are virtually no sites in Kazakhstan today that fully meet the requirements of A-level artists. Even Astana Arena, in the opinion of experts, is more of a compromise option.
“It can host a concert, but that doesn’t mean it’s ready to receive a full-scale world tour,” Ozherelyeva emphasizes.
Khodykin, in turn, adds that many stadiums were originally designed for sports, not concerts: entrance groups, safe audience flow, access for equipment, stage installation, conditions for artists — all this was often not taken into account.
“Such concerts have shown that a lot of things here are held together by the heroism of promoters rather than by the capabilities of the venue itself,” he says.
Khassenov confirms that the key problem is the engineering and organizational readiness of facilities.
“There are two blocks of requirements. The first concerns the venue itself: safety documentation, certificates, layouts — for the first concert we had to translate all of this into English. The second block is the technical rider. Violating even one clause can lead to the concert being canceled without a refund of the fee,” the expert added.
A good example is the canceled concert of Max Korzh in 2025 at Almaty’s Central Stadium. One of the reasons then was that preparing the venue was supposed to take 10–20 days, while during the same period the arena was hosting matches of the Kairat football club in the Champions League. Conflicts between using the stadium for sports and for concerts revealed the limitations of local facilities.
Logistics and geography: we are “off route”
Global tours are built as a chain of convenient logistics hubs. Kazakhstan does not fit into this scheme.
“If an artist flies by separate charter and brings equipment on cargo planes just for one or two concerts, the budget rises sharply,” Ozherelyeva explains.
According to her, global artists’ tour routes are constructed as a tight chain of cities in order to minimize flights, downtime and expenses for the team and equipment. Kazakhstan most often ends up outside the standard route, as it does not fit into such logistics.
“For example, take J.Lo’s tour Up All Night: Live 2025. Concerts in Kazakhstan became possible because the dates followed the Middle East and were a logical continuation of the tour: July 30 – Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), August 1 – Astana (Kazakhstan), August 3 – Yerevan (Armenia), August 5 – Istanbul (Turkey), August 7 – Tashkent (Uzbekistan), August 10 – Almaty (Kazakhstan). Most of the time, Central Asian countries are not included in the standard tour routes of major artists, because they break the tight chain of shows,” she explains.
This is clearly seen in another example — the BTS World Tour 2026–2027, where the routes follow consecutively across the largest markets: South Korea → Japan → USA → Europe → South America → Asia and Oceania.
Ozherelyeva notes that including Kazakhstan in such tours becomes practically impossible, as it significantly increases organizers’ logistics costs, and flights become irrational for the artist’s team.
Is the market ready for frequent concerts by global stars?
Experts agree that Kazakhstan is not yet ready to regularly host A-level artists. One-off concerts, such as performances by J.Lo and the Backstreet Boys, have shown that the country is capable of organizing individual world-class shows, but large-scale tour planning runs up against systemic constraints.
Malik Khassenov notes that the financial model of concerts is always tied to risk.
“Even with successful ticket sales, a promoter can incur losses due to high costs for logistics, venue rental, and technical support. This is a business, and business always involves risk. If a concert fails, the organizer can end up with a serious deficit for 2–3 years and even cease operations,” he says.
What the ministry says
The Ministry of Culture and Information has confirmed that Kazakhstan does indeed have a problem with large venues.
“As of today, there are no indoor or semi-indoor concert arenas of a world standard in the country that were originally designed for the regular staging of shows by top-tier artists,” the ministry said in response to an official inquiry from Tengrinews.kz.
According to the ministry, there are around 35 concert venues operating in the country, but most of them are fairly modest in scale.
From 2020 to 2023, several modern concert halls opened in Kazakhstan:
- Astana – State National Kazakh Music and Drama Theatre named after Kalibek Kuanyshbayev (a large hall with 635 seats, a chamber hall with 202 seats), MIS Barys Arena (12,000 seats);
- Uralsk – Palace of Culture with 1,120 seats and a revolving stage;
- Turkestan – Music and Drama Theatre with 510 seats and a Congress Hall with 1,000 seats;
- Petropavlovsk – new building of the Kazakh Music and Drama Theatre named after Sabit Mukanov (500 seats).
Overall, the following main concert and multipurpose venues operate in Astana:
- QAZAQSTAN Central Concert Hall (3,500 seats);
- “Astana” Concert Hall (1,580 seats);
- Congress Center (2,100 seats);
- Palace of Peace and Reconciliation (1,300 seats);
- “Astana Opera” (1,100 seats);
- “Astana Ballet” (783 seats);
- “Zhastar” Palace (820 seats);
- kazmedia ortalygy (660 seats);
- Zhaksylyk Ushkempirov Martial Arts Palace – “Zhekpe-Zhek Arena” (5,000 seats);
- Barys Arena multifunctional ice palace (12,000 seats);
- “Astana Arena” (30,000 seats).
In Almaty, the following venues operate:
- Zhambyl Kazakh State Academic Philharmonic (649 seats);
- Concert Hall of the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Orchestra (436 seats);
- Abai Kazakh National Opera and Ballet Theatre (793 seats);
- Palace of the Republic (2,567 seats);
- “Alatau” Theatre of Traditional Art (724 seats);
- “Almaty Arena” (12,000 seats);
- Baluan Sholak Palace of Sport and Culture (3,725 seats);
- Central Stadium (24,000 seats).
It is obvious that in most cases we are talking about venues intended for chamber or medium-format performances, rather than for regular tours by artists of global stature.
Large venues: what exists and what is coming
If we look at facilities that could theoretically be suitable for concerts by A-level stars, the list remains limited. It includes both existing and currently constructed venues.
Astana. Astana Arena is a multifunctional stadium for 30,000 spectators. The facility was originally designed as both a sports and concert venue, with a retractable roof, stage and sound infrastructure, dressing rooms and lounge areas for the artist’s team. The artificial turf used there allows protective structures to be installed for concerts.
The capital also has the multifunctional ice palace Barys Arena with 12,000 seats, which is periodically used for large shows, festivals, and concert events.
Almaty. The Central Stadium is one of the city’s largest venues (around 24,000 spectators). It was originally built as a sports facility, which imposes constraints on hosting large-scale concerts: lengthy preparation is required, including stage installation and temporary structures, and the event schedule depends on the sports calendar.
Almaty Arena is an indoor multifunctional venue with 12,000 seats that is technically better suited for concerts; however, in terms of capacity and infrastructure, it also does not always meet the requirements of A-level world tours.
In addition, a new 45,000-seat stadium is planned for construction in Almaty’s Medeu district. Completion is expected in the fourth quarter of 2027. The facility will comply with UEFA Category IV requirements, with a natural grass pitch and parking for more than 1,000 cars. At the same time, the stadium is primarily being designed as a sports facility, and its concert potential will depend on the final engineering solutions.
Shymkent. A UEFA Category 4 stadium with a planned capacity of about 34,700 seats. The roof is membrane-type, with no retractable mechanism. The facility is primarily focused on football, but its infrastructure (restaurants, buffets, VIP areas) allows it to host large events.
Aktobe. A new 35,000-seat stadium. Construction and installation works have already begun. Technical details (retractable roof, dressing rooms and artist areas) are classified as service information, but the stadium can be used for cultural and entertainment events when no football matches are scheduled.
Thus, steps are already being taken for Kazakhstan to become a regular stop on global tours, but the venues are not yet ready for mass A-level shows.
To sum up
It would be wrong to say that A-level artists “don’t want” to come to Kazakhstan. They simply operate according to a different logic — a logic of scale, routing, and financial calculations.
This is not a verdict, but a natural stage in the development of the market. The same things were once said about Eastern Europe, South Korea, or the UAE, until they built the infrastructure and conditions for regular world-class shows.
