LIVE FROM THE DESERT: AL DANA AMPHITHEATER'S LANCE TOBIN

In 2022, after nine years with Live Nation, Lance Tobin traded the grit and hustle of New York life (where he was booking Irving Plaza) for the much warmer clime of Bahrain to become Al Dana Amphitheater’s VP of booking. He then set about applying his significant talents to bringing top-tier talent to the country’s first purpose-built live music venue.

Featuring a 10k-capacity bowl and 1,500-cap club space carved approximately 50 feet into the desert landscape’s natural limestone foundation, Al Dana, which opened in 2021, is something of a feat of engineering that combines the natural beauty of the Sakhir desert with state-of-the-art production and aesthetics to create the region’s premier live music and entertainment center.

Currently, MENA is the fastest-growing music market, and given its mostly young, under-35 population and vibrant expat community with a growing taste for Western entertainment, Bahrain is one of the progressive countries in the region. With bookings like Eminem, Ed Sheeran, Post Malone, Bruno Mars and Imagine Dragons, Al Dana is quickly positioning itself as an integral piece of the live-music marketplace in the Middle East.

Building on its current momentum, recently Al Dana added another property to its portfolio with the launch of the all-new Desert Garden theater. GRAMMY Award-winning artist Gary Clark Jr. performed at the opening of the 1,750-seater, and November’s calendar also features Canadian-Bahraini R&B duo Majid Jordan.

It’s not just the aesthetics and diversity of performers that set Al Dana apart. For years, live shows in MENA meant performing in greenfield sites with flown-in production, which adds risk and expense to a tour stop in the region. With its 100% local and predominantly Bahraini staff, Al Dana eliminates the need to fly in or outsource labor and is on its way to establishing itself as a top-of-mind MENA routing opportunity that will become standardized on international tours.

“While Bahrain is fairly new to hard-ticket shows, the team behind Al Dana has run the Bahrain F1 for 20-plus years,” notes the Florida-born Tobin, who got his start booking shows in Boston as an indie promoter before joining Live Nation New England to oversee Brighton Music Hall. “While this has been something of a gear shift from working in New York, the same principles apply in this market where we book for the demo, build relationships, and go above and beyond to show our quality to artists and their teams. Al Dana is the ideal venue, and Bahrain is the ideal market to visit the region for the first time. We believe in what we’re building here and want the rest of the world to see it.”

"We feel we have something to offer beyond an incredible space," Tobin adds. "So many acts play the same markets each year in a safe way, not trying something new. Al Dana is the ideal venue and Bahrain is the ideal market to visit the region for the first time. We have a massive expat population in tandem with the local community, and the warmth of the reception is a special moment for any artist in their career. We believe in what we’re building here, and want the rest of the world to see it."