Indie promoter Jim Cressman of Invictus Entertainment, an independent concert promotion company based in Penticton, British Columbia, says Live Nation muscled its way into a Jonas Brothers stadium show he had booked in Moncton, New Brunswick, taking over the date after he had confirmed the show with United Talent Agency.

Cressman said the takeover is the latest example of Live Nation using its size and scale to push a promoter out of a fairly fought and won opportunity in Canada, where the company dominates the market. Unlike in the U.S., where Live Nation competes against the much smaller AEG Presents, Live Nation is the largest promoter in Canada with no real rival.

Officials with Live Nation confirmed to Decibel that they did take over the Moncton show, which is scheduled for Aug. 8 at Croix-Bleue Medavie Stadium, citing the company’s global touring deal with the pop trio. The Jonas Brothers have announced a limited tour outside the U.S. in 2026, with two stops in Canada and a handful of shows in South America.

Cressman said he learned that the Boots and Hearts Festival in Edmonton, Alberta, planned to make an offer for the band to headline this year’s event. He then agreed to make an offer to promote a stadium show in Moncton the following day, which would easily route with Boots and Hearts. Cressman said he planned to promote the Moncton show as a festival and book opening bands around the date.

This is a fairly common practice in Canada and the U.S., especially in markets like Moncton that don’t easily route on most continental tours. To entice large acts, events like Festival d'été de Québec in Quebec City will team up with other Canadian promoters to create multi-day offers that make it more attractive for artists to play their market.

Cressman said that’s what he and the talent buyer did to bring the Jonas Brothers to Northeast Canada: Boots and Hearts offered the band a headlining slot for Aug. 7, and Cressman worked to secure a headlining date for Aug. 8.

On Dec. 19, Cressman reached out to UTA to inquire about the status of his offer and received a response from the band’s agent telling him, “Jim — you can use this email as confirmation.”

Christmas came and went — and then things fell apart.

Cressman said he received a phone call after the holidays informing him that Live Nation was taking over the Moncton show and promoting the gig without him. Live Nation told Decibel that it has a global touring deal with the band and “promoted the show along with their other tour stops.”

Cressman says Live Nation effectively stole his work product and acted out of bounds in taking the Jonas Brothers date away from him.

“If we’d been engaged in a bidding process from the inception of this deal, and our contingent lost the proverbial jump ball — fair enough. I have no issue with formidable competition, but this was excessive. We thought we had secured our headliner, and our intention was to build a lineup on the undercard and create a new festival in the region,” Cressman said.

“If Live Nation continues to leverage touring deals in all global territories, then the inevitable outcome is a concert industry monopoly in Canada,” he added. “It may take years, but if you extrapolate the trends, that’s the reality.”

Live Nation issued its own statement to Decibel, noting: “Live Nation are longtime partners of the Jonas Brothers and have been working with the group on their global tour. That tour deal does not extend to festival appearances. The Moncton offer, presented as a festival, was actually a hard-ticket show with no other acts or venue confirmed. To support our partner, the Jonas Brothers, Live Nation promoted the show along with their other tour stops.”

Cressman disputes the claim that his company didn’t have a venue confirmed, noting that Croix-Bleue Medavie Stadium had been booked as the host venue. He has promoted concerts in Canada for more than a decade, booking arena- and stadium-level shows for acts including Ringo Starr, Ice Cube, Shania Twain, John Legend, ZZ Top, Carrie Underwood, Clint Black, Flo Rida, and Nickelback. His company, he said, takes pride in bringing world-class artists to regions of Canada not always visited by major promoters.

“Independent talent buyers and promoters fulfill two major roles that remain vital,” he told Decibel. “First, they bring critical economic stimulus to secondary and tertiary markets. Those events not only support local businesses — they also provide an audience and opportunity for indie promoters to cultivate and nurture diverse talent through the hard-ticket development phase in order to grow tomorrow’s superstars.”

“I know a lot of good people at Live Nation, and perhaps they have a plan to fill the void that their marketplace dominance will eventually create,” he added. “I hope, for the sake of the business we all love, that they do. As Winston Churchill once said, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’”