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ABOUT US
With several hundred events per year, COFO Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG, headquartered in Passau, is one of the leading promoters in all German-speaking countries. In 2024, the event company celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Oliver Forster and his constantly growing, committed and creative team of currently around 30 permanent employees ensure that the success story of the former family business is continuously rolling forward and that the event portfolio is constantly maintained and expanded.
LOCAL PROMOTER
As local promoter, COFO covers a wide spectrum of entertainment like no other, presenting stars of rock, pop, rap and Schlager as well as musicals, dance shows, festivals, comedy, family entertainment, but also various themed exhibitions and much more.
These include national and international top acts and shows such as:
Elton John, Sting, Tom Jones, Toto, Simply Red, Bryan Adams, Joe Cocker, James Blunt, Chris de Burgh, José Carreras, Eros Ramazzotti, Zucchero, CRO, Sarah Connor, Rea Garvey, Die Fantastischen Vier, Peter Maffay, Xavier Naidoo, David Garrett, Andreas Gabalier, Rainhard Fendrich, André Rieu, Nena, Silbermond, Hubert von Goisern, Bülent Ceylan, Eckart von Hirschhausen, Luke Mockridge, Ehrlich Brothers, Riverdance and many more.
Bryan Adams
Sting
Elton John
Eros Ramazzotti
TOUR PROMOTER
In addition to the local concert business, another focus of COFO is the touring business. Not least through the collaboration with the successful Berlin producer Bernhard Kurz, Oliver Forster has succeeded in creating a completely new segment and establishing it on the European market with so-called musical biographies about the great music legends of the 60s, 70s and 80s such as Elvis, the Beatles, Abba, the Blues Brothers and Tina Turner. Besides "ELVIS – Das Musical", the in-house productions "FALCO – Das Musical", "BEAT IT! – Die Show über den King of Pop!" and "That's Life – Das Sinatra Musical" are among the most successful touring productions in recent years in German-speaking countries.
Tours by national and international stars and music productions are also regularly on the agenda, such as most recently with star violinist David Garrett or "The Music of Hans Zimmer vs. John Williams" in the original London production.
BEAT IT!
ELVIS
FALCO
THAT'S LIFE!
Simply The Best
PRODUCTIONS
In 2017, another highlight in the company’s history was achieved with the in-house production of “FALCO – Das Musical”. To date, the musical biography about the life and music of the Austrian superstar has enthused several hundred thousand viewers.
But that’s not all: “BEAT IT! – Die Show über den King of Pop” about the exceptional artist Michael Jackson is another in-house production by COFO Entertainment and was performed on major tours through Europe for several years.
With “That’s Life – Die Sinatra-Story” another COFO masterpiece was created. This show about the life and music of Frank Sinatra stunned audiences in Germany, Austria and Switzerland after its premiere in Berlin in January 2020.
EXHIBITIONS
The exhibition about the world-famous Terracotta Army and the 1st Emperor of China in the Upper Austrian capital Linz in 2013 sealed the successful entry into the international exhibition business. This was followed by the blockbuster exhibitions “Tutankhamun – His Tomb and Treasures”, “Da Vinci – The Genius”, “Body Worlds”, “Titanic – Real Finds, True Fates” throughout the German-speaking countries.
During the Corona pandemic, the exhibition portfolio was expanded even further. Under the motto “Art as an Experience”, a completely new form of art presentation was created and established for a broad and interested audience with “The Great Masters of the Renaissance”, “Andy Warhol – Pop Art Identities”, “Van Gogh – The Immersive Experience”, “Klimt – The Immersive Experience” and “Dalí Surreal – The Immersive Exhibition Experience”.
Together with the street art show "The Mystery of Banksy – A Genius Mind" produced by Oliver Forster, around 50 exhibition projects have been implemented at home and abroad since 2021 alone, captivating millions of visitors from all walks of life. The brand new pop-up concept "House of Banksy - An Unauthorized Exhibition" is already the second project surrounding the celebrated artist.
COFO is now one of the so-called big players in the international exhibition business, which is why the subsidiary COFO Exhibitions was founded in 2023 and has since brought exhibitions to European metropolises from Wroclaw to Oslo or Zurich.
In 2020, COFO also launched a family adventure park for the first time with DINOLAND. After two years on the Tüßling castle grounds, over 70 life-size dinosaur models moved to their now permanent location at Katzenberg Castle at Innviertel, Austria. The adventure park is constantly evolving, it offers not only the prehistoric giants but also numerous play stations and has now become a permanent leisure institution for families in the Bavarian-Austrian border region and beyond.
COMPANY HISTORY
Werner Forster laid the foundations of the success story in 1968 when he brought the stars of German show business to Passau – Roy Black, Rex Gildo and Peter Alexander.
A short time later, as a local promoter, he organised almost all concerts in southeast Bavaria, including international top stars such as Dire Straits, AC/DC, Frank Zappa, Harry Belafonte, Cliff Richard and Santana.
By the end of the 90s, Werner Forster promoted concerts by countless big names in show business such as Udo Jürgens, Falco, Howard Carpendale, Supertramp, Herbert Grönemeyer, David Hasselhoff, Simple Minds, Deep Purple, Scorpions, Backstreet Boys, Jethro Tull, Status Quo, Montserrat Caballé and many others.
In 1997, son Oliver Forster took over as managing director of his father's company, primarily the local concert business. In 1999, this core area was spun off into the COFO Concertbüro Oliver Forster GmbH & Co. KG, newly founded by Oliver Forster, which was renamed COFO Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG in 2018 as part of a brand relaunch.
With innovative marketing concepts and efficient commercial, organisational and technical event implementation, Oliver Forster has set the course for the continuing successful promotion of catchpenny live entertainment. The highest level of audience satisfaction and competent service as an organiser are the standards of his entrepreneurial activity and an important guarantee for the successful advancement of the company, even after the death of the company founder, Werner Forster, on January 16, 2015.
The family business once founded by Werner Forster celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018, while COFO marks its 25th anniversary in 2024.
Werner Forster & Roy Black
Werner Forster & Thomas Gottschalk
© 2018 COFO Entertainment GmbH & Co. KG. All Rights Reserved.