The history of Chugg Entertainment begins in 2000 when, after 25 successful years with Frontier Touring Company (the organisation he co-founded in the mid 1970s), Michael Chugg left to form his own entertainment company: Michael Chugg Entertainment (MCE). In its first year of operation, MCE produced and promoted 19 national tours featuring international artists and 5 national tours featuring Australian artists. Amongst the many successful endeavours of 2000, a highlight for Chugg was co-producing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympic Games in Sydney, with the result being an incredible series of sell-out performances. Chugg was also responsible for coordinating the live entertainment for the athletes in the Olympic Village.

The impact of the company on Australia's live music industry did not go unnoticed, and MCE was awarded Performance Magazine's 'International Promoter of the Year' in 2000.

In 2001 MCE continued to expand on the success of its inaugural year, promoting tours by some of the biggest acts in popular music; from MxPx (US) and Fantomas (US) to Bob Dylan (US) and Robbie Williams (UK). The accolades continued to roll in along with the tours, and Michael Chugg was the recipient of Pollstar's 'International Promoter of the Year' award for 2001.

2002 saw several successful tours, from the sold out Elton John (UK) tour to the Red Hot Chili Peppers (US), George Clinton (US), Chris Isaak (US) and No Doubt (US). During this same year Michael Chugg Entertainment, in conjunction with Billy Thorpe and Amanda Pelman, was responsible for creating the Long Way To The Top stage show based on the record-breaking television documentary of the same name. With 28 of Australia's brightest stars from the 50s, 60s and 70s, Long Way To The Top played to nearly a quarter-of-a-million Australians and was hailed as one of the biggest tours of the year as well as becoming a multi-platinum DVD and CD.

2002 also marked the return of the internationally renowned Vans Warped Tour, featuring acts such as Pennywise (US), Guttermouth (US), MxPx (US), The Vandals (US) and many more across three stages.

To top off an already spectacular year for the company, the Australian Live Music Awards named MCE the 'Best Promoter of the Year' for the second consecutive year.

Throughout the remainder of 2002 and into 2003 MCE presented tours by a veritable 'who's who' of popular music: Ray Charles (US); Carlos Santana (US); The Dixie Chicks (US); LeAnn Rimes (US); Keith Urban (Aus); Tina Arena (Aus), Sum 41 (Can), Eels (US); John Mayer (US); Coldplay (UK); A Perfect Circle (US); The Offspring (US); Radiohead (UK); Gomez (UK); and The Who (UK) all kept Australian audiences enthralled.

In early 2003, with a line-up that inarguably made it the year's must-see concert for music aficionados, Michael Chugg secured Bob Dylan (US), Ani DiFranco (US) and The Waifs (Aus) for the Perth Moonlight Music & Wine Festival. As if this wasn't enough, the end of 2003 saw Robbie Williams return to Australia with special guests Duran Duran, playing to 90,000 people in Sydney and 68,000 people in Melbourne; which at the time represented a sold-out, record attendance at Melbourne's Telstra Dome.

From 2003 to 2005, MCE also staged the successful Melbourne International Music and Blues Festival, held on the banks of the Yarra River in the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre and adjoining parklands, with 3 days of non-stop world class music and entertainment. Acts on the bill included Ray Charles (US) Bob Dylan (US), Wilson Picket (US), Vanessa Amorosi (Aus), Beth Orton (UK), Tony Joe White (US) and John Mayall (UK) among many others.

In 2004 and 2005 MCE continued to go from strength to strength with the first ever Australian Idol live tours, Damien Rice (Ire), Rufus Wainwright (Can), The Doors of the 21st Century (US), Bright Eyes (US), Mark Knopfler (UK) and R.E.M. (US), along with revisits from favourites such as Gomez (UK) and Australian darlings Tina Arena and Keith Urban.

2005 saw some major achievements for MCE, including the phenomenal charity event Wave Aid. Along with promoters Joe Segreto and Mark Pope, Chugg helped to stage one of the greatest music events the country had ever seen. Wave Aid brought together some of Australia's best artists including The John Butler Trio, Missy Higgins, The Finn Brothers, Silverchair, Powderfinger and a re-formed Midnight Oil. Held at the SCG on January 29th 2005, Wave Aid played to 50,000 people and raised over $2.3 Million dollars for the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami.

2005 also saw Michael Chugg Entertainment follow some exciting new paths, including becoming one of the major partners in the East Coast International Blues and Roots Music Festival. MCE's involvement helped to make the 2005, 5-day Bluesfest a complete sell-out: which at that stage was the most successful festival in the event's 16-year history.

At the 2005 Helpmann Awards, the East Coast International Blues and Roots Music Festival picked up the award for Best Festival. At the same awards night, Michael Chugg, along with Gary Van Egmond, received the award for Tour Of The Year for the highly successful Bette Midler "Kiss My Brass" spectacular which saw the Devine Miss M fill 10 arenas around the country.

Later in the year a new partnership with Backrow Productions (UK) tied Michael Chugg Entertainment to the hugely successful 10th Anniversary production of Dein Perry's Tap Dogs, and the relationship has opened the door to many exciting theatre opportunities.

Towards the end of 2005, having proven itself as an industry stalwart both internationally and locally, Michael Chugg Entertainment took another exciting turn with a rebranding exercise. With a name so prominent and recognisable in the industry, the company relaunched to become Chugg Entertainment.

2006 was a massive year for the company, with sell out shows for Jason Mraz (US), Korn (US), Sigur Ros (Iceland), Yellowcard (US) and once again seeing the East Coast International Blues and Roots Music Festival completely sell out. Further expanding Chugg Entertainment's interest in promoting festivals, March saw a new partnership with Lunatic Entertainment when a small patch of Sydney's CBD was transformed into a street party for indie music lovers, heralding Sydney's first ever St Jerome's Laneway Festival. The unique event featured a prestigious line up of international artists including Broken Social Scene (Can), Les Savy Fav (US) and The Posies (US) as well as local acts Faker and The Avalanches.

In addition, Coldplay's mid-year tour saw 120,000 people snap up tickets to 10 sell-out arenas as well as setting a new attendance record of 12,490 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

In early March, Michael Chugg was awarded 'Promoter of the Year' at the International Live Music Conference awards in London. June too was a big month with Michael receiving the Gentleman Jack award at the 3rd Annual Jack Awards for his service to live music in Australia. In addition to this, at the 26th Golden Stave lunch, Michael was awarded the Nordoff Robins award in recognition of his outstanding achievements, contributions to the music industry and his charity work.

Building on an already outstanding reputation of producing quality events, in June, Chugg Entertainment announced the Robbie Williams tour for December 2006 and sold out an amazing 9 stadium shows nationwide just hours after releasing tickets.

Furthering the company's involvement in live theatre, Chugg Entertainment (in conjunction with Backrow Productions) were involved with the highly anticipated production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The Musical which premiered worldwide in Sydney in October.

Chugg Entertainment closed 2006 in an even grander fashion with almost 500,000 Australians attending the Robbie Williams sell-out tour across the country, and almost 100,000 attending the Elton John 'Captain and the Kid' national tour.  

2007 saw Chugg Entertainment involved in a number of special projects including the Australian leg of the worldwide Live Earth event, and continuing successes with the East and West Coast Blues & Roots Festivals, Point Nepean Music Festival and St Jeromes Laneway Festival, of which the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival was nominated for a 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Contemporary Music Festival.  

After a hugely successful 11-month season in Sydney, selling more than 300,000 tickets and taking in excess of $25M at the box office, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - The Musical took its humorous and heartfelt stage spectacular to the Regent Theatre in Melbourne. August 2007 saw one of contemporary music's most influential artists, music legend Bob Dylan and his band, doing a special tour of major arena shows across Australia and New Zealand. Closing a spectacular 2007 for Michael Chugg was Elton John's Rocket Man Solo Tour, which showcased the Knight and a piano and brought Elton's brilliance and 35 years of hit songs to highly anticipated shows at unique venues across the country, including a 20,000 capacity concert at Townsville's Dairy Farmers Stadium.  

By Easter 2008, Chugg Entertainment had already completed 47 tours, and 10 successful festivals, including artists Keith Urban, John Fogerty (US), Santana (US), Feist (Can) Rufus Wainwright (Can), and, for the first time to Australian shores, Sinead O'Connor (Ire).   And to add an even bigger bang to 2008, Michael also managed to fit in time to win the coveted 'Bottle Award' at the International Live Music Conference in London, proving once again that Michael Chugg is indeed the leading promoter in Australia. In May, Sir Elton John returned to celebrate 25 prestigious years at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, as well as breaking the record for the most shows held at the venue, whilst also taking his show to Perth and Darwin for the first time ever.

The year rolled on seeing San Diego songman, Jason Mraz, return to Australian shores for a sell-out tour on the back of his multi-platinum album and the hit single “I’m Yours.” 2008 also welcomed back Joan As Policewoman (US), Martha Wainwright (Can) and The Kooks (UK). The spring season also saw Chugg Entertainment undertake the Morning Of The Earth live show. A theatre screening of the iconic 1972 surf film with the soundtrack played live and in full, featuring special guests Lior and Old Man River alongside original producer, G. Wayne Thomas and singer songwriter, Brian Cadd.

The beginning of 2009, saw Australia struck by the ravaging bushfires throughout Victoria and the floods of Queensland; and once again, the team who brought you Wave Aid and Live Earth (Michael Chugg, Mark Pope & Joe Segreto) joined forces with Michael Gudinski and brought Australia, Sound Relief. A dual-city event that took place on Saturday 14^th March, with both the Sydney & Melbourne Cricket Grounds overrun with patrons who love music, and who supported the cause – with an array of local heroes from Hoodoo Gurus, Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly, The Presets, and Icehouse taking the stage alongside international acts Taylor Swift, Kings of Leon & Coldplay. Sound Relief also saw the staggering collaboration of Olivia Newton-John and Barry Gibb. These planning of these two huge events was turned around in 30 days and raised over $8 Million for the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal and The Premier’s Disaster Relief Fund Appeal in Queensland.

Outside of Chugg Entertainment’s philanthropic endeavours, the show rolled on with country music having a whole new resurgence in the Australian touring market with CMC Rocks The Snowys seeing fans embark upon a small skiing village for a weekend of country tunes for the second year running, as well as the return to Australia for a string of sell out shows of US stars, Brooks & Dunn and our own local hero, Keith Urban. In honour of Michael Chugg’s commitment to the country market, he was honoured the Jo Walker Meador International Award by the Country Music Association in Nashville, recognising his efforts as an international promoter of country music. To add to his list of accolades, Chugg was also presented with Pollstar’s prestigious International Promoter Of The Year Award, for the third time.

In June of 2009, the nation experienced an unparalleled event in the announcement of Simon & Garfunkel’s return to the stage together in over 25 years. The duo delivered an astonishing eight arena shows to fans across Australia and New Zealand, shows which people are still talking about. Later in the year, another hero of yesteryear returned to our shores for the first time in decades; the one and only Liza Minnelli.

Come October, the inaugural One Movement For Music Festival & Conference finally arrived in Perth. Announced in late 2008, the international music industry event consisted of an industry conference, private showcases to industry and live public performances from emerging artists from Australia, Asia and around the world.

November brought with it the return of Seattle band Pearl Jam on a national stadium tour alongside Ben Harper and Relentless 7 and Liam Finn. With this tour came a new marketing initiative with the launch of Pearl Jam Tour TV, a 14 episode series, focussing on each of the artists, the fans and the media response. The series podcast on iTunes reached nearly half a million downloads, and the YouTube views collectively were over 300,000.

Throughout the year, as if there wasn’t already enough going on, a full breadth of talent from Ben Kweller, John Mayer, and Scotland’s Biffy Clyro to Elvis Costello, Aimee Mann and Datarock visited our shores.

2009 also saw Chugg Entertainment embark on its new TV To Live touring division; a newly developed part of the company, focused on building television properties in production, new media and live touring. To begin this venture, the star of the Emmy-nominated hit TV series "Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan" brought his magic and wisdom about dogs and dog psychology to a unique LIVE event across the country.

In 2010 the new year kicked off with the biggest bang imaginable with the long awaited return of AC/DC. In collaboration with Gary Van Egmond, AC/DC brought with them an unrivalled production, selling out stadiums across the country and breaking international records for the highest grossing tour of that year.

Laneway Festival went international in 2010, with the 5 capital city Australian festival now adding a NZ date; taking its finger-to-pulse lineup even larger with the first appearance of Florence & The Machine, later returning that winter to sell out a record number of shows and headline Splendour In The Grass.

For the first time ever, the one and only Al Green returned to wow audiences with a free concert in Sydney’s Domain as well as series of soulful theatre appearances. Other artists to grace the stage in the busy year that was 2010 included retro rockers Status Quo and The Cult, as well as Kelly Clarkson, John Mayer, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Adam Lambert and The Swell Season. It also became apparent that the country music fans had not yet been sated with the sellout Tim McGraw tour taking arenas by storm.

In a new partnership, Chugg Entertainment announced the newly located Great Southern Blues Festival in Batemans Bay with artists the likes of Pink Martini and Todd Rundgren gracing the stage.

The year was wrapped up with the first ever live appearance on our shores of Gorillaz, a live and animated experience featuring Blur’s Damon Albarn and Paul Simonen and Mick Jones of The Clash fame.

2010 saw Michael Chugg collect a slew of accolades in honour of his commitment to the industry here, receiving Pollstar’s International Promoter Of The Year, a nomination for Billboard’s Top Independent Promoter (International) Award, Rolling Stone’s award for a true industry stalwart, The Immortal, and along with friend and co-promoter, Gary Van Egmond, Chugg received Billboard’s Top Boxscore Award for the AC/DC tour.

2011 showed no signs of slowing down with the new year kicking off as Sydney’s Opera House became Margaritaville when Jimmy Buffett returned to Australia for the first time since the 80s. The now international Laneway Festival spread its wings farther, adding a Singapore date to the run of shows across Australia and New Zealand.  And the Easter season’s blues festivals on either side of the nation saw a lineup with the calibre seldom seen before; Bob Dylan, BB King, Grace Jones and Elvis Costello.

Along with partners, Backrow Productions, January celebrated the 15 year anniversary of Tap Dogs going global with a series of shows on the east coast.  Theatres across the country were also set ablaze with the solo tour of Eddie Vedder, City and Colour, Martha Wainwright, Doobie Brothers and the first ever live appearance of US kids TV sensation, Yo Gabba Gabba. Arenas were not forgotten with the landmark Alan Jackson tour as well as Santana and Keith Urban’s awaited return.

2011 also brought with it an expansion in Chugg Entertainment’s TV To Live division with the announcement of The Captain’s Tour, the Alaskan fisherman from Discovery Channel’s global hit television series, Deadliest Catch, as well as the confirmation that Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan, will be returning once more.

The year ended with a bang, including a sell out tour for Sir Elton John across the country and the welcome return of the great Dolly Parton for the first time in over twenty years, as well as the announcement of countless other acts returning to Australia in 2012 including John Fogerty, City and Colour, Earth Wind & Fire, The Specials and Yes.

With so many ground-breaking tours confirmed, and with two of the hottest tours of 2012 in the pipeline, it is clear that the coming months are going to be huge, that we have exciting times ahead, and that Chugg Entertainment continues to lead the way in dynamic, cohesive and successful international touring in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.