Coldplay make touring history in Argentina

Coldplay have made history in Argentina by completing an unprecedented 10-night sellout run at the 65,000-cap Estadio River Plate in Buenos Aires.

The national record previously belonged to Roger Waters, who played nine shows at the legendary “Monumental” venue in March 2012 during his The Wall Live tour.

The British band’s Music Of The Spheres tour resumed in the Argentine capital on 25 October after a string of Brazilian tour dates were postponed until early 2023 when frontman Chris Martin contracted a serious lung infection.

“We have 10 sold-out dates at River Plate Stadium – that’s 650,000 tickets in one city – but I am not surprised because Coldplay have a huge connection with people in Argentina,” said local promoter Diego Finkelstein of Buenos Aires-based DF Entertainment in IQ‘s recent tour report.

“On the last tour, I had lunch with [Coldplay manager] Dave Holmes and told him that we could sell out 10 stadiums in Buenos Aires, but he was reluctant to commit to that many at the time. So when we went on sale, we went with four shows at River Plate and that was supposed to be the end of the tour leg, but the speed they sold out at was incredible, so I pushed for more.”

“It was incredible, but if we wanted, the demand was still there to sell even more dates”

The residency wrapped up with the 10th and final show on 8 November. Finkelstein explained that the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar’s unusual November start date proved a blessing in disguise, bringing a halt to domestic football and freeing up River Plate Stadium.

“We invested $2m [€1.96m] in pitch protection to persuade the stadium to give us more dates,” he said. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get so many dates at River Plate, so we begged the band to extend the tour. On 24 May, we put shows five, six, and seven on sale and they blew out in one day. The following week we sold out shows eight and nine.

“The 10th show went on sale on 7 June and sold out in two hours. It was incredible, but if we wanted, the demand was still there to sell even more dates.”

A special live broadcast of the group’s 28 October Buenos Aires concert was screened in cinemas in more than 80 countries – a record-breaking number of countries for a live cinema event – topping the box office charts in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Netherlands, and breaking the top 10 worldwide across the weekend covering 28-30 October, according to Comscore.

“The band’s triumphant return to the stage in Buenos Aires, with the welcomed addition of Jin from BTS as a special guest, clearly resonated on a worldwide scale”

Directed by BAFTA-winning and Grammy-nominated director Paul Dugdale, the presentation saw the band team up once more with Trafalgar Releasing, which also served as executive producer alongside CJ 4DPlex.

“We are elated with the success of the broadcast, following our release of A Head Full of Dreams in 2018,” says Trafalgar Releasing CEO Marc Allenby. “The band’s triumphant return to the stage in Buenos Aires, with the welcomed addition of Jin from BTS as a special guest, clearly resonated on a worldwide scale and once again proved the power of cinema to bring fans together. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the Coldplay team in 2023.”

The live event was supported by DHL, which has partnered with the band to reduce carbon emissions from their world tour.

“It’s such a groundbreaking tour in such a challenging market,” Coldplay agent Josh Javor of X-ray Touring told IQ earlier this year. “A lot of other things in the world are just not selling at the moment, but it’s completely bucked the trend.”

Ticket sales for the Music Of The Spheres tour have exceeded 5.4 million since UK and European stadium dates went on sale for 2023.

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