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2024 tours stack up: Janet Jackson, Blink-182, Slipknot

Janet Jackson, Blink-182 and Slipknot are among a raft of A-list artists lining up tours for 2024.

Jackson has announced a European arena tour for this autumn, with multiple dates across the UK.

The Together Again tour marks the star’s 50th anniversary in the industry as well as 35 years since her landmark 1989 album Rhythm Nation 1814.

It will be the American artist’s first major event in the UK since 2019, when she performed at Glastonbury as part of her world tour for the 30th anniversary of her hit record.

Produced by Live Nation, the 10-date European leg will kick off in Paris on 25 September and conclude in Amsterdam on 10 October.

Support comes from The Fugees member Wyclef Jean, except for the London date for which a supporting act is yet to be announced.

It will be the American artist’s first major event in the UK since 2019, when she performed at Glastonbury

Blink-182 are also returning to the road this summer, touring stadiums and arenas throughout North America.

Produced by Live Nation, the 30-city trek includes stadium performances at Petco Park in the band’s hometown of San Diego, SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Citi Field in New York, Fenway Park in Boston, and Rogers Centre in Toronto, as well as 25 arenas.

The One More Time outing will kick off on 20 June in Orlando, Florida, and wrap up on 15 August in Toronto, Ontario.

Support comes from Pierce The Veil, jxdn, Live Without, Drain, Hot Milk, Landon Barker, EKKSTACY, and Astronoid.

Elsewhere, Slipknot have announced a North America tour marking the 25th anniversary of their self-titled debut album.

The Here Comes The Pain jaunt will run between 6 August and 21 September, visiting arenas and amphitheatres in cities such as New York City, Toronto, Ridgefield, Inglewood, Austin, Dallas and their hometown of Des Moines, Iowa.

Knocked Loose, Orbit Culture and Vended will lend support on select dates.

 

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Blockbuster tours stack up for 2024

Ed Sheeran, Adele, Blink-182, Sting and Billy Joel are the latest stars to reveal touring plans for 2024, amid a flurry of announcements.

Sheeran last week announced that his + – = ÷ x (Mathematics) tour will visit Asia and Europe in 2024, with support from Calum Scott.

The Asia leg kicks off in Bahrain on a yet-to-be-confirmed date in January and wraps on 16 March in Mumbai.

The 11-date outing includes stops in Dubai, Osaka, Tokyo, Kaohsiung, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Manila.

Following that, the Europe leg will kick off in Malta in June and conclude in Cyprus in September, with stops in Tenerife, Gdansk, Budapest, Hradec Kralove, Kaunas, Zagreb, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia.

Sheeran last week announced that his + – = ÷ x (Mathematics) tour will visit Asia and Europe in 2024

The English singer-songwriter is also slated to perform at a number of festivals during the leg, including Lucca Summer Festival (Italy), Rock in Rio (Portugal), Hurricane and Southside (Germany) and Stavernfestivalen (Norway).

The tour announcement comes as Sheeran concludes the North American leg of his Mathematics tour, with the final date on 28 October at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Soon after, he is due to deliver two one-off shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall, performing his new album Autumn Variations with a live band and string section.

Sheeran is represented by Marty Diamond and Ash Lewis at Wasserman for US and Canada, and Jon Ollier at One Finiix Live for the rest of the world.

Elsewhere, Adele has announced she is extending her residency at the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas one last time.

Adele has announced she is extending her residency at the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas one last time

The final leg of Weekends With Adele, which launched last November, is 32 dates and runs from January through June 2024.

“This residency, these shows have changed my life,” she wrote on social media. “I desperately needed to fall back in love with performing live again, and I have. I needed to reconnect with my songs and remember what they mean to me, and I have!”

Adele added 34 new dates to the Live Nation-promoted residency earlier this March and after a three-month hiatus, the Grammy winner returned this summer. The singer is represented by Lucy Dickins and Kirk Sommer at WME.

Meanwhile, Blink-182 are returning to North America for a 30-date tour of arenas and stadiums, in support of their new album One More Time.

The Live Nation-produced tour will visit venues including SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Citi Field in New York, Fenway Park in Boston, and Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Blink-182 are returning to North America for a 30-date tour of arenas and stadiums

The outing follows the band’s 70-date tour across Latin America, North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, which kicked off in March and ends in February 2024.

The tour has seen all three founding members – Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker – reunite for the first time in 10 years.

Billy Joel and Sting have also joined the slew of 2024 announcements, confirming a pair of ‘one night only’ concerts in Tampa and San Diego in 2024.

The co-headline shows take place at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on 24 February and San Diego’s Petco Park on 13 April.

Other 2024 tours recently announced include Jess Glynne’s series of outdoor shows, Tom Odell’s biggest UK and European tour to date and Johnny Marr’s greatest hits tour.

 

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Skrillex, Fred Again, Four Tet to close out Coachella

Skrillex, Fred Again.. and Four Tet are teaming up again to close out weekend two of Coachella this Sunday (23 April).

The Goldenvoice-promoted festival took to social media today (21 April) to break the news, confirming that the three Wasserman Music-repped acts will assume the ‘TBA’ slot after Blink 182 on the main stage on Sunday.

All four acts were confirmed for the closing slots after Frank Ocean withdrew from Coachella weekend two on doctor’s orders due to leg fractures sustained by the singer.

The Goldenvoice-promoter festival took to social media today to break the news

Coachella was in a similar position last year when Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) pulled out shortly before the festival’s opening day. Swedish House Mafia, who were already on the bill in a headlining but unlisted time slot, played a tag-team set with the Weeknd in the rapper’s place.

This Sunday’s closing set with Skrillex, Fred Again.. and Four Tet comes after the trio teamed up for a five-hour set at Madison Square Garden (21,000) in New York in February.

Prior to that, they joined forces for a run of three surprise shows in three nights at Camden’s Electric Ballroom (cap. 1,500), Electric Brixton (1,700) and the art deco Troxy (3,100) in London.

 

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Frank Ocean pulls out of Coachella weekend two

Frank Ocean has pulled out of his headlining slot at Coachella this coming Sunday (April 23) and defended his “chaotic” set during the opening weekend.

Representatives for the US star said a leg injury had prompted last-minute changes to the weekend one show, which included an onstage ice rink being melted.

The divisive concert – Ocean’s first in the US in six years – was ultimately curtailed due to curfew rules after he arrived on stage nearly an hour late.

The performance was pulled from the YouTube livestream and his merchandise was not available to buy at the festival.

“It was chaotic. There is some beauty in chaos. It isn’t what I intended to show but I did enjoy being out there and I’ll see you soon,” said the singer in a statement.

Blink-182 will replace the star on the bill, Variety magazine reported

In another statement, his representatives said he had withdrawn from the coming weekend’s performance on doctor’s orders.

“After suffering an injury to his leg on festival grounds in the week leading up to weekend one, Frank Ocean was unable to perform the intended show but was still intent on performing, and in 72 hours, the show was reworked out of necessity,” they said.

“On doctor’s advice, [Ocean] is not able to perform weekend two due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.”

Blink-182 will replace the star on the bill, Variety magazine reported. The band played a 50-minute set on Coachella’s Sahara Tent in a gig announced 48 hours before the event began.

The appearance at the Goldenvoice-promoted festival marked the first show of the reunited group’s comeback tour, which was postponed following an injury to drummer Travis Barker.

 

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Blink-182, Paramore to headline new US festival

Live Nation has detailed a brand-new alternative music festival based in the US, called Adjacent.

Blink-182 and Paramore are set to headline the two-day event, slated for 27 & 28 May 2023 (Memorial Day Weekend).

The all-ages festival will be held on the beach in Atlantic City, New Jersey, adjacent to the boardwalk.

Turnstile, Japanese Breakfast, Coheed & Cambria, Bleachers, Jimmy Eat World, The Front Bottoms, IDLES and Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness are among the 40 bands that will perform across three stages.

Turnstile, Japanese Breakfast, Coheed & Cambria are among the 40 bands that will perform across three stages

Beach Bunny, PUP, Knocked Loose, Midtown, Jeff Rosenstock, Thursday, Motion City Soundtrack, The Starting Line, Phantom Planet, The Movielife, Mannequin Pussy and Wheatus are also featured on the Adjacent poster.

The announcement comes after Blink-182 announced a global tour, which will see all three founding members reunite for the first time in 10 years.

The outing includes a 2023 headline slot at Live Nation’s other new alternative music festival, When We Were Young.

The 85,000-cap “emo nostalgia” festival launched last weekend at Las Vegas Festival Grounds last weekend with headliners Paramore and My Chemical Romance.

Paramore recently announced a six-date arena tour for UK and Ireland, scheduled for April 2023.

See the full poster for Adjacent festival below.

 

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Blink-182 reunite for biggest-ever global tour

Blink-182 have announced their biggest-ever tour, spanning 70 dates across Latin America, North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

The global outing sees all three founding members – Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker – reunite for the first time in 10 years.

DeLonge quit the group twice and, from 2015 until now, the band was instead fronted by Matt Skiba, with whom Hoppus and Barker recorded two albums.

The reformed band’s tour, produced by Live Nation, will kick off in March 2023 with their first-ever performances in Latin America.

It will then continue to North America in May, Europe in September, and Australia and New Zealand in February 2024.

Venues on the arena tour include New York’s Madison Square Garden, London’s The O2 and Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena

Venues on the arena tour include New York’s Madison Square Garden (cap. 20,789), London’s The O2 (20,000) and Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena (21,000).

The outing also includes festivals such as Lollapalooza (in Brazil, Chile and Argentina), When We Were Young (Las Vegas) and Stereo Picnic (Colombia).

Tour support comes from Wallows (Latin America), Turnstile (North America), The Story So Far (Europe) and Rise Against (Australia/New Zealand).

Blink-182 are represented by Mike Dewdney at ITB worldwide excluding North America, which is handled by Darryl Eaton at CAA.

The band has also announced a new single, ‘Edging’, out this Friday (14 October) which also marks the first time in a decade that Hoppus, DeLonge and Barker have been in the studio together.

See all dates for Blink-182’s world tour here.

 

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Alienstock: festivalgoers fail to storm Area 51

Alienstock, which began as a viral internet meme, became a point of contention with local residents and the US Air Force and was eventually relinquished by its creators, culminated this weekend in small gatherings of people in towns near to the Area 51 military base in Nevada.

Lincoln County Sheriff Kerry Lee estimated that around 1,500 people had gathered at festival sites in the towns of Rachel (population ~50) and Hiko (population ~120), with a further 150 travelling up to the Area 51 gates. Another estimate puts the number of campers at the Rachel event at 3,000.

Nobody succeeded in ‘storming’ the facility, a highly classified and conspiracy-theory riddled US Air Force base. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, two arrests were made, one for an attempt to enter the gate and another for public urination.

The Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us event, which garnered over two million Facebook attendees, invited fans to raid the US Air Force facility and “see them aliens”.

Alienstock culminated in small gatherings of people in towns near to the Area 51 military base

A live music element was later added to the event, which was dubbed Alienstock, and scheduled to take place from 20 to 22 September in the town of Rachel in Nevada.

Following complaints from local residents, a warning from the US Air Force and concerns over public safety, Storm Area 51 creator, Matty Roberts, stepped away from the event, instead teaming up with the one-day Bud Light Area 51 Celebration in Las Vegas.

Separate events took place near to the Air Force base, with live music at the Little A’Le’Inn in Rachel and talks from UFO enthusiasts, artists, musicians and filmmakers at the Area 51 Basecamp event in Hiko. The 5,000-capacity Hiko event was cancelled after the first day, having attracted only 500 attendees, reports the Star.

Blink-182 took inspiration from the Storm Area 51 event, creating a Facebook page for their 20 September tour stop at New York’s 19,000-capacity Barclays Center to ‘Invade Brooklyn, They Can’t Stop All of Us (Aliens Only)’. Fans were encouraged to dress up “as aliens or nurses OR nurse aliens”.

 

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‘Like a refugee camp’: Chaos at Fyre Festival

Fyre Festival, the much-anticipated new luxury boutique event by Ja Rule and Billy McFarland’s Fyre Media, has descended into chaos on its first day, with many ticket-holders stranded in Miami following the cancellation of their flights – and those who did make it to the Bahamas discovering conditions that have been compared to a refugee camp.

Angry festivalgoers – who had paid at bare minimum $1,500 to be there, and some up to $50,000 – have taken to social media and the r/fyrefestival subreddit to document the half-built tents, mountains of rubbish and débris and sub-standard food (“The dinner that Fyre Festival promised us was catered by Steven Starr is literally bread, cheese and salad with dressing”, wrote one Redditor) waiting for them in the Exumas, although the festival has yet to be officially called off.

The Fyre Festival Twitter account, which has since deleted its entire tweet history, has so far only issued two advisories to those witnessing first-hand what it describes as “the unexpected start to #FyreFestival”, telling those waiting for flights that they would have their tickets refunded and those on site that festival staff are “working to comfortably accommodate [their] needs”.

Blink-182 had already cancelled their headline slot at the festival, telling fans last night they were “not confident that we have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give our fans”.

There has, at the time of writing, been no word from the other performers, who include Major Lazer, Pusha T, Disclosure, Skepta and Desiigner.

The festival had been heavily publicised on social media by several wealthy, high-profile  ‘influencers’, including models Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid and Keeping Up with the Kardashians star Kendall Jenner. There has been speculation some of the backers may now face legal action for contravening new regulations on transparency in social-media endorsements.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BO29bQXgvvx/

Matt Halfhill, the founder of trainer/sneaker news site Nice Kicks, posted photos on Twitter that appeared to show festivalgoers housed in disaster relief tents – a scene described by redditor Here_Comes_the_Kingz as looking like a “refugee camp”. Another said the festival resembles “Rich Kids of Instagram meets Lord of the Flies“.

https://twitter.com/MattHalfhill/status/857828241234460672

According to an anonymous 4chan user, the US embassy is reportedly now involved, flying “military rescue missions” to retrieve those stranded on the island.

One of Twitter’s most comprehensive documenters of the conditions on site has been @FyreFraud, who yesterday posted a video showing the state of what it jokingly called the “tropical private island owned by [Pablo] Escabar”, showing a barren landscape strewn with rubbish and unassembled accommodation.

Fyre Festival has promised to “provide regular updates and news via email to guest [sic] and our official social media channels as they come”.

 

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Fyre Festival reveals line-up (and $400k tickets)

Fyre Festival, a new event by Ja Rule’s Fyre Media booking agency, has unveiled the line-up it hopes can lure deep-pocketed music fans and celebrity spotters away from Coachella this spring.

The festival, which will take place on 28–30 April and 5–7 May – the weekend after Coachella wraps up – in the Exumas, Bahamas, will be headlined by Pusha T, Desiigner, Major Lazer, Blink-182 and a Disclosure DJ set, with Migos, Kaytranada, Skepta and Lil Yachty also on the bill.

Fyre, however, says the “unparellelled soundtrack” is “only a piece of the two-weekend experience. Attendees will take a departure from the familiar for the adventure of a lifetime, immersing themselves in art, first-class cuisine and new levels of luxury.”

“The Exumas will also offer the ultimate destination for boaters, divers, snorkellers and kayakers looking to explore its beautiful turquoise waters and idyllic beaches,” the announcement continues. “It’s been said that from space, astronauts deem the Exumas as having the clearest and nicest waters in the world. Guests will be invited to take advantage of the beauty of the islands, with onsite programming including sunrise yoga, meditation, massages, fitness bootcamps, art installations, and much more.

Fyre Festival is reportedly already in financial trouble, having missed a number of deadlines for payments to artists

“Local excursions will include yachting, jet skiing, snorkelling the deepest blue hole in the world, seeing the swimming pigs, exploring the caves and catamaran parties.”

All $1,500 GA passes are sold out, with remaining tickets starting at US$2,500 for those with their own yachts, increasing to $399,995 – $49,999 each – for ‘artists estate’ and ‘artists palace’ packages, which include flights, artists’ pass tickets, accommodation and “exclusive VIP experiences”.

While the Bahamas’ ministry of tourism expects Fyre to deliver the islands a “significant economic boost”, The Wall Street Journal suggests the festival, which has already shifted an estimated 12,000 tickets, is already in financial trouble, having missed a number of deadlines for payments to artists.

IQ Magazine explored the growth of luxury/VIP experiences at music festivals in issue 66.

 

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Festival Focus: Snowbombing, FIB, Download

Broadwick Live’s music ‘n’ ski event Snowbombing today announced an avalanche (geddit?) of new acts for the 2017 festival.

Blossoms, Slaves, De La Soul, Grandmaster Flash, Giggs, Dixon, Shy FX and more will join previously announced headliners Chase & Status for six days of “luxurious spas, igloo raves, rooftop hot tubs, forest parties [and] snow-yoga” at the Mayrhofen ski resort in Austria from 3 to 8 April.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’ll also be “special guest appearances” from everyone’s favourite spandex-clad ’90s early-morning TV fitness instructor, Derrick Evans (aka Mr Motivator), and loveably inept British ski jumper Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, whose life story was the subject of a recent film starring Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman.

Fingers crossed for a Grandmaster Flash/Mr Motivator duet.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nova Rock 2016, M. Krobath/ANSPress Society News

In today’s other major festival news, Red Hot Chili Peppers will be headlining Festival Internacional de Benicassim (FIB) next July.

The American four-piece, who wheadlined Reading and Leeds, Lollapalooza Chicago, T in the Park, Fuji Rock and more this year, are also confirmed for Super Rock Super Bock in Lisbon the same weekend (13–16 July) and Rock in Rio in September 2017.

FIB, which takes place in the Spanish coastal town of Benicàssim, is promoted by Maraworld, part-owned by Denis Desmond’s MCD Concerts. (Anthony Kiedis/Red Hot Chili Peppers photo by M. Krobath/ANSPress Society News.)

System Of a Down, Santiago Gets Louder 2015, Macarena Viza

The second edition of Live Nation France’s Download Paris has announced its three headliners for 2017.

System of a Down – revealed last month as the first act confirmed for the new Download Spain, the second international spin-off from the long-running UK metal festival – will join Linkin Park and Blink-182 at a disused airbase in Le Plessis-Pâté, in Île-de-France, from 9 to 11 June.  (System of a Down photo by Macarena Viza.)

Also playing will be Rage Against the Machine/Public Enemy/Cypress Hill supergroup Prophets of Rage.

The first line-up announcement for the UK Download is expected this week.

Update (4/11/16): It’s System of a Down, Biffy Clyro and Aerosmith.

Linkin Park, Montreal, 2014, Kristina Servant

Other notable developments since the last instalment of Festival Focus:

 

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