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Ed Sheeran’s +–=÷× (Mathematics) Tour will officially extend to a fourth year after the star confirmed a final slate of 2025 European stadium dates.
The singer-songwriter, who is represented by Jon Ollier of One Fiinix Live outside North America, will play shows in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland and Denmark next year.
The run is currently due to start at Civitas Metropolitano in Madrid on 30 May and conclude in Dusseldorf’s Merkur Spiel-Arena on 5 September, with further announcements to follow. Tickets go on general sale on Wednesday (10 July).
Sheeran also has upcoming 2024 concerts at Polsat Plus Arena in Gdansk, Poland (12-13 July), Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary (20 July), Park 360 in Hradec Kralove, Czechia (27-28 July), Darius and Girėnas Stadium in Kaunas, Lithuania (3-4 August) and the Hipodrom in Zagreb, Croatia (10 August).
“In 2025, Mathematics Tour comes to an end. Gonna be hitting most of the other places we haven’t been to yet”
In addition, he will perform at Austria’s Frequency Festival (14 August), Ušće Park in Belgrade, Serbia (17 August), Romania’s National Arena in Bucharest (24 August), Vasil Levski Stadium in Sofia, Bulgaria (31 August) and Land of Tomorrow in Larnaca Bay, Cyprus (7-8 September), as well as headlining Brazil’s Rock in Rio on 19 September.
“In 2025, Mathematics Tour comes to an end,” says Sheeran in an Instagram post. “Gonna be hitting most of the other places we haven’t been to yet, but the first dates to go up will be the rest of Europe, more to follow.”
Held in support of Sheeran’s = (2021) and – (2023) albums, the 131-date Mathematics Tour launched in Ireland at Croke Park, Dublin in April 2022. The trek was seventh highest-grossing tour of 2023, according to Pollstar, garnering $268 million from 2.5 million attendees.
Last month, the 33-year-old set a new record in Malta for the largest-ever paid-for concert, with 35,000 fans flocking to Ta’ Qali National Park in Attard – his first-ever performance in the country. Local independent promoters in Bulgaria and Latvia also spoke to IQ about how the tour is breaking ground in their markets.
The full list of 2025 tour dates is as follows:
30 May: Cívitas Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain
6 June: Orange Vélodrome Stadium, Marseille, France
14 June: TBA, Italy, Rome
20 June: Decathlon Arena – Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille, France
29 June: MHPArena, Stuttgart, Germany
5 July: Volksparkstadion, Hamburg, Germany
26 July: Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, Norway
2 August: Stadion Letzigrund, Zürich, Switzerland
8 August: Middenvijver Park, Antwerp, Belgium
16 August: Tarczyński Arena, Wroclaw, Poland
23 August: Strawberry Arena, Stockholm, Sweden
29-30 August: Øresundsparken, Copenhagen, Denmark
5 September: Merkur Spiel-Arena, Dusseldorf, Germany
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Ed Sheeran has announced an intimate concert at Singapore’s 1,000-cap Capitol Theatre.
The show, entitled An Evening with Ed Sheeran, will be held on 17 February, with tickets priced S$298 (€205).
The one-night-only performance will take place the day after the British singer-songwriter plays to a sell-out + – = ÷ x (Mathematics) Tour date in front of 50,000 fans at Singapore National Stadium.
“Experiencing Sheeran in a smaller theatre setting and sharing stories as he goes through his catalogue of hits with a full band will be a treat for Singapore fans,” says a statement by promoter AEG Presents Asia.
“Expect to hear a symphony of strings and synths as Sheeran goes through the emotions of writing and performing songs like Salt Water and End of Youth. Ballads informed by the singer’s own grief and personal upheavals will echo with soul-baring strength and create priceless memories for the lucky few.”
Sheeran’s Mathematics Tour was the seventh highest-grossing concert run of 2023
Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group’s lifestyle rewards programme KrisFlyer has partnered with AEG Presents Asia to offer exclusive priority access to tickets for KrisFlyer members, who will be able to redeem a pair of Category 1 Standing and Category 2 tickets for 63,000 and 78,000 miles respectively.
“We had very strong interest in redemptions for Ed Sheeran’s sold-out concert via our KrisFlyer Reserve Sale and KrisFlyer Experiences,” says Dai Haoyu, acting SVP marketing planning for Singapore Airlines. “We are now pleased to offer KrisFlyer members priority access to a rare opportunity to attend Ed Sheeran’s special performance in Singapore. This is part of our continuous efforts to offer our members even more options and greater value.”
The Mathematics Tour was the seventh highest-grossing concert run of 2023 according to Pollstar, generating US $268,017,633 from 54 nights.
Sheeran is represented by agent Jon Ollier of One Fiinix Live outside North America.
Local independent promoters recently spoke to IQ about how they are breaking ground in their markets with record ticket sales for the tour’s European leg, which is due to kick off on 8 June 2024 in Italy, making 20 stops at a mix of stadiums and festivals across the continent.
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Seventeen people were taken to hospital, mostly for heat-related emergencies, during an Ed Sheeran concert in Pennsylvania, US.
The singer-songwriter performed at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium on 8 July as part of the North American leg of his + – = ÷ x (Mathematics) Tour.
The Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS personnel received 37 calls for service during the event. The 17 hospitalisations were for heat-related issues, some falls, one seizure and two cardiac arrest patients.
“A worker tearing down the setup inside the stadium went into cardiac arrest on the floor,” says Cara Cruz from the City of Pittsburgh’s public safety department. “With the quick actions by numerous crews, the patient was treated and transported to AGH [Allegheny General Hospital].
“When leaving the facility, one of the paramedics from an outside agency also went into cardiac arrest”
“When leaving the facility, one of the paramedics from an outside agency also went into cardiac arrest on Art Rooney Ave. Again, with the quick response by numerous crews and agencies, the patient was resuscitated after receiving several shocks and was transported to AGH.”
Temperatures at the gig reached a high of 87°F (31°C), according to People, citing data from The Weather Channel.
Taylor Swift set a new attendance record at the stadium last month, enticing 73,117 fans to her 18 June Eras show to break the venue’s previous record held by Garth Brooks.
Sheeran’s tour of the US and Canada resumed on Saturday (15 July) at Detroit’s Ford Field, where the 32-year-old was joined on stage by surprise guest Eminem. Booked by Wasserman Music, it will go on to visit Nashville, Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Vancouver, Las Vegas and Santa Clara before wrapping up in Los Angeles at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium on 23 September.
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Ed Sheeran has broken his own attendance record at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) by playing to more than 100,000 fans on consecutive nights.
The superstar singer-songwriter performed to a 107,000-strong crowd last Thursday (2 March), topping that 24 hours later when he attracted a 109,500-strong crowd to Friday’s Frontier Touring-presented show. Eminem previously pulled in more than 80,000 punters at the venue in 2019.
“Ed loves to break a record and he’s smashed this one,” says Mushroom Group CEO Matt Gudinski, who describes the feat as “phenomenal”.
Earlier in the week, Sheeran paid tribute to his former Australian promoter, Gudinski’s father, Michael Gudinski, after visiting the statue of the late Mushroom Group founder outside Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena.
The largest concert ever held in Australia was a free admission show by The Seekers in 1967, which had an estimated 200,000 in attendance
“Toasting a 707 to the big man ahead of playing the biggest ticketed shows ever in Australian history this weekend,” wrote Sheeran on Instagram. “We miss you, you finally got me playing MCG in the round.”
According to Noise11, the largest concert ever held in Australia was a free admission show by The Seekers at Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne in 1967, which had an estimated 200,000 in attendance.
Sheeran’s opening night at MCG suffered a technical hitch, however, with some fans initially unable to access their tickets after buying them through Ticketek.
“Ticketek apologises to those fans who experienced a delay in entering the MCG for Ed Sheeran’s concert,” a spokesperson tells the Daily Mail. “A small number of Ticketek App users, who had valid tickets, were unable to retrieve their entry barcode until the issue was resolved.
“We thank fans for their patience whilst Ticketek enabled a solution, which saw all fans admitted prior to the start of the concert.”
Last month, Sheeran also smashed the attendance record at New Zealand’s Sky Stadium, with 48,000 fans flocking to the singer’s sold-out concert, again outselling the previous record-holder Eminem, who attracted 46,474 fans to his March 2019 date.
The Australia/New Zealand leg of the 32-year-old’s +–=÷× Tour (AKA the Mathematics Tour) wraps up this month with nights at Adelaide Oval (7 March) and Perth’s Optus Stadium (12 March).
Last week, Sheeran – who is represented by Marty Diamond of Wasserman Music in North America and Jon Ollier of One Fiinix Live for the rest of the world – announced a slate of European indoor shows in support of his upcoming fifth studio album, − (Subtract), out 5 May. He will visit Manchester’s AO Arena (23 March), The O2 in London (24-25 March), Glasgow’s OVO Hydro (28 March), 3Arena Dublin (30 March) and Accor Arena, Paris (2 April).
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Ed Sheeran is set to break the attendance record at New Zealand’s Sky Stadium this week, with 48,000 fans expected at the singer’s sold-out concert.
The 31-year-old brings his +–=÷× Tour (AKA the Mathematics Tour) to the Wellington venue tomorrow (2 February) ahead of two shows at Auckland’s Eden Park next week.
Stuff reports the Sky Stadium concert is on track to top the venue’s current record set by Eminem, who attracted 46,474 fans to his March 2019 date. A Guns ‘N Roses performance at the stadium drew more than 25,000 in December 2022.
“This is the first show of Ed’s Australia and New Zealand tour, and the single largest day event the stadium has ever held”
“This is the first show of Ed’s Australia and New Zealand tour, and the single largest day event the stadium has ever held,” says Sky Stadium chief executive Shane Harmon.
The Frontier Touring-presented gig is scheduled to go ahead despite the recent flash floods and landslides that hit the north island. The “biblical” weather saw a number of major concerts and festivals in New Zealand cancelled, including Laneway Festival and stadium shows by Elton John after Auckland declared a state of emergency.
According to Newshub, bosses at Auckland’s 50,000-cap Eden Park say they are “100% focused” on making sure the venue is “fit for purpose” for Sheeran’s 10-11 February dates after the cricket ground was submerged by heavy rain.
The tour, Sheeran’s first visit to the region since 2018, switches to Australia next month for stops at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium (17-19 February), Sydney’s Accor Stadium (24-25 February), Melbourne Cricket Ground (2-3 March), Adelaide Oval (7 March) and Perth’s Optus Stadium (12 March), before heading to the US in May. Sheeran is represented by Wasserman Music’s Marty Diamond in North America and One Fiinix Live’s Jon Ollier for the rest of the world.
Click here to read IQ‘s in-depth feature on The Mathematics Tour.
Sheeran’s previous 255 show ÷ (Divide) run from 2017-19 surpassed U2’s 360° as the highest-grossing tour ever, with a gross of US$776.2 million. It also set a new record for total attendance, at 8,796,567, according to Pollstar data.
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IQ 116, the latest issue of the international live music industry’s favourite magazine, is available to read online now, with the print edition to land on desks between Christmas and New Year.
Our January 2023 issue is headlined by a special feature on the runaway winner of IQ’s Tour of the Year – Ed Sheeran‘s remarkable Mathematics Tour – as Derek Robertson speaks to some of the dedicated army of professionals who helped the superstar hitmaker realise his artistic ambitions.
We also turn the spotlight on Billie Eilish’s production manager Nicole Massey, who becomes the first woman to collect The Gaffer Award. Massey talks to Gordon Masson about her professional path and her hopes to see more women attaining positions of power in live music.
Elsewhere, The Architects sees some of the industry’s most visionary professionals reveal their blueprints for the future of live music, and we provide an update on the various events and partners preparing for the 35th edition of the International Live Music Conference, which will be held at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel from 28 February – 3 March 2023.
As well as all that, Adam Woods travels to Spain for his latest market report, while a bumper comments section features ticketing expert Tim Chambers, who gives a different perspective on the incredible presale demand for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. In addition, James Fieldhouse gauges the desire for more merger and consolidation action in 2023 and Attitude is Everything’s Suzanne Bull urges more events to sign up to the organisation’s accessibility programme.
As always, the majority of the magazine’s content will appear online in some form in the next four weeks.
However, if you can’t wait for your fix of essential live music industry features, opinion and analysis, click here to subscribe to IQ from just £6.25 a month – or check out what you’re missing out on with the limited preview below:
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Ed Sheeran sold more concert tickets this year than any other act, according to Billboard’s end-of-year box office scores.
The English singer-songwriter, who is represented by One Fiinix Live boss Jon Ollier, sold more than three million tickets to 63 concerts on the European leg of his + – = ÷ x (Mathematics) stadium tour.
The outing was also the third highest-grossing tour of 2022, raking in US$246,287,916 (around £202m). Bad Bunny claimed the top spot, grossing $373,463,379 for 65 shows, while Elton John came in second with $334,385,023 for 84 concerts.
Of Sheeran’s 63 concerts, the five-date run at London’s Wembley Stadium in June/July charted highest on Billboard‘s Top Boxscores, coming second after Harry Styles’ 15-date run at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The Wembley shows, promoted by FKP Scorpio and Kilimanjaro Live, grossed US$37,232,300 (around £30m) from ticket sales alone and drew 420,269 attendances.
“The success of the + – = ÷ x Tour is simply unprecedented”
A further eight entries for the Mathematics tour can be found in the Top 50 Boxscores, including runs at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium, Munich’s Olympiastadion and Cardiff’s Principality Stadium.
“Superlatives are the order of the day with Ed Sheeran, but the success of this tour is and remains simply incredible,” FKP Scorpio CEO Folkert Koopmans previously told IQ. “The success of the + – = ÷ x Tour is simply unprecedented.”
While Smash!bang!pow, which promoted Sheeran’s record-breaking shows in Denmark, said the ticket sales are “beyond comparison” in Danish music history.
The Mathematics is the follow-up to Sheeran’s 255-show ÷ (Divide) run from 2017-19 which surpassed U2’s 360° as the highest-grossing tour ever, with a gross of $776.2m. It also set a new record for total attendance, at 8,796,567.
Sheeran will continue the Mathematics tour in 2023 with a trip to Australia in February and March and his first North American stadium tour in five years, next summer.
IQ will be publishing an in depth report on Sheeran’s tour in its bumper year-end issue – out shortly.
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Ed Sheeran has announced details for the North American leg of his + – = ÷ x (Mathematics) tour, visiting stadiums across the continent for the first time in five years.
The 21-date tour will kick off on 6 May at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, before wrapping up on 23 September at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Support comes from Khalid, Dylan, Rosa Linn, Cat Burns, Maisie Peters and Russ on differing dates (see below).
The tour marks Sheeran’s first return to North America since his 2018 Divide outing, which became the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.
The British singer-songwriter recently wrapped up the European leg of the Mathematics tour, in support of his album of the same name.
The 31-year-old 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.
See Sheeran’s Mathematics North American tour dates below.
MAY
06 – AT&T Stadium Arlington, Texas, US *
13 – NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas, US *
20 – Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida, US *
27 – Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia, US *
JUNE
03 – Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US *
10 – MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, US *
17 – Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ^
24 – FedExField, Landover, Maryland, US ^
JULY
01 – Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, US ^
08 – Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US ^
15 – Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan, US ^
22 – Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tennessee, US @
29 – Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois, US @
AUGUST
05 – GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri, US @
12 – U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, US @
19 – Empower Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado, US @
26 – Lumen Field, Seattle, Washington, US #
SEPTEMBER
02 – BC Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada #
09 – Allegiant Stadium Russ, Las Vegas, Nevada, US +
16 – Levi’s® Stadium, Santa Clara, California, US +
23 – SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California, US +
* = w/ Khalid and Dylan
^ = w/ Khalid and Rosa Linn
@ = w/ Khalid and Cat Burns
# = Khalid and Maisie Peters
+ = w/ Russ and Maisie Peters
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FKP Scorpio has revealed it sold just shy of 2.2 million tickets for Ed Sheeran’s + – = ÷ x European tour, which wrapped up last night at Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park stadium.
The company promoted 36 of the singer-songwriter’s 52 concerts in Europe this year in cooperation with the European offices of the Hamburg concert agency and partners,
A total of 2,167,034 digital tickets were sold across the 36-show run, which began at Dublin’s Croke Park on 23 April, with 560,000 of them for German stadium dates in Gelsenkirchen, Munich and Frankfurt.
“The success of the + – = ÷ x Tour is simply unprecedented”
“Superlatives are the order of the day with Ed Sheeran, but the success of this tour is and remains simply incredible,” says FKP Scorpio CEO Folkert Koopmans. “We already achieved a clear seven-figure ticket result on the previous tour with 1.4 million tickets sold but that was over a period of three years. The success of the + – = ÷ x Tour is simply unprecedented.
“Due to the size and number of concerts, this tour was of course an immense effort for all involved and I would like to very much thank our partners Kilimanjaro in UK and All Blues in Switzerland for the great cooperation – as well as the teams of our subsidiaries FKP UK, FKP Sverige, FKP Poland, FKP Belgium, Smash!Bang!Pow! in Denmark and Fullsteam in Finland. Ed Sheeran creates a unique live experience with his concerts for millions of people, with countless thrilling moments and we are all proud to be a part of it.”
Sheeran, whose agent is Jon Ollier of One Fiinix Live, recently set a new record for ticket sales in Denmark, shifting 160,000 tickets to four shows in the capital city.
“My personal goosebump moment on this tour was the duet with Taras from the Ukrainian band Antytila, with whom Ed performed his song 2step live in Warsaw’s PGE Narodowy stadium and then called the whole band onto the stage bathed in blue and yellow light,” adds Koopmans. “The solidarity of the Polish audience with these young men and their war-torn compatriots was simply overwhelming!”
To mark the last stop of the Lego House singer’s European tour, Koopmans had the stage of recreated from thousands of the popular bricks including hundreds of LEGO figures, and presented it to Sheeran as a gift. The + – = ÷ x Tour resumes for its scheduled final leg in Australia and New Zealand next February.
“Own Our Venues is an initiative I’m really passionate about getting behind”
Sheeran’s previous 255 show ÷ (Divide) run from 2017-19 surpassed U2’s 360° as the highest-grossing tour ever, with a gross of US$776.2 million. It also set a new record for total attendance, at 8,796,567.
The 31-year-old superstar has also thrown his weight behind the UK Music Venue Trust’s (MVT) Own Our Venues campaign to take control of the freeholds of grassroots music venue premises and bring them under a protected status of benevolent ownership.
“Own Our Venues is an initiative I’m really passionate about getting behind,” says Sheeran. “Small, independent venues are so, so important to the music community, and I’ve played some of my favourite gigs of my career in these rooms. We’ve got to do all we can to protect these beautiful venues that we’ve all come to love for years to come.”
MVT CEO Mark Davyd adds: “With the Own Our Venues project gathering steam, we are incredibly pleased to get Ed’s support for this initiative – he knows this sector incredibly well and understands how important it is.”
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Ed Sheeran’s recently announced ‘blockbuster’ tour has filled promoters with optimism about the industry’s post-pandemic recovery.
Tickets for the first leg of Sheeran’s + – = ÷ x (‘mathematics’) stadium tour went on sale last Saturday (25 September), with extra dates added due to demand.
The tour, which kicks off in April next year, will see Sheeran play shows across the UK, Ireland, Central Europe and Scandinavia.
The UK leg, which now includes five dates at London’s Wembley Stadium (cap. 90,000), will be largely be staged by Kilimanjaro and FKP Scorpio – both of which say that the demand is a positive sign for the industry’s recovery.
“We’re absolutely delighted with the ticket sales we’ve done on next year’s tour; so much so that we’ve been able to add extra shows everywhere including fourth and fifth nights at London’s Wembley Stadium,” Kilimanjaro’s Steve Tilley tells IQ.
“I know I speak on behalf of both Kilimanjaro and FKP when I say that we’re over the moon to see the strength of the market especially coming out of what’s been a terrible 18 months for the live music industry and associated ecosystem.’’
“This should provide us all with optimism that our industry can recover and even become bigger than ever”
FKP Scorpio UK’s managing director and longtime Sheeran co-promoter, Daniel Ealam, tells IQ: “We are so pleased with the sales on these shows. It not only proves the magnetism of Ed after the incredible success of the [previous] Divide Tour but also shows that blockbuster tours can still sell huge numbers, as we begin to come through the pandemic. This should provide us all with optimism that our industry can recover and even become bigger than ever.”
FKP Scorpio CEO Folkert Koopmans told Germany’s Musik Woche that he was “very satisfied” with ticket sales for ‘+ – = ÷ x’ so far.
According to Musik Woche, a few hours after the start of advance sales, FKP Scorpio had already sold more than a million tickets for the 31 European concerts it is involved with. German shows in Munich, Gelsenkirchen and Frankfurt account for 200,000 of the total.
“We are very satisfied with this result so shortly after the start of advance sales – and more than nine months before the first concert,” Koopmans told the publication.
“Of course, the expectations of a mega-star like EdSheeran are high, but especially with a view to Covid and the resulting uncertainty among concert-goers, more than a million tickets sold within a very short time are a great result and an expression of the unbridled lust of people to finally experience live music again. ”
Sheeran’s agent, Jon Ollier from One Finiix Live, told IQ that dates in Asia, Australia, America and other territories will be announced “as things roll out”. Read the full interview with Ollier here.
Extra shows have been added to the first leg of my ‘+ – = ÷ x’ tour. New UK dates on sale tomorrow at 9am, show info and ticket links at https://t.co/W2vnTwKaDv x
Repost @ teddysphotos on Instagram pic.twitter.com/5IaaaD6G5Q
— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) September 27, 2021
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