The sale of the more than 200,000 tickets put on sale to see the group Coldplay at the Estadi Olímpic next May is not only a record in itself but also reflects the extraordinary dimension of the British band.
The note with which the Live Nation promoter broke the news yesterday afternoon already synthesized it: “No artist had managed to fill four nights in a row at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium”, to add that said sale is a “historical record”.
In short: more than 200,000 fans (just over 50,000 per day) will attend the aforementioned stadium on May 24, 25, 27 and 28, 2023, as part of the Music of The Spheres Tour 2023.
Perhaps the spectacular response from the fans was to be expected, but in any case the presence of the British band at the Estadi Olímpic –where they already experienced a mass bath on May 26 and 27, 2016 on their last visit to Barcelona– has been quite a event due to the stir caused
It was originally planned that they would perform only two days at the Montjuïc venue on May 24 and 25, but seeing the dizzying pace of reservations last Wednesday, the promoter of the concert Live Nation, announced the celebration of a third on Saturday may 27th. Yesterday, Thursday, the sale of tickets began at 10 a.m. on the two official websites and the avalanche of requests was such – giving rise to a queue of petitioners that easily exceeded half a million – that the organization decided to announce a fourth date for Sunday 28.
Around 4:00 p.m., they reported that practically all the tickets had already been sold. A few hours before, Live Nation said it clearly: “Never before has there been a demand like the one that has been experienced in recent days to be able to see the British band in Barcelona.
As was said at the beginning, this milestone confirms in a big way that the combo led by Chris Martin is at its peak of popularity. In fact, since the band began the planetary tour in Costa Rica in March 2022, it has sold more than four million tickets in America and Europe, before the Barcelona figures.
In Buenos Aires, for example, in June they already announced that they will offer ten concerts at the Buenos Aires River Plate stadium in November. And in all their stops of the aforementioned tour they have been initialed so far with tremendous success.
The president of Live Nation Spain, Pino Saglioco, is not surprised by the size of the Coldplay whirlwind. “We expected a response of this kind from the fans. Because what happens is not only in Spain but everywhere. The Coldplay phenomenon is worldwide because it is a group that at a time like this has empathized a lot with people, a group that transmits a will to live, enthusiasm, joy, positivism and wanting to celebrate life with music. And the truth is that there are few groups currently that offer this. The commotion that we have seen here in recent days will be seen throughout the world.”
Saglioco insists that this reaction from the fans was expected when he acknowledges that the extension of the Barcelona dates was very predictable. "All things are scheduled and you can't improvise." But even so, a few hours before the announcement of the sold-out Coldplay of the four dates, he reflected that “if all the capacity is filled, it is something that will never have been achieved in Spain. The closest thing to this is the Rolling Stones with the Urban Jungle tour in 1990 when I did two Olympic Stadiums and two Vicente Calderón in Madrid: it was a sold out of the four dates in a single day”.
The performance of the British group will coincide in the spring of next year with those of two other glorious names such as Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, placing Barcelona at the center of the international circuit of great figures.
Two figures well known by the local fan, whom he attracts – especially the former – to the stage in equally spectacular proportions. The presence of both occurs in a relatively short period of time together with that of Coldplay: on April 28 and 30, Springsteen will make the stage of the Estadi Olímpic his own, while John will do the same on May 22 and 23 at the Palau Sant Jordi , on his farewell tour of the stages.
The issue of the calendar is remarkable, because the performances of the latter (which are also sold out, since they had to come in 2020) and those of Coldplay practically coincide with the start of the Primavera Sound festival (June 1-3) . This can be an added reason to attract fans, and foreigners in particular.
The other presence that conspicuously puts Barcelona on the big tour map is that of the Boss. On his two nights at the Estadi Olímpic, he will also be accompanied by his eternal E Street Band, and they will offer the first two concerts of the European segment of their tour.
As Neo Sala, head of the organizing promoter Doctor Music, explains, "we would have liked him to perform in Madrid and Barcelona, but they told us that only one city and as in this particular case given that he has a very strong historical relationship with Barcelona. We ended up deciding on this one.”
The follower's response was forceful: “Some 110,000 tickets were sold in just four hours. And the truth is that I thought it would take a couple of days to sell them all. At the time it was a record, but above all, people have a good time”.
