Adele in Munich was the second concert residency by English singer Adele, held in a purpose-built outdoor arena at Munich Messe in Munich, Germany. The ten-date residency, consisting of two performances per week, began on 2 August 2024 and ended on 31 August 2024. She performed 20 songs at the Adele Arena in front of a total audience of more than 730,000.
Concert promoters Klaus Leutgeb and Marek Lieberberg encouraged Adele to perform in Europe in a temporary venue designed by Florian Wieder. The stage production was set up within the largest temporary capacity ever constructed for an arena and stadium. It was surrounded by a catering and attraction area named Adele World, which included additional stages for opening acts, Late Night Karaoke, and a display of personal memorabilia.
Adele in Munich set a world record for the largest temporary outdoor LED video screen, which measured 220metres long and cost 40millioneuros. The Munich performances achieved the highest attendance of any concert residency outside of Las Vegas over ten consecutive dates. It also broke the Billboard Boxscore attendance record for a concert engagement. The residency set the record for the largest total attendance at Munich Messe. Audience spending brought in more than half a billion euros for the city. These were Adele's only concerts in Europe for 2024.
Background
Adele's Live 2016, the tour supporting her successful third album 25, traversed multiple continents.[1][2][3] During the tour, records for ticket sales and attendance were broken. 600,000tickets were sold for eight concerts in Australia, and she performed to a record 200,000people over two nights at Sydney's ANZ Stadium.[4][5] On 28 June 2017, Adele expressed her uncertainty about future tours in a handwritten note in the programs for her concert series at London's Wembley Stadium. She had decided to bring her world tour to a close in her hometown.[6] Adele set the Wembley Stadium attendance record with 98,000people.[7] It was "a stadium record for a UK music event", wrote BBC News.[8] Due to issues with her vocal cords, the last two nights at Wembley Stadium were cancelled after 121 concerts performed for this album cycle.[2][9]
In April 2019, Adele's representatives announced her separation from her husband, Simon Konecki,[10] a former "power player" at Lehman Brothers turned charity entrepreneur.[11] She filed a divorce petition in September of that year in Los Angeles Superior Court.[12]
Adele in 2021
During her several-year hiatus, Adele reappeared in October 2020 by hosting the American comedy show Saturday Night Live. She made light-hearted comments about her recent weight loss and updated her fans on the production process status for her new album.[13] In the episode, she played a contestant in a Bachelor-themed parody sketch, singing excerpts from her songs.[14]
Adele's fourth album, the first in six years, 30, was released on 19 November 2021. The album, which thematically centred on the collapse of her marriage, was created in the aftermath of her divorce and served as a means of explaining this phase of her life to her son. 30 was "self-destruction", said Adele, "then self-reflection and then sort of self-redemption."[18] She performed at the London Palladium for her ITV special An Audience with Adele before "a celebrity-heavy crowd".[a][19]Music critics acclaimed the album. On 30 November, she announced Weekends with Adele, a concert residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, scheduled to run from 21 January to 16 April 2022. 30 became the best-selling album of 2021.[20]
On 20 January 2022, Adele tearfully said on her Instagram account that she postponed her entire Las Vegas residency.[21] The sudden postponement was controversial; she justified it by citing "delivery delays and COVID" and later added that her "artistic needs" were "not being met". Weekends with Adele would eventually launch later that year.[22] Adele had been absent from Continental European concert stages since 2016 and had not planned to return. However, concert promotersKlaus Leutgeb and Marek Lieberberg would challenge her.[23]
Development
It originated when Leutgeb, driven by an idea but without an execution strategy, approached Lucy Dickins,[24] Adele's agent and global head of contemporary music and touring at William Morris Endeavor (WME).[25][26] He made a series of propositions for Adele to come and perform on an "open-air site" in Germany, but nothing concrete came to fruition.[27]Leutgeb, an Austrian, called on his "friend and mentor" Lieberberg for the "production". Süddeutsche Zeitung's Michael Zirnstein commented that Lieberberg has been "one of the most seasoned" organisers.[28]Lieberberg would help Leutgeb for the promotion as well.[24] Adele's two sold-out performances at Hyde Park, London, in July 2022 and the Las Vegas residency were intended to be her only live appearances following the release of 30.[29]
Improvements to Leutgeb's propositions were thereafter made, accompanied by the recommendation of a purpose-built stadium, illustrated by a sketch from Florian Wieder,[27] a production designer.[30] The upgraded offer was submitted to Dickins in 2023, and she examined it. "I knew questions would be asked, like, why Germany? Why Munich?" she recollected afterwards. The Oktoberfest held in Munich was decisive, as was her evaluation of the urban infrastructure system supporting this event in a city geographically located in the heart of Central Europe. Persuaded, she presented the concept to her brother Jonathan, Adele's manager, who expressed interest in the project and would become "centrally" involved in the undertaking as with the Las Vegas residency.[27] Jonathan Dickins has been Adele's manager since 2006.[31]
Wieder valorised the infrastructure of the Messe München (lit.'Munich Trade Fair') exhibition centre in conversation with Adele in the United States. Nevertheless, she asked him about their selection of Munich, and he argued that the city functions effectively during significant events and even in the case of high-density crowds, using Oktoberfest as an illustration. She found these arguments "madly convincing", said Wieder.[32]Messe München, known to English speakers as "Munich Messe",[33] is located in Messestadt Riem.[34] Adele accepted the offer after seeing Wieder's designs for an impermanent stadium. Lieberberg admitted they had to "overcome a lot of hurdles and put a great deal of work into convincing her".[23] She deemed the project "fabulous", however.[28]Leutgeb later recalled visiting Adele in America in August 2023 and telling her, "You are the Queen of Music, we will build you your own stadium". Adele responded, "Let's do it!"[35]
Matt Askem, Adele's creative director since 2016, worked closely with her; thus, the project's progress accelerated in the autumn of 2023.[27] The appraisals highlighted the project's value, which would require a significant financial investment. Live Nation then joined the project. It materialised thanks to the support of Live Nation's chief executive officer (CEO), Michael Rapino, and vice president (VP) of touring, Omar Al-joulani.[27] A senior source in the British music industry said, "somebody's put a lot of money on the table. Not only have they got Adele, but they have her as a European exclusive".[23]
Meanwhile, Clemens Baumgärtner, head of Munich's council Department of Labour and Economy and director of Oktoberfest,[36] had to conduct "countless conversations" and carry out "enormous" trust-building work at the exhibition centre for a year and a half in advance because the concerts of Andreas Gabalier, Helene Fischer, and Robbie Williams, which Leutgeb organised on the fairgrounds, received "negative feedback" during the summer of 2022.[37] Although there were positive responses, Munich Messe's suitability as a concert spot remained questionable due to the ground being strewn with stones of different sizes.[38] The efficacy of the "traffic concept" was also questioned.[39] The security environment was complicated at the German edition of Rolling Loud 2023, which also took place at Munich Messe and was organised by Live Nation GmbH and Leutgeb Entertainment Group, as aggressive individuals used these stones as projectiles.[38] Improvements had nevertheless been made to Rolling Loud's organisational strategy.[39] The exhibition centre's chief executives only learned belatedly that the request concerned Adele.[40]
The pivotal moment occurred shortly after Christmas 2023.[41] The Adele project was formally adopted, and members of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), a party on the Munich City Council, jubilantly praised their colleague Baumgärtner. Ralf Niemczyk of Rolling Stone Germany later wrote: "Various bureaucratic hurdles would have been cleared aside with a sense of proportion." Niemczyk commented that this political reaction denoted a "trend in the global live business", as Adele is part of the slogan "1%artists", comprising those who are capable of generating "mega-sales" during their tours and having a considerable economic impact on the cities that host them, through concert series in the same place.[37]
In January 2024, Jack Malvern and Oliver Moody of The Times said the custom-built venue on a vast outdoor space at the exhibition centre would be the "world's largest pop-up stadium" and greatly exceed the 44,000-capacity temporary stadium built for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. At this stage, Leutgeb and Lieberberg have been "courting" Adele for two years.[23] On 31 January, the media announced that the event would be a concert residency at Munich's "bespoke" stadium. That day, she shared a promotional poster titled "Adele in Munich" on her Instagram account.[42] Soon after, the press issued two stadium images showing several "Adele" in bright capital letters around the perimeter of the exterior façade. Rolling Stone Germany journalists found the stadium's layout reminiscent of a one-handed clock from an aerial perspective.[43] This music venue was subsequently known as the "Adele Arena".[44][45] Looking back on the two years spent developing the project, Leutgeb commented in February, "I had a vision that drove me forward".[46]
Before performing in Munich, she had to complete a leg of Weekends with Adele, which ended on 15 June.[47] Although Munich's Olympiastadion can accommodate 70,000 people, it had never been requested to host Adele concerts. Due to the Olympiastadion's ongoing renovation work, which would be interrupted by construction phases, the concerts would only take place in limited time slots. A spokesperson for the Olympiapark said that ten Adele concerts in a one-month window were not feasible. Another element that made using the Olympiastadion unlikely was the exclusive contract of Leutgeb's Global Event and Entertainment GmbH, which gave it priority for organising concerts on the Munich Messe fairgrounds. According to a spokesperson for the Messe München GmbH, it was valid for July and August.[48]
A press conference was held on 16 July 2024 in hall C6 of Munich Messe, during which the media received information and visuals about the venue's layout.[49][50] Adele was not present. Leutgeb commented that the idea had germinated two and a half years earlier while sitting next to Wieder in Munich. Jonathan Dickins said it would be "the total opposite of the very small shows in Las Vegas". The media event unveiled "Adele World",[49] a temporary hospitality area built surrounding the stadium.[51]Lieberberg described Adele in Munich as "the most extensive project in my 50 years in the music business".[50] Past concert experiences on the exhibition grounds discussed at the press conference prompted Augsburger Allgemeine's Felicitas Lachmayr to say, "And now?"[39]
Leutgeb Entertainment Group promoted the concert residency with Live Nation Concerts Germany,[52] led by Lieberberg, who serves as CEO.[53] Adele had no further appearances planned in Europe except for her performances in Munich.[54] She stayed in Germany in July 2024 before beginning her summer concert series.[55][56] Adele resided in Munich with her son until the end of August, a context that suited her,[49] and rented a 451 square metres (4,850sqft) floor of the luxury Rosewood Munich, the former Bavarian State Bank, for €30,000 (equivalent to US$33,000 in mid-2024) per night.[57][58]
After Adele's first Messe stage appearance, Lieberberg commented, "The whole planning has been going on for over a year now", and "4,000people have worked with us" on the project.[59] Having brought the original idea to fruition, Lieberberg called the enterprise "Adelepolis", which he said was made up of meetings, determination, exploration, and inspiration.[60]
Conception and creation
Wieder designed both the stadium and Adele World.[60][61] The entire venue he designed was open-air for audiences.[62] Unlike Wieder's other works, the stadium design was perfected based on the "needs of a single artist". "That's a statement!" Wieder said.[49] Adele's primary concern was that the construction should be in an amphitheatre style.[35]Wieder consulted with Adele, Jonathan and Lucy Dickins for Adele World's design.[24]
Stufish Entertainment Architects,[63] Adele's long-standing collaborative firm,[64] was commissioned to design the stage in the autumn of 2023.[b][27] Stufish developed the stage and LED video screen concepts.[66] Ray Winkler, CEO and design director of Stufish,[60] and his team met briefly with Adele on 23 October 2023, when "lots of sketches and lots of ideas were circulating". When discussing the screen's design, the Stufish team anchored the concept of a "big scroll", and Winkler insisted that it should embody the idea of "the embrace", applied both "metaphorically" and "practically".[27]
ROE Visual built the LED video screen.[67][68] The screen was conceived with ROEVisualCarbon5MarkII panels configured in a concave and convex manner. The Carbon5's contextually beneficial features were its lightweight design, efficient heat dissipation, and 6,000-nit brightness.[67] Solotech,[c] a Quebec-based company Adele chose to manage the video technology for Weekends with Adele,[69] worked on the Munich residency project.[67] The video screen left China to arrive at Twenty Three, a Belgian company specialising in LED framing, which manufactured the screens' surrounds.[70] Brompton Technology, a manufacturer of LED processors,[71] worked in close collaboration with Solotech on the video screen project from origination to planned on-site installation.[72] The screen was powered by Brompton's LED video processing technology, 26TesseraSX40, and over 100TesseraXD10Gdata distribution units.[67][72] The LED screen comprised 6,200ROEvideotiles, each calibrated using Hydra, Brompton's measurement system.[d][73] Brompton's Adam Callaway said Adele's Las Vegas residency served as the basis for "rigorous testing and validating workflows" in conjunction with testing in the United Kingdom.[72] Solotech supplied the video screen.[67][74] The cost of creating the LED video screen was €40million (equivalent to $44,160,000 in mid-2024).[50][63] Winkler later stated that creating the video screen was not an intentional quest for the world's largest. The goal differed because the screen's "curvaceous form" enabled Adele to obtain the "embrace" aspect and the proximity she wanted with her audience.[60] Deborah Cole of The Guardian later described the video screen as resembling "a very long roll of analogue film",[63] with its wavy design ensuring optimal visibility for people in the stadium's back rows.[39]
Cohesion between several industry companies involved was necessary, firstly with Solotech, to engineer a hanging bracket capable of supporting 250tons of video panels, lighting units, and rigging.[67]
Live footage combined with visual effects displayed on the LED video screen
Askem was in charge of the conception of all video footage displayed on the LED video screen specifically for the Munich residency, and Treatment Studio produced this creation.[60] This was the largest screen he had worked with; "It's big so that you feel that sense of intimacy", he commented. Askem found it challenging to combine pre-shot segments, the "general imagery", with live footage appearing on the screen's "continuous surface". In contrast, both visual renderings are transposed onto several smaller screens in other shows. Still, the video screen made "a great canvas to play on", he said. Adele advocated for four songs not to be filmed live, an option Askem had not previously prepared for. He developed different scenarios to achieve the visuals and filmed Adele on six distinct days in Los Angeles. A scenario contained her performance in a studio under many rain curtains and with grated floors. The visuals for "Love in the Dark", "Send My Love", "Skyfall" and "Water Under the Bridge" included content from these video shoots.[27] Treatment Studio provided archival footage from Adele's personal life for the video content, and Noah Campeau oversaw the creative direction.[70]
Nicolai Sabottka, managing director of FFP Spezialeffekte und Veranstaltungslogistik (lit.'Special Effects and Event Logistics'), a special effects company chosen for the pyrotechnics, recognised that their flames within the Adele Arena "would look as piffling as a box of indoor fireworks". To match the venue's dimensions, they created a new flame system producing flames reaching 35 metres (115ft) in height.[45]
Cory FitzGerald and Raphael Demonthy were the lighting designers for the concerts and Adele World, respectively.[60] FitzGerald said providing adequate lighting coverage of the vast performance space was a "primary challenge" while he contemplated creating the appropriate ambience. Adele's placements onstage could not be known in advance, which concerned him.[75]
Audio system engineer Johnny Keirle,[60] responsible for the audio setup throughout Weekends with Adele, was assigned to the German residency.[76] From "an audio perspective", according to Keirle, everything was "tailored specifically" to the German residency while "targeting unique design criteria... specific to both the venue and the creative/performance requirements".[60] Keirle studied in detail trends in Munich's atmospheric conditions and modelled "extreme potential" weather variations using the Soundvision and Network Manager programs to prepare for and electronically manage any meteorological disturbances on-site. The audio team and Britannia Row [Productions] collaborated to "custom-engineer and manufacture wind bracing solutions" to limit wind-induced stress on each "PA hang" in the venue. The creative team requested work on the audio system around the LED screen trim, which became a "key challenge" due to its height and thus influenced an unconventional design.[76]
Planning and ticketing
Stage as viewed from the standing area in zone 1, Fos 2 rechts (right) ticket
On 31 January 2024, Adele was announced to perform four shows on 2, 3, 9, and 10 August.[77] She added four shows on 2 February, scheduled for 14, 16, 23, and 24 August.[78] Registrations for a presale were possible on the Adele website until 5 February.[79] At this point, 2.2million people had registered on her website for ticket presales.[80][81] On 6 February, due to "unprecedented demand", two final dates, 30 and 31 August, were added to the run of shows.[82] The concert residency was scheduled to take place twice weekly throughout the month.[52]
Presales began on 7 February on Ticketmaster and staggered in different phases.[83] The general sale began via Live Nation and Eventim on 9 February. Ticket prices were only revealed during the sale; no price range had been provided beforehand.[79] People were faced with standard tickets ranging in price from €74.90 to €689 (equivalent to $83 and $760 in mid-2024).[84] VIP packages ranged in price from €488 to €1,252 (equivalent to $543 and $1,392 in mid-2024).[85] The cheapest price categories sold out instantly.[81] Ninety-five percent of tickets had been sold by mid-July. Then, Ticketmaster sold limited quantities of Lucky Dip tickets at €35 (equivalent to $39 in mid-2024) every Monday morning, but buyers did not know their places until they arrived at the stadium. Tickets were usually sold out within half an hour. Some devotees stated that the "bargain-basement prices" were "unfair" given the amounts they paid at the beginning of the sale, although the Rolling Stones had previously used this method of Lucky Dip tickets.[63]
Construction and production
Paul English, Adele's veteran production manager,[27] began investing himself in the project in January 2024.[41]
Sebastian Pichel, the Adele Arena production manager, said two electrical transformer booths in this outdoor area of the exhibition centre caused problems due to their placement and could not be technically dismantled. Pichel then decided to rotate the stadium 180° before commencing its construction. Other existing transformer stations, light poles and loudspeakers were dismantled. A specialist used a detection dog to search for possible unexploded ordnance (UXO), as a former airport located in the area had been bombed during wartime. The discovery of UXO would interrupt ongoing work.[86]
Construction work commenced in May, would last twelve weeks, and employed a team of 1,000workers. The initial phase involved deep excavation to install a specific stage element.[86] Malcolm Birkett, technical designer and Weekends with Adele team member, commented that the vast hole dug was intended for "the lifts", where the B-stage would be situated.[27] The B-stage hole was dug to a depth of 4 metres (13ft) and was then "tanked".[41] A network of tunnels was also created. The space already had an infrastructure network, including electric power, optical fibre, water supply, and waste pipes.[27] The organisers poured 75,000 square metres (810,000sqft) of water-permeableasphalt in front of where the stage would be positioned to ensure spectators' comfort in the event of rain.[48][87]
English said a fleet of 500 to 600 trucks had been required. The team began to load materials in June. 250 trucks were used to transport the seating system and less than 100 for production equipment.[41] According to English, the staging involved 60trucks containing black-coloured steel, and the load-in was possible with 350crew members and 200 on concert days. Other structures and scenic materials required were 3 kilometres (1.9mi) of trussing and 1.3 kilometres (0.81mi) of LEDstage lighting.[27] English arrived on site on 28 June.[67] Rigging and lighting supplier Neg Earth sent 412motors with varying lifting capacities and 52-metre (171ft) long cables to the site.[88] The LED video screen was transported to Messe to be connected to the black steel.[73]
Stageco arrived on 1 July and began their construction, including the black steel sub-structure.[67] The beginning of July marked the initiation of the stage construction process. Live Nation and Leutgeb Entertainment Group were responsible for the Aufbau (lit.'structure').[89] A construction team of 700 people assembled the stage.[50] 570 individual truss sections were put together.[73]
Adele Arena's stage production, viewed from the lower level of the stands
The LED video screen was integrated into the 4,000 square metres (43,000sqft) stage structure.[50] Callaway said Brompton Technology partnered with Solotech on-site for three days to ensure trouble-free implementation of the task sequences required for the 4K Tessera SX40 LED processors.[72] In July, the LED video screen was described as measuring 220 metres (721ft 9in) wide and 30 metres (98ft 5in) high, and organisers predicted it would be the largest screen of all time used for a stage show.[50][63] In a technical retrospective with team members, David Barbour of Lighting & Sound America wrote that the screen was 19 metres (62ft 4in) high, and Katrin Nussmayr of Die Presse gave it as 17 metres (55ft 9in). However, its width of 220metres remained consistent.[41][51] The stage was directly next to the autobahn[A 94] (highway), but it guaranteed complete noise isolation by creating a physical barrier.[49][63]
Adele expressed her enthusiasm when she visited the stadium construction in mid-July, stating on her Instagram account, "It's all a bit bloody exciting",[89] as significant progress was made in assembling the stage and part of the stands. After an initial visit to the construction site, as part of the press conference, Lachmayr wrote, "The dimensions of the project are gigantic". Jonathan Dickins said Adele "has brought a lot of ideas, the site carries her DNA" and emphasised that one of her most important concerns would be creating a "'cosy' atmosphere". Given the sizeable daily attendance expected, Lachmayr thought this was difficult to conceive.[39] Keirle said the deepest and widest points of the stadium were 200 metres (656ft) deep and 400 metres (1,312ft) wide.[76]
The main stage was coupled to a 93-metre (305ft) "catwalk" and a 200-metre (660ft) semi-circle stage, a "walkway", allowing Adele to get closer to the audience.[62][63] Illuminated and situated at the intersection of the "passerelle" (walkway) and the catwalk, the B-stage allowed Adele to be lifted into the air in the middle of the arena.[90] The configuration of the performance space facilitated Adele's transfer to the B-stage for her performance and then to walk along the peripheral passerelle before returning to the main stage within her usual environment with her musicians. Although the Adele Arena was larger than The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, the dimensions within the proscenium were identical.[60]
A pyrotechnics system supplied by FFP Spezialeffekte was incorporated into the circular passerelle. English later noted: "We had more pyro than Rammstein."[67] The passerelle was equipped with EvolutionPyrotechnics1S25 silver jets, necessitating a consumption of 540units for each concert. Other categories used at each performance included 1,000EvolutionPyrotechnics comets, mines, multishots, aerial shells for the "grand finale", and a range of special effects.[91] Each concert involved the use of approximately one ton of confetti.[92]
A RobeiFORTELTX, a "key lighting unit", was installed on the floor surrounding the main stage. The LTX lighting fixtures were also in the tower layouts, serving as followspots, and the Zactrack automated tracking system would supplement it if additional crucial lights were required, depending on Adele's locations onstage. The onstage units were composed of Dominoes. All other lighting fixtures on the floor in front of the stage and within the Adele Arena were LTX units.[93] The rehearsals determined Adele's placement onstage. The lighting team approached the overall look of the entire stage composition by seeking "to connect with the same type of audience intimacy" as in Las Vegas despite a different context regarding the extent and number of participants.[75] FitzGerald said the extensive lighting production was fully IP-rated, as the outdoor environment presented challenges due to unpredictable weather conditions.[94]
To achieve the desired sound quality, Keirle requested more audio delay towers at Munich, as they are typically deployed in fewer quantities in a setup the size of Adele Arena. Fourteen delay towers were deployed in the stadium, including eight traditional large delay towers and six custom-made mini "lamppost" towers. All were equipped with L-Acoustics speakers, which he said were of the "finest" quality the brand could provide.[60] Each of the fourteen positions featured two L-Acoustics elements, one L2 and one L2D, while the eight traditional delay towers were equipped with three additional KS21 subwoofers. Behind the L2, the eight KS21 suspension systems were arranged in a cardioid configuration to "increase low-frequency resource" and provide "improved directivity control".[76] These audio delay towers did not obstruct the LED screen. Keirle said that the discreet design of the custom mini-lamppost delay towers was necessary to maintain a correct line of sight, resulting in minimal seat loss. He designed the delay systems. Each was powered by a single amplifier placed under the delay platform to achieve a "clean and tidy footprint".[60] Above the LED video screen, the main hangs of L-Acoustics K1SB and K1 loudspeakers were positioned, separated from adjacent K2 hangs.[76] The audio team implemented a traditional left–right—dual mono system, which differed from the immersive [L-Acoustics] L-ISA system used in Las Vegas.[92]Clair Global provided sound gear and positioned a control package similar to the Las Vegas configuration.[95]
Lieberberg highlighted the stadium's appearance, which was entirely black and devoid of any advertising, adding, "just with Adele signage".[96] The Adele Arena was divided into eleven zones, totalling eighty-five blocks,[49] and had a 600-metre (2,000ft) long backstage area.[92] The site had three main entrances, facilitating seamless arrivals and departures.[50] The event's area covered 400,000 square metres (4,300,000sqft), equivalent to 60football pitches.[50][63]
In August 2024, Robert Levine of Billboard reported that production had cost more than $100million, including construction costs.[52]Guinness World Records certified the video screen as "the Largest Continuous Outdoor LED Screen (temporary) ever built" when the residency concluded.[74][97] Their data indicated that the screen area was 4,159.7 square metres (44,775sqft).[98][99][100]Jan Stremmel of Süddeutsche Zeitung described the Adele Arena as "a temporary stadium, larger than almost any other in Germany".[101]Billboard's Gil Kaufman wrote that it was "the largest temporary arena ever built".[102]
Lieberberg said Adele World was "one of the three supporting pillars" of the event, alongside the Adele Arena and the concert itself. Its doors opened at 3:30pm and closed at midnight.[49] The outdoor environment included an I Drink Wine bar, a Ferris wheel, a swing carousel, a beer garden, and multiple food and beverage options. Münchner Merkur's Katja Kraft described the presentation of Adele World as being of "high quality". Every detail was adapted to Adele's songs, such as the employees' polo shirts emblazoned with the "Hello. How can I help?" logo.[104] The 70,000 square metres (750,000sqft) of Adele World was a "gastronomy city" and an "experience area" with 13,000 to 14,000 seats.[50][87]
Adele World also housed a reproduction of a British pub. The English press initially indicated it would be a replica of The Good Ship pub in Kilburn, London, where "some of her earliest gigs" occurred.[62] Despite what was reported in the press, the replica of this pub was not found on opening day. Instead, it was a replica of the Duke of Wellington pub in West London, where Adele signed her first recording contract.[51] The Aperol Spritz, one of Adele's "favourite drinks", was abundantly served. Typical fast food dishes were unavailable, but consumers were offered, for instance, truffle pasta.[105] The German confectionery manufacturer Haribo created Adele's own custom packs of gummies, which were sold on-site and bore the inscriptions "For Someone Like You" and "Haribo Loves Adele".[106]
Among the memorabilia on display was a telephone booth similar to the one in the "Hello" music video.[107]Nussmayr likened Adele World to a German Volksfest, incorporating quintessentially British elements such as the [red] telephone box. Artificial turf zones were also laid out,[51] and a brass band played. While a queue of approximately 200 metres (660ft) in length formed to access the main merchandise tent,[108] performers were observed walking through the area on stilts.[100] An additional stage was made available to perform covers of Adele's songs, and organisers stated that Adele World, open before and after the concerts, aimed to offer audiences an "immersive experience".[39] The Spice Girls Experience, a tribute act to the Spice Girls, preceded DJ Mad's set on the Adele World stage.[104][109] German Florian Zimmer's magic acts could also be seen.[110] After each concert, the Late Night Karaoke began,[111] during which people were encouraged to perform covers of "classic pop songs". Maggie Rogers unexpectedly appeared on the karaoke stage on 16 August.[112]
A 3 by 2.5 metres (9.8ft ×8.2ft) portrait of Adele was painted in Adele World by a trio of German graffiti artists: Markus Henning, Melander Holzapfel, and Nils Jänisch. Adele's management commissioned Henning to work after noticing an empty storage container wall and decided to spruce it up during the final inspection before the start of the first concert. The essential elements of the theme to be painted on the wall were predetermined: a portrait of Adele smiling on a black background, with planets and the phrase "Guten Tag, Babes!" (lit.'Good afternoon, babes!'). People queued up to have their photos taken in front of the wall, which was "a real selfie spot" and a common practice at every concert date.[e] Television and newspapers reported on the painting of the façade.[113]René Hofmann of Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote that Adele World was a "theme park".[114]
The VIP ticket hospitality area was in hall C6 of Messe,[49] where three-star German chefChristian Jürgens provided culinary services for up to 1,000guests.[87]
Adele created her weekly "phony gossip" newspaper, The Saturn Times, for the Munich residency. In issue two, Adele warned attendees not to stand on their chairs for safety reasons and to avoid spoiling the moment for those sitting behind them.[97]
Reception
Critical response
Critics generally published laudatory reviews, with some offering contrasting perspectives. Arnaud Robert of Le Temps characterised the residency by saying, "the popstar delivered a show where excessiveness rubs shoulders with shared intimacy".[117]Nussmayr praised Adele's performance, saying she "switches vocally, once started, no more gear down". She described the images of Adele on the LED video screen as "pin-sharp".Nussmayr said that the producers might have sometimes forgotten the screen's role as the primary means for most fans to see Adele and that more live shots would have been preferable to pre-recorded videos for certain songs.[51]Matthias Alexander of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described an "atmosphere" that was both "relaxed" and "friendly". He made no observations concerning the music, acknowledging, "and this is meant positively". He lauded Adele for being "vocally in shape" with "soul and a bit of blues" in her singing style and noted that "she doesn't exaggerate it with virtuosity as an end in itself". Alexander praised the organisers for having "actually managed an astonishing achievement". Despite difficulties at the residency's launch, he deemed the sound "excellent" for an arena of this size in which a correct volume was conveyed.[118]
GQ Germany's Daniel Bilinski thought that this venue's presence "reached a whole new sphere" in the "obsession with stars" and offered an "experience" distinct from concerts limited to conventional passive listening only.[105]Rabea Weihser of Die Zeit found a weakness in the "technically perfect staging" when Adele appeared "small" to the naked eye, standing on the semi-circle stage even though helped by the imposing video production counteracting this visual effect. She felt that "In its gigantism, the show can neither reflect the magic of Adele's music nor her person". From the theme park to the final fireworks display, "everything runs perfectly", she said before concluding, "Adele in Munich has become the unprecedented giant show it was planned to be."[119]Salomé Hénon-Cohin of Le Figaro described the residency as "ten American-style shows where the artist becomes one with her audience".[120] Levine wrote that Adele "brought Vegas-style spectacle with her" and that the "scale of the show is absurd". He was initially sceptical about the limited view from the Adele Arena's upper tiers; still, he stated that for this reason, it was a common occurrence to look at screens at concerts and added that the "Munich production just made a virtue of it".[44]
Box office
At the launch of the concert residency, the "engagement" was already expected to break Coldplay's previous Billboard Boxscore "attendance record for a concert engagement", with 627,000 people attracted to ten concerts in Buenos Aires in 2022.[52] According to Live Nation, in early September 2024, Adele's Munich residency "registered the highest attendance of any concert residency outside Las Vegas" for ten consecutive nights.[74][98] According to the organisers, more than 730,000 tickets were sold.[98][102][121]
In 2024, Adele in Munich's gross revenue had not been transmitted to the media.[60][52]Peter Ackermann of Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote, among other figures, that Adele earned about $50million for her ten performances in Munich.[122]
Post-show. Activities in Adele World continue overnight
The initial target per concert was 80,000 people, but Munich authorities only permitted approximately 74,000[49] due to safety requirements.[124]Bavarian State Police's Polizeipräsidium München (Munich Police Presidium) also warned that "traffic chaos" was feared.[125]Bilinski compared the initial estimated 800,000 total attendees to Frankfurt am Main, Germany's fifth-largest city, which has a population of 775,000.[105] Jonathan Dickins stated that the concerts would occur in all weathers: "If the fans get wet, Adele will get wet too and keep playing." An emergency plan was prepared to evacuate people to the exhibition halls in the event of violent storms.[39] A meteorologist from the Deutscher Wetterdienst (German Weather Service) was on site to monitor the evolution of the weather at each concert.[126][127]
More than 100 emergency personnel, along with the Johanniter, were on site to provide support in the event of emergencies or minor incidents.[127] Three first aid stations were ready on site. The fire department sent 25 employees, and the organisers registered 1000 security agents with the Munich authorities.[87] The police had deployed "significantly more than a hundred" Beamte (civil servants), platoons of Einsatzhundertschaft[f] and a squadron of the Reiterstaffel (mounted police). Attendees could access the site by walking on Paul-Henri-Spaak-Straße, the abutting street partially closed on both sides. As a safety measure, police patrols monitored the hill at De Gasperi-Bogen, where people without tickets tried to watch the concerts, and areas near the highway that were "viewed critically".[129]
Leutgeb said preparations had been made to enable public transportation to serve all concert participants effectively. The U-Bahn frequency was increased on concert days.[39] The Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (Munich Transport Company) maximized its operational capacity for the event.[130] Before the first concert, people were greeted by Adele's pre-recorded voice broadcast on a loop throughout Friday at all U-Bahn stations. Adele could be heard over the speakers saying, "Grüß Gott, welcome to the Munich subway, I'm Adele" (Grüß Gott: lit.'Greetings, God's greeting').[131] The organisers wanted to regulate the flow of departures by letting attendees "keep partying" on the site [Adele World] until midnight.[g][130] The Messestadt Ost station had to be closed several times for a few minutes due to the overcrowding on the U2 line immediately after the concert on 2 August, despite Adele World's late opening.[131]Shuttle buses were made available to reach the exhibition centre from Max-Weber-Platz station,[127] transporting 20,000 passengers in the evening. The Munich municipal council's Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) considered this was "apparently too little".[130] 5000 parking spaces were also provided.[131]
Impact
The City of Munich did not contribute financially to the total cost of Adele's residency.[133] At the beginning of February 2024, Munich expected 500,000 overnight stays on both sides of the Isar river, which would increase "significantly" due to additional upcoming concerts.[134]Lufthansa passengers who had to change flights from Munich to Chicago and Los Angeles were left to their own devices and confronted with the unavailability of accommodation in the city when a "technical irregularity" and "operational reasons" prevented the takeoff of two A380-type aircraft. A Lufthansa spokeswoman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) on 4 August that all hotels in Munich were fully booked due to Adele's concerts.[135] The convergence of Europeans to Munich engendered an "image boost" for the city because its name was mentioned "much more often".[58]Baumgärtner described Adele's residency as an "economic godsend" for Munich.[49]
Adele's concert residency attracted people from many different countries and continents.[h][132]Baumgärtner gave Karin Truscheit of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung only a vague estimate of the proportion of people coming from abroad for all ten concerts, "probably" 40to70%. Thomas Geppert, the state managing director of the Bavarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA Bayern), said that many foreigners, including those from the United States, took the opportunity to spend their vacations in Bavaria when they attended Adele's concerts. Geppert drew a correlation between the participants' geographic location and the performance of the Munich hospitality industry. He further noted that the greater the distance between the participants from Munich, the more hotels and restaurants were positively affected. On average, an overnight stay in the city on the day of an Adele concert was 255 euros.[136] Most residency participants stayed two or three nights. Munich set its hotel record in August 2024 with 2.1million overnight stays.[122]
Munich Messe chief executive Stefan Rummel emphasised the international attention to the exhibition centre, which helped contribute to the visibility of its events on a global stage. According to Rummel, the concert residency set a total attendance record at Munich Messe. The previous record occurred in 2019 during the seven-day Bauma, the international construction machinery trade fair, which attracted 610,000visitors. Reinhard Pfeiffer, also Munich Messe chief executive, said the residency was a "great economic success" for the region.[40]
Munich was cited in Adele's reports on all "relevant" press portals from more than 90 countries. According to Baumgärtner, attendance at the ten concerts generated about 530million euros (equivalent to $589M in mid-2024) for Munich's economy.[136] Revenues came from catering, public transport, hotels, retail trade, and the rental of exhibition grounds.[124][137]Manfred Gößl, managing director of the Munich Chamber of Industry and Commerce, said there had been an "additional local value added of several hundred million euros".[122]
Working in Austria and Germany, Leutgeb benefited from international exposure and media coverage.[28]Neue Zürcher Zeitung's Max Sprick wrote: "The shows mean a new dimension–for Adele, for pop music and for the city of Munich."[58]Bilinski said, "Adele sets new standards for the international industry".[105] Neil Shah of The Wall Street Journal stated that the temporary venue's scale, technical production and cost "stunned the music business". Kirk Sommer, global co-head of the music department at WME, commented, "Adele could be the beginning of something".[100]
Incidents and controversies
Assessing Munich's stationary concert series elicited unfavourable opinions among climate advocates.[101][137] Flights were underlined as a significant contributor to CO2 emissions. Julian Vogels, a German sustainability expert, believed that audience attendance is the primary source of concerts' carbon footprint and thought the effect could decline if Adele performed live in people's regions rather than having them converge by plane from all over the world to one location.[i][137]Lieberberg refuted criticism that the concert series was unsustainable by citing the ecological aspect of this type of "planning" specific to concert residencies, which, "for artists with this tractive force", makes it possible to exclude moving "huge masses" of trucks and the travels of people [and tech crew].[139]
At the residency's launch phase, it was specified that photo and video journalists were not allowed to operate during the live performances.[140] They usually do so during the first three songs at other significant concerts. Harald Stocker, chairman of the Bayerischen Journalisten-Verbands (BJV; Bavarian Journalists Association), said, "This ban is completely unacceptable"; furthermore, the organiser would select the images and provide the media with a link to the selected material.[141] Several discussions with management resulted in a definitive refusal.[140] Live Nation pointed out that this procedure has always been applied at Adele's concerts, "no matter when or where".[141]
In mid-August, a physical altercation broke out between two security guards and a 26-year-old concertgoer from Northern Ireland before the start of a concert for unknown reasons. The man was beaten and injured and had to be taken to the hospital. The Munich police temporarily arrested the two security service members and later released them. According to the police, they have been investigated for gefährlicher Körperverletzung (lit.'dangerous bodily harm'). The detailed course of events and the context of the confrontation were under investigation the same month.[142]
False stories from tabloids claimed that Munich's temporary stadium could "go on tour" without considering that, due to its size, it was not intended for such use from the outset. In October 2024, Birkett told trade publicationIQ: "It's not tourable".[27]
Dismantling
Before the concert residency began, Lieberberg stated: "Never before and never again–there is this show only here, only in Munich and only in this form."[143]
The stadium and Adele World dismantling commenced the night after the last concert finished to meet the completion deadline of September's end.[40] The dismantling work was executed in an area strictly closed to the public. The entire asphalt had been torn up and removed throughout the month because it was unsuitable for the next Bauma. It was later recycled; however, Live Nation provided no further information or explanation regarding the stage elements' post-residency destination. The finalisation of the dismantling marked the ground preparation for the trade show.[j][32]
Built only for "a record-breaking" ten concerts, it disappeared "record-breakingly fast"; "irretrievably", said Leutgeb, adding, "I also promised the artist that and it's 'part of the deal': What's over there will never exist in this form again". Leutgeb insisted on preserving the distinctive character of the project. In his own words, "When you get an artist thrilled about something like that and who says: I do this because I believe in it as regards content. Then the most important thing is that you don't copy it and do it again a second time".[32]
Set list
This is the set list for the opening show on 2 August 2024.[116][144] It may not represent all shows.[k]
↑ Solotech, founded in the late 1970s in Montreal, won its first contract to manage the audio system for the 1976 Olympic Games. In 2022, Solotech provided the audiovisual for the British Summer Time (BST) festival at London's Hyde Park, where they met Adele and her team. Soon after, according to Ian Woodall, director of special projects at Solotech, the 2,000-employee company was hired to work on Weekends with Adele in Las Vegas.[69]
↑ The setup fully benefited from features such as Extended Bit Depth and PureTone. Brompton Technology commented it ensured uniform video content during concerts, even in the context of extremes of brightness and colour gamut.[72] Ian Woodall, director of global touring and special projects at Solotech, said they also used Tessera's features named API, Cable Redundancy, Frame Store, sACN for brightness control and Brompton's scaler.[73]
↑ The painting required additional touch-ups due to the proximity of people.[113]
↑ Between 11pm and midnight after the concert, fans transferred more than 1,000gigabytes of data per hour through the O2 local mobile phone network.[132]
↑ The mobile phone data of attendees present during the opening concert on 2 August 2024 were collected and then analysed by O2 of the telecommunications operator Telefónica and specialists at Invenium Data Insights. Data analysts determined audience composition using mobile country codes. According to the analysis, almost half were from abroad, including 10,000 Britons, the largest group of international supporters that day. Several thousand people came from Austria, the Netherlands and Poland. Smaller groups were from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China and India. Furthermore, about 1,000 people came from the United States. The gathered information indicated that 60% of the audience were women. Most participants were already in Munich to attend the concert that day, and 3,500 people went directly from the Munich Airport to the exhibition centre. According to an O2Telefónica spokesperson, the analysis complied with the Datenschutzgesetz (Data Protection Act). It was based on anonymised mobile phone data.[132]
↑ According to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa), flights reserved in advance on Booking.com to Munich between the beginning of February 2024 and the end of June 2024 saw a "significant" increase from England (+426%), France (+226%), Italy (+110%), and Spain (+133%) compared to the previous year.[138]
↑ International trade fairs that followed: Expo Real, Heim und Handwerk, and Bauma.[40]
1 2 Hofmann, René; Mölter, Joachim; Steinbacher, Ulrike; Weiß, Anna (10 July 2023). "Bleibt 'Rolling Loud' in München?"[Will 'Rolling Loud' stay in Munich?]. Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 17 October 2023. Retrieved 8 December 2024.
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