“It’s fantastic to see them celebrating their own pathway to Wembley by giving back to the grassroots music venues that supported them”: Coldplay announce stadium shows that will give back to the grassroots

Coldplay have announced a run of stadium shows for next summer, which they hope will stop small venues from closing.

This isn’t a contradiction in terms. The band are donating 10% of the proceeds from the run of shows – five at Wembley and two at Hull’s Craven Park – to the Music Venue Trust (MVT), which helps to keep grassroots venues open and develops a pathway for up and coming artists.

“Coldplay are the perfect example of a UK band who came through the grassroots circuit on their way to worldwide stadium-filling success,” said MVT CEO Mark Davyd. “It’s fantastic to see them celebrating their own pathway to Wembley by giving back to the grassroots music venues that supported them and recognising the artists and promoters that are struggling more than ever to build their own careers.”

“The band’s support really will stop venues closing, make tours happen and bring the joy of live music to thousands of people,” he continued. “After months of discussing Coldplay’s potential support around these UK shows with them, we’re so happy and grateful that the news is finally out there!”

And the band aren’t letting other event stakeholders off the hook. Donations to the MVT will be made by the promoters (SJM, Metropolis and Live Nation), booking agent (WME), the venues and the ticket agents (Ticketmaster, See Tickets and AXS).

In addition to this, the Wembley shows production will be powered 100% by solar, wind and kenetic energy. Indeed one of the satellite stages at Wembley will be powered generated by the audience through kinetic flooring and power bikes. This will be a first for a UK stadium show, though of course Massive Attack pulled off a similar feat at their show on Bristol’s Downs last month.

In terms of tickets, there’s no news whether the controversial practice of ‘dynamic’ pricing will be used for the shows. Tickets go on general sale at 9am on Friday 27 September. However, fans can get themselves in on the pre-sale on the Thursday if they order Coldplay’s new Moon Music album before next Tuesday (the 24th). You can do that here.

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For the Hull show 50% of the tickets will be reserved for local fans who live in the HU, YO, DN or LN postcodes via Ticketmaster on Thursday September 26. The band will also make a number of ‘infinity’ tickets available on November 22. These are affordable tix, priced at just £20 and must be bought in pairs.

Clearly a lot of thought has gone into all this. Back in 2019 around the time of their eighth album Everyday Life, Chris Martin announced that they would not tour until they could work out "how our tour can not only be sustainable (but) how can it be actively beneficial". 

Since then, to their credit, they have made some big strides in that direction – their last Music Of The Spheres tour generated 59% less CO2 than their previous global jaunt, which beat their own target of 50%. In addition to this it was recently revealed that 7 million trees have been planted as a result of their last tour – the band had promised they would plant one for every ticket sold.

Coldplay play Hull Craven Park on August 18 and 19 next year and Wembley Stadium on the 22, 23, 26, 27, 30 and 31.