Touring
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Eric Church is already gearing up for the release of his new album, Evangeline vs. The Machine on May 2, but this fall he will take that new project on the road when he launches his Free the Machine Tour, with 22 arena shows starting Sept. 12. Joining Church on varying dates on the tour […]
The Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., is undertaking a $1 billion renovation project that will reimagine nearly every aspect of the seasoned venue, it was announced Tuesday (April 29) by OC Sports & Entertainment (OCSE), an affiliate of the operator of the city-owned venue.
Dubbed Honda Center Encore, the privately funded transformation will happen simultaneously to the ongoing development of the arena’s surrounding campus, OC Vibe — a $4 billion, 100-acre entertainment district anchored by the home of the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks. Both Honda Center Encore and OC Vibe are being funded by the Samueli Family, owners of the Anaheim Ducks and longtime stewards of Honda Center.
Honda Center Encore
Courtesy of OCVIBE
“We don’t want to have the experience of our guests coming in here to be fantastic when you’re outside of our four walls of the Honda Center, and then you walk in and you’re taken back to 1993,” says OC Vibe CEO Bill Foltz. “We’ve kept the place up. It’s an amazing venue. It really needs to be updated. That process actually started a couple of years ago, where we started bringing in designers and architects.”
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The Honda Center Encore transformation will include a new five-story south entrance with a grand arrival experience along with a high-impact digital display to host outdoor viewing parties and community events. Foltz tells Billboard that the display will be used to showcase events occurring at the Honda Center in addition to viewing parties for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), as the arena has signed an agreement to be the designated watch party site for the league. The new south entrance will replace the arena’s current facade.
Honda Center Encore
Courtesy of OCVIBE
Once completed — the transformation is due to be finished by 2027 — the arena will have entirely refreshed its food and beverage spaces, including ten brand-new concepts and the introduction of self-service technology to elevate speed and convenience. The transformation will also include a new all-inclusive club on the club level, offering an upscale, hospitality-focused experience for premium guests, with curated food and beverage offerings and unmatched views of the action. The venue will also debut new opera box suites on the main concourse and a full renovation of all 68 existing luxury suites.
Honda Center will additionally install new escalators to improve vertical circulation and introduce four new entry plazas, each with its own distinct social aesthetic. The construction of three new parking structures that will add 6,000 new stalls to the campus is already underway; the new parking options are expected to be complete by October and will increase parking availability by 60%. To keep the parking experience as friction-free as possible, the arena is also eliminating the need for arena guests to purchase parking passes in addition to their ticket.
Honda Center Encore
Courtesy of OCVIBE
“When you buy your ticket, it’s an all-inclusive price, meaning all-inclusive of your parking and access when you get here. So, when you pull in our parking garages, you won’t be stopping to check a QR code or to pay somebody,” says Foltz. “You’ll come straight into the parking garages, which are built for speed of access and exit. We think that step alone will get our fans into the excitement 20 to 30 minutes faster than they’re getting in today.”
One of the few aspects of the building that will remain unchanged is the arena’s iconic floors. The more than 30-year-old building will keep its white and burnt orange Italian marble flooring that “look[s] just the same as it did 30 years ago,” Foltz says, adding that the arena will match the color scheme throughout the renovations.
While the renovations will create more points of sale for attendees (especially those in the upper tiers of the arena), Foltz says the majority of the $1 billion renovation will be dedicated to guest experience over direct revenue enhancement. “The bulk [of the renovation] is making this building brand new so it will last another 50 years,” he says, adding, “We have a contract to run Honda Center through the 2060s.”
Honda Center Encore
Courtesy of OCVIBE
Honda Center Encore
Courtesy of OCVIBE
On the heels of delivering Kush + Orange Juice 2, Wiz Khalifa is hitting the road. Wiz and Sean Paul announced the Good Vibes Only Tour on Tuesday (April 29), which will feature DaBaby as a special guest performer. The 15-date amphitheater run will go through North America this summer, kicking off on July 6 […]
All three of the Carter girls made their Cowboy Carter Tour debuts Monday night (April 28), with Blue Ivy and Rumi both joining Beyoncé on stage for an emotional performance of “Protector” during the trek’s opening night at SoFi Stadium.
In clips taken by fans in Inglewood, Calif., both of the superstar’s daughters accompany her about a third of the way through the show for the tear-jerking Cowboy Carter ballad about motherhood, which samples Rumi’s voice in the recording. As the 7-year-old sits next to Bey on a set of stairs flanked by backup dancers, 13-year-old Blue crouches behind them, wrapping her arms around both her younger sister and their mom.
“Born to be your protector,” Bey sings before standing up, taking Rumi’s hand and walking with her downstage. “Even though I know someday you’re gonna shine on your own, I will be your projector.”
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At one point, the little girl turns around and gives her mom a big hug, at which point Bey can’t help but stop singing and giggle. “Give it up for Rumi, y’all!” the Destiny’s Child alum then says proudly as the crowd cheers, while Rumi excitedly waves.
Though Monday’s kickoff marked Rumi’s first time ever joining her mom on stage, Blue has long been working with her mom as a backup dancer. The teenager first started dancing on Bey’s Renaissance Tour in 2023, and on Christmas Day 2024, Blue was on the field with the “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer for the star’s NFL Halftime Show.
Blue also had a couple shining moments to herself during the Cowboy Carter show, showing off synchronized choreography with her mom during “America Has a Problem.” She also had her own dance solo set to Bey’s “Deja Vu,” commanding a line of other dancers in a brown leathery fit as fans went wild.
Performing tracks from past albums as well as a bulk of the songs from her Grammy-winning, Billboard 200-topping album Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé kicked off about three months of touring with her show at SoFi. The vocalist will stay at the stadium for four more nights before embarking on a run of performances across the United States and Europe this summer.
LONDON — The U.K.’s LIVE industry group (Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment) has announced that contributions to its music fund has crossed the £500,000 ($668,007) milestone. The fund supports the grassroots music scene, and has been backed by stars such as Diana Ross, Pulp, Mumford & Sons and Hans Zimmer, all of whom have pledged to donate £1 ($1.30) from every ticket sale for upcoming arena shows.
LIVE campaigns and raises awareness for issues facing the U.K.’s live music scene, with a particular focus on the grassroots music scene and its workers. It represents 15 live music organizations, including the Music Venue Trust, the Music Managers Forum, Featured Artists Coalition among others.
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The LIVE Trust, established in January 2025, receives funding from a voluntary contribution of £1 per ticket from arena and stadium shows with a capacity of over 5000. A funding strategy is then implemented alongside a panel of industry experts, ensuring the funds reach venues, promoters, festivals and artists.
A proposed ticket levy has long been discussed in the U.K. to help stem the tide of grassroots music venues closures. The MVT reports that over 150 venues have closed across the U.K. since 2023, citing a number of financial challenges following the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis.
The current Labour government has supported the idea of the levy. Speaking in a parliamentary debate in January, Chris Bryant (creative industries minister) backed the idea of a levy in either format: “If the scheme does not happen voluntarily, will we make it statutory? Yes,” he said.
A number of big name acts have already committed portions from ticket sales in recent years, including Sam Fender, Katy Perry, Enter Shikari and more. Coldplay will donate 10% of the revenue from their upcoming Wembley Stadium residency to the Music Venue Trust, one of LIVE’s members. The group will play a record 10 nights at the venue in August and September.
Last week LIVE shared their Music Fans’ Voice report, which surveyed 8000 concert goers about the state of the live music industry, with 93% of respondents backing the £1 per ticket contribution.
Jon Collins, CEO of LIVE said, “This is a welcome milestone for The LIVE Trust and marks a very significant contribution to the grassroots live music sector. What this demonstrates is that there is a real appetite from performers and their teams to support the wider live ecosystem and we applaud and thank those that have already taken this initiative. Whilst this is an excellent start there is still much work to do if we are to convince government that a voluntary rather than statutory levy is both workable and sustainable.”
Anuel AA is hitting the road (and resuming) his Real Hasta La Muerte 2 tour this year, presented by CMN Events. The 20-date stint — which started last November in Argentina and was originally meant to end this March in Miami — will officially kick off at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on […]
Billy McFarland says he’s ready to sell Fyre Festival 2 to the highest bidder.
Earlier today, the convicted fraudster took to social media to post a mea culpa about his failures as a festival promoter while once more rebranding Fyre Festival as “one of the most powerful attention engines in the world,” in his words.
The double-speak is part of McFarland’s attempt to liquidate Fyre Festival’s only assets — its trademarks and IP — to the highest bidder now that Fyre Fest 2 has been indefinitely postponed. Early this month, government officials with the city of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, poured cold water on the long-shot festival — designed in part to rehabilitate McFarland’s image following the disastrous, aborted 2017 edition of the event in the Bahamas that resulted in global mockery, competing documentary films and a federal prison sentence for McFarland — by writing on social media that “there is no record or planning of any such event in the municipality.”
McFarland has said the idea for a follow-up festival came to him while serving time in solitary confinement, and he began pitching Fyre Festival 2 after his release from prison in 2022, hyping his plans on social media with splashy videos and spurious claims. As McFarland would finally admit on Wednesday (April 23), he has failed to regain the trust of fans, major talent agencies and the municipal government of Playa Del Carmen.
In his letter to fans, McFarland explained, “I can’t risk a repeat of what happened in Playa Del Carmen, where support quickly turned into public distancing once media attention intensified,” noting, “For FYRE Festival 2 to succeed, it’s clear that I need to step back and allow a new team to move forward independently, bringing the vision to life on this incredible island.”
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On Fyre’s website, where McFarland once hawked $1.1 million ticket packages for Fyre Fest 2, he now features a short pitch deck for the sale of Fyre’s IP, sharing details about Fyre’s web traffic and Google analytics while noting he’s ready to hand off the tarnished brand.
Giving control “to a new group is the most responsible way to follow through on what we set out to do: build a global entertainment brand, host a safe and legendary event, and continue to pay restitution to those who are owed from the first festival,” McFarland wrote, noting that he owes his victims from the first Fyre Festival more than $26 million.
On Monday (April 21), news broke of Fyre’s first licensing deal: an agreement for Fyre Music Streaming Ventures, LLC, a fan-curated on-demand music video streaming service and ad-supported TV channel. As its founder, Shawn Rech, told Billboard: “I just want people to remember the [Fyre] name.”
To view the sales material for Fyre, visit Fyre.mx.
Durand Jones & The Indications – the trio of Durand Jones, Aaron Frazer and Blake Rhein – have announced their most extensive tour to date. Following a successful opening slot on Lenny Kravitz’s European tour, the band will hit their biggest headlining shows yet, with stops at Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater in Austin and The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
The tour will kick off Sept. 11 at The Van Buren in Phoenix and run through some of North America’s most iconic venues, including Webster Hall in New York, Tipitina’s in New Orleans, First Avenue in Minneapolis and The 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. The 37-date trek will come to a close on Nov. 16 at House of Blues in Dallas.
In addition to announcing their fall tour, Durand Jones & The Indications have released the second single from their upcoming album Flowers, due June 27 on Dead Oceans. The new single “Flower Moon” puts Frazer’s signature falsetto front and center as the group waxes poetic about love in springtime. The band draws from their extensive knowledge of soul and R&B history to deliver one of their most irresistible dancefloor tracks yet.
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“It felt right to release ‘Flower Moon’ with this record. Spring is here and the flowers are blooming everywhere. We really wanted to catch that essence of the song and bring it to life for the listener,” Jones said in a release. “Also the Flower Moon is happening in a few weeks, so everything just seemed aligned to bring this song to our fans. It’s a feel-good tune to enjoy with friends or a loved one.”
Check out the video for “Flower Moon,” directed by Alec Basse, below.
Flowers will mark Durand Jones & The Indication’s fourth studio album and a return to the band’s roots with a mixture of gritty funk and Southern soul that inspired their 2016 self-titled debut. The album was self-produced in Rhein’s Chicago home studio and reflects the “ups and downs in our personal lives and professional lives,” Frazer said when the album was announced, adding, “and flowers are a sign of maturity, growth, spring, productivity.” The new song follows lead single “Been So Long,” which was released last month.
Check out a full list of tour dates below.
Sept. 11 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren Sept. 12 – Flagstaff, AZ @ Orpheum Theater Sept. 13 – Abiquiú, NM @ Blossoms & Bones Sept. 15 – San Antonio, TX @ The Aztec Theatre Sept. 16 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater Sept. 18 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse Sept. 19 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl Sept. 21 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club Sept. 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ UnionTransfer Sept. 26 – Boston, MA @ Citizens House of Blues Sept. 27 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall Sept. 30 – Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi Annex Oct. 1 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed Oct. 3 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre Oct 4 – Fort Collins, CO @ Washington’s Oct. 5 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot Oct. 7 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater Oct 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre Oct. 11 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl Oct. 23 – Del Mar, CA @ The Sound Oct. 24 – Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24 Oct. 27 – Portland, OR @ McMenamins Crystal Ballroom Oct. 28 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom Oct. 29 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox SODO Oct. 31 – Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory Concert House Nov. 1 – Bozeman, MT @ The ELM Nov 3 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue Nov 4 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom Nov 5 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrew’s Hall Nov. 7 – Toronto, ON @ The Concert Hall Nov. 8 – Montreal, QC @ Beanfield Theatre Nov. 9 – South Burlington, VT @ HIgher Ground Ballroom Nov 11 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall Nov. 12 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel Nov. 14 – New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina’s Nov. 15 – Houston, TX @ Heights Theater Nov. 16 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
All Things Go festival will return to New York with Doechii, Lucy Dacus and Clairo headlining. For the second edition of the New York festival, which will run the same weekend as the festival’s D.C.-area event, fans can also catch sets from Djo, Remi Wolf, The Marías, The Last Dinner Party, Lola Young and Gigi […]
How did you get to the last concert you attended?
If you’re like most music fans in the United States and Canada, you probably traveled by car. While taking public transportation would be more environmentally friendly, it’s less likely you went by bus or shuttle.You might be among the few that took the least environmentally friendly option and flew.
Now a new study by REVERB, the longstanding organization focused on sustainability in touring and the broader music industry, is presenting a comprehensive report on all the ways concert attendees get to shows. The study aims to better understand fan travel – long known as the biggest carbon emitter in the live music space – and facilitate solutions to bring down concerts’ environmental impact.
This study was done by REVERB over the last two years at more than 400 shows in over 170 North American cities. REVERB representatives surveyed more than 35,000 fans, asking them about how they got to the show, how they would’ve preferred to get there and the barriers that prevented them from taking a more sustainable travel option.
Out today (April 21), the results of REVERB’s Concert Travel Study aim to give a better sense of the playing field while demonstrating that fans want greener options, info that’s altogether meant to encourage collaboration on solutions among venues, promoters, artists and fans.
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The study finds that driving is by far the most common way that fans get to shows, with 80% of respondents reporting taking a car. On average, 3,321 gas powered or hybrid vehicles were driven to any given show. On average, each car went 144 miles roundtrip and carried 2.5 people.
Meanwhile, just 9% of attendees used public transportation, although 33% percent said they would if there were better options available. And while only 7% of fans flew to shows, those flights accounted for 60% of all fan travel emissions.
All in, the study finds that fan travel creates 38 times more emissions than artist and crew travel, tour-related hotel stays and gear transportation combined. The average 11,000 capacity show creates 527 metric tons of fan travel-related carbon emissions, the equivalent of the energy it would take to power 110 homes for a year. On average, even larger concerts create 824 metric tons of carbon emissions.
But 89% of fans would take more sustainable transit options if there were better options and almost everyone surveyed — 90% of participates — said they’re concerned about climate change. See the complete study here.
“We’ve always known that fan travel is the biggest emitter, because you have thousands of fans versus a couple band members or crew members,” says REVERB’s director of impact Madeline Weir tells Billboard. “But the point isn’t to put pressure on fans or say its their fault; we want this to be an opportunity for artists, venues and the industry at large to acknowledge fan travel as the biggest source of emissions and work together with fans to see what solutions would make the fan experience better.”
The study suggests solutions like incentivized carpooling, which would provide better parking spots and expedited exit lanes to fans who arrive with a certain number of people in the car.
Weir also cites a desire to work with the aviation industry to help generate a bigger marketplace for sustainable aviation fuels, in order to bring down the cost of this fuel. Greener air travel is especially crucial when it comes to artist residencies, which typically entail most audience members traveling to see a stationary show.
“We’re never going to say to a band, you shouldn’t do [a residency], because it’s a fan experience and we definitely work with bands that do them,” Weir says. “It’s about talking about solutions with a band and their teams. And a lot of the artists that are at that [residency] scale are already doing a lot for climate, whether it be the offsetting model or more the philanthropy-based model.”
Weir also notes the importance of strategic routing, as emissions are naturally lower when fans travel shorter distances for a show. To wit, when an artist REVERB has partnered with provides the organization with their tour routing, REVERB provides them with information to send out to fans about various sustainable transit options, from carpooling to public transit to bike lanes. REVERB is also partnering with venues to provide tailored data from the study on what each specific venue can do to help fans arrive in greener ways.
The study was co-funded by Billie Eilish, a longtime REVERB partner and of the greenest artists in music. At the Los Angeles and Phoenix dates for Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour this past December, Elish’s team provided shuttles from various park and rides for faster, greener transport to shows, demonstrating that there are straightforward options for artists who want to platform sustainability.
“Artists, venues and fans all need to work together to improve our environment,” Eilish says in a statement. “From solar-powered live shows to more sustainable touring, my team is always looking for ways to help the planet. I have the greatest fans in the world, and I hope this study will be a helpful resource for those looking to learn more about transportation options that cut down on pollution and build a better future for live music.”
REVERB is also helping venues and events look at what Weir calls sustainable “micro-mobility,” including gas powered shuttles, golf carts and other on-site transportation. (She cites Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome as a venue that’s currently enacting such measures.) REVERB is also currently working with Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, NY to create bike valets and promote the use of public transit.
“At Forest Hills, we promote public transit options as the number one way to arrive at the venue,” says the venue’s co-manager Mike Luba. “We love when partners like REVERB and artists amplify this promotion to reduce the number of emitting vehicles driven to our shows. It’s truly better for fans, the community, and us.”
Altogether, the study emphasizes the growing concern about, and push for, sustainability in the industry, with U.S. venues and events increasingly exploring clean energy technology, swapping single-use plastic cups for reusable options and encouraging artists, agents and promoters to incorporate green clauses in various contracts. This work is catching up the sustainability efforts REVERB has been enacting in the live sector since it was created in 2004, with the organization’s co-founder Adam Gardner saying that “listening to fans has always been key to our success.”
While the REVERB study encompasses a lot of data and many options for improvements, what it ultimately makes clear is that demand for greener travel options is significant, with 94% of fans saying they want to be able to take collective action on the issue.
“Venues, artists, promoters and fans themselves all have responsibility to do this together,” says Weir.