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Coldplay Announces Global 2022 Stadium Trek, Sustainable Touring Practices
Theo Wargo / Getty Images for SiriusXM – Coldplay
Coldplay performs at Harlem’s Apollo Theater in September.
Coldplay revealed its return to the road – and a thorough commitment to sustainable touring – on Thursday.
For the “Music Of The Spheres World Tour,” the band will play between three and six stadium shows every month from March to August, before closing the announced run of dates with a headlining appearance at Rio De Janeiro’s Rock In Rio Festival.
The tour begins at Estadio Nacional in San Jose, Costa Rica, on March 18, marking Coldplay’s first concert in the country, before a show in the Dominican Republic and three gigs in Mexico.
Next, the band will head to the U.S., with 11 stadium plays lined up through mid-June, including gigs at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium (April 26), Chicago’s Soldier Field (May 28) and Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium (June 11).
In July and August, the band will return overseas, hitting Frankfurt, Warsaw, Berlin, Paris, Brussels, London and Glasgow. That run includes a three-night stand at London’s Wembley Stadium (Aug. 12-13 and 16), which Coldplay sold out four times over in 2016 for a gross of $29.7 million, the highest of its career.
H.E.R. will open all dates other than the Costa Rica and Dominican Republic shows, where support remains announced, and the third Wembley stadium play, where London Grammar will join the band.
Along with the tour announcement, Coldplay detailed several initiatives to make the tour “as environmentally beneficial as possible,” including plans to cut direct emissions by 50% compared to the band’s previous tour – the massively successful “A Head Full Of Dreams Tour” in 2016 and 2017 – and powering the show “entirely by renewable, super-low emission energy.” Each venue the band plays will host solar installations and a kinetic stadium floor will store power “in the first ever mobile, rechargeable show battery.”
Other aspects of Coldplay’s sustainable touring plan include planting one tree for every ticket sold, providing venues with a sustainability rider cataloging best practices, incentivizing fans to use low-carbon transport with discounts at venues, sustainably and ethically sourcing all merchandise and offering free drinking water to eliminate plastic waste.
And, going forward, Coldplay will work with Green Nation, Live Nation’s sustainability partner, to advise other artists and touring parties about how to apply practices developed on this tour to future concerts.
“We’ve been planning this tour for years, and we’re super excited to play songs from across our whole time together,” Coldplay said in a statement. “At the same time, we’re very conscious that the planet is facing a climate crisis. So we’ve spent the last two years consulting with environmental experts to make this tour as sustainable as possible, and, just as importantly, to harness the tour’s potential to push things forward. We won’t get everything right, but we’re committed to doing everything we can and sharing what we learn. It’s a work in progress and we’re really grateful for the help we’ve had so far.”
The “Music Of The Spheres World Tour” will kick off Coldplay’s touring this decade, after ranking No. 8 on Pollstar‘s Top Touring Artists of The Decade chart for the 2010s, with a total gross of $731.8 million.
But first, the band will headline the grand opening of Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on Oct. 22, in a show that will also be livestreamed around the world. And tomorrow, Coldplay releases its new album, Music Of The Spheres.
Tickets for Coldplay’s U.S. dates go onsale on Oct. 22 at 10 a.m. local time. Find the band’s 2022 dates below.