Harry Styles announces first arena dates

Live on Tour, the debut solo tour by ex-One Direction star Harry Styles, has added a raft of arena dates for 2018.

The Live Nation-promoted tour, announced in April, was initially largely limited to medium-sized venues (Greek Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, Eventim Apollo, Paris’s Olympia), with two dates at Spark Arena in Auckland the sole exception.

It was, as expected, an instant sell-out, with Styles (pictured) and Ticketmaster going as far as to pen an open letter apologising to fans unable to get tickets. (Though less than 5% of tickets ended up on the resale market, as Ticketmaster used its Verified Fan presale programme – also deployed recently for Linkin Park – to minimise touting.)

However, due to “overwhelming demand” – and as Styles’s self-titled debut album tops charts around the world – Live Nation today announced a massive arena tour for 2018, kicking off at St Jakobshalle (9,000-cap.) in Basel on 11 March, wrapping up at LA’s The Forum (17,505-cap.) on 13 July.

Interestingly, Styles and Live Nation don’t appear to have been affected by the rumoured booking war between Irving Azoff/MSG and AEG in Los Angeles, with the singer playing The O2 and AEG venues in Europe – but not the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

A full list of 2018 dates – which include arenas across the Americas, Asia, Europe and Australasia – is available at hstyles.co.uk/2018.

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