While blockbuster tours come and go, tour films live on in cinemas and in homes to be watched and rewatched long after an artist takes their final bow.

“One of the best places to see a concert is live in a stadium or arena – but everybody gets a front-row seat in the movie theatre,” says Ray Nutt, CEO of US-based speciality film distributor Fathom Entertainment.

Iconic concert films stretch back for decades and can be as simple as show-to-screen translations – think Led Zeppelin’s 1976 The Song Remains the Same documenting their three-night stand at NYC’s Madison Square Garden – or as complex as made-for-film performances with behind-the-scenes footage.

Nowadays, seemingly every major act has a visual project to accompany their live shows, with Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, BTS, One Direction, and Miley Cyrus all being standouts from the 21st century.

Concert films have hit a new stride alongside technological advancements and global cinematic and streaming experiences, skyrocketing their reach alongside the post-pandemic touring boom.

“To have a huge global tour captured for prosperity makes sense, but it is a great opportunity for fans who would not otherwise get to experience it”

Let’s Get Digital
Though concert films are not a new venture, the pandemic shifted artists’ projects and delivery to an increasingly digital format.

“Artists are pushing their live shows creatively like never before, and in the digital age, fans seem to value the live experience as the ultimate representation of their favourite artists,” says Tom Colbourne, founder and CEO of Blink. “Fans that attend want to relive the night and all the little details in the show, and for those that couldn’t attend, the filmed show is the next best thing.”

California-based production company Blink specialises in live music and has produced films for Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, and Lady Gaga. Their screen content division is also involved in creating the live performance visuals, giving the firm a unique insight into artistic direction.

With a finite number of tickets available for any tour, films allow fans to join in wherever they are. As the average concert ticket price jumped 36% between 2019 and 2023, according to Statista, giving audiences ‘the best seat in the house’ can help ease the sting of missing out on a sold-out trek or allow them to relive the experience, again and again.

“To have a huge global tour captured for prosperity makes sense, but it is a great opportunity for fans who would not otherwise get to experience it. There’s the financial side, but there’s also just plain engagement and access and democratising of the process,” says Marc Allenby, CEO of Trafalgar Releasing.

“Cinema is undoubtedly the best audio and best visual experience, plus the communal collective”

Trafalgar is the global leader in distribution, delivering concert films like Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé to thousands of theatres worldwide. BTS, Coldplay, Usher, and Laufey have all used Trafalgar’s services for their films, too.

And perhaps the most notable example of demand outweighing supply is Taylor Swift’s record-obliterating Eras Tour, which grossed an estimated $2bn and sold over 10.1m tickets worldwide.

The accompanying film, released halfway through the global trek, documented a condensed show from the tour’s initial North American leg and quickly became the highest-grossing concert film of all time, earning over $261m at the box office before landing on streaming service Disney+.

To Stream or Not to Stream?
There is a fork in the road where artists and management need to decide whether to go the cinema route or direct to streaming.

The answer often lies in the finances, with royalties from ticket sales being one draw for artist teams. For streaming, a flat fee for a set period of licensing is typical; but each deal is unique, with no one-size-fits-all approach.

“Cinema is undoubtedly the best audio and best visual experience, plus the communal collective. With streaming, you’re looking at a wider reach with no limitation on geography or appointment-to-view restrictions. The two co-exist as opposed to compete,” Allenby says.

“Dua wanted to push the boundaries and perform the album in a different way; something very intimate”

“Most management and labels are seeing the financial benefit but also the wider halo benefit of the whole release. There’s marketing profile, prestige, fan engagement, ability to sell merchandise, lots of other kinds of pieces and touchpoints, and ultimately, greater listenership, album sales,” he adds.

Despite being in the midst of her ongoing Radical Optimism Tour, in October, Dua Lipa stopped by London’s Royal Albert Hall (cap. 5,272) to conduct a one-off performance, televised to fans worldwide and recorded for a unique live album.

Featuring the 53-piece Heritage Orchestra, a 14-strong choir, and a seven-piece band, An Evening with Dua Lipa served as a unique gift for the fans: “Dua wanted to push the boundaries and perform the album in a different way; something very intimate, stripping the songs back and then building them up again,” says her manager and father Dukagjin Lipa.

Initially airing to over 1.6m on the UK’s ITV last December, the special was then broadcast to a further 2.9m on the CBS network in the US, before launching on streaming platform Paramount+.

“It’s such an authentic portrayal of the show itself that we wanted people’s living room sofas to essentially be a seat at the Royal Albert Hall,” says Lipa. “But again, we wanted this to be inclusive, so having that window of opportunity to stream it after the fact was also important to us.”

“We’re using very sophisticated robotic cameras that can get into unobtrusive positions in the pit and even up on the stage with the artist”

Meeting fans where they are is a central theme to the conception of concert films, with artists like Dua Lipa being driven to produce an accessible, yet exceptional, version of their live performances.

“From an artist’s perspective, it gives them a platform to reach existing and new audiences, and in our case, we wanted to break down the boundaries of an ordinary show and create something iconic that shone a new light on the music, and ultimately showcased Dua’s world-class performance,” Lipa adds.

The Pros of Production
With the rise of fan-led livestreaming giving a (sometimes shaky) live capture of performances, artists are utilising filming as an extension of their creative vision with proper audio mixing and aesthetically aligned visual components.

Artists are heavily involved in the production process, which can begin up to six months before the filmed event. Depending on the lead time, Blink’s Colbourne says the team meets with promoter and ticketing teams to layout camera placements so as not to disrupt attendee experience – an issue simplified by new technologies.

“We’re using very sophisticated robotic cameras that can get into unobtrusive positions in the pit and even up on the stage with the artist,” he explains. Films are often crafted over multiple shows, depending on the performance’s complexity, with up to 30 cameras and 20 microphones deployed.

Music of the Spheres: Live at River Plate went on to reap $8.4m at the box office

For Lady Gaga’s 2024 Chromatica Ball film, which was filmed over just one show at LA’s Dodger Stadium (cap. 56,000), the Blink team used 30 cameras and meticulously planned the filming to ensure the team could capture the elaborate show. Gaga herself was involved from start to finish.

“We spent months in the edit suite with Gaga in person, who directed the film herself and was hands-on with every single cut,” the Grammy Award-nominated Colbourne says.

In-house production companies are also becoming standard for projects of this nature as the artistic vision takes the lead. Swift has Taylor Swift Productions, Beyoncé’s is Parkwood Entertainment, and Dua Lipa enlisted her own Radical22 Productions for her Royal Albert Hall show, alongside London- and Los Angeles-based specialists, Fulwell 73 Productions.

Prior to their 2023 global broadcast (and subsequent film) of their Music of the Spheres shows at Buenos Aires’ River Plate Stadium (cap. 84,567), Coldplay debuted Infinity Station Films to help support their creative vision. Music of the Spheres: Live at River Plate went on to reap $8.4m at the box office before being launched on concert and event streaming platform Veeps, with tickets priced at $3.99.

Where the film will be distributed, which is usually decided by the artist’s team at the beginning of the project, can steer how it’s filmed and edited, Colbourne says. Nonetheless, newfangled sound capture and delivery like Dolby Atmos spatial audio can be a powerful tool, “particularly if it’s a theatrical release and you can recreate the stadium sound,” he says.

Supergroup BTS holds four of the top 20 highest-grossing concert films of all time, raking in a gross of over $88.8m

For The Fans
Fans reign supreme as the core demographic for concert films: they’re ticket and merchandise buyers, music streamers, and engagement boosters. Capturing tours for the fan community is a leading, if not the key, motivator for tour-film projects.

Dua Lipa’s Royal Albert Hall special aired in between her shows in Asia in 2024 and 2025’s Australian, European, and North American dates, but “timing-wise, it also felt like the perfect moment to put on a show like this – we were nearing the end of what was a groundbreaking year and wanted to give fans something truly special,” says her manager father.

The medium can also help rising artists, or artists in a specific market, get exposed to new audiences around the world.
Films and streaming have undeniably helped deliver K-pop artists to a global audience. Supergroup BTS holds four of the top 20 highest-grossing concert films of all time, raking in a gross of over $88.8m.

A regional genre gone global, films capturing K-pop stars allow fans worldwide to communally experience tours centred in Asian markets and a glimpse into the greater world beyond the acts themselves.

One firm capitalising on this is Fathom Entertainment, a US-based distribution company that has circulated 83 concert films from artists like Elton John, Andrea Bocelli, André Rieu, and Garth Brooks over the last 20 years, representing roughly $52m in sales.

“Artists are looking for different ways to get their brand out there, and the movie theatre is certainly one of those ways”

Fathom operates the largest live satellite system to theatres in the US, allowing them to livestream (or stream time-delayed) concerts and events onto 2,200 screens in 1,100 domestic theatres – a “very cost-effective way to get a concert or live content,” says CEO Nutt.

Late last year, Fathom broadcast K-pop boyband SEVENTEEN’s [Right Here] World Tour show at Japan’s Kyocera Dome Osaka (51,000) on a time delay to US audiences. As this tour only visited five cities outside of Asia, providing an opportunity for fans to communally experience the show was essential to the group’s distribution.

“Artists are looking for different ways to get their brand out there, and the movie theatre is certainly one of those ways,” Nutt says.

Get the Show On & Off the Road
Audiences are already seeing music projects pop up in new domains as technology continues evolving. Charli XCX and Troye Sivan translated their SWEAT tour into a virtual reality experience through Meta Horizon, while Fortnite and Roblox are increasingly hosting events from stars like Elton John, Travis Scott, Karol G, and The Weeknd.

Perhaps the biggest indicator of where the concert film sector is headed has come in the form of direct-to-platform livestreaming.

“By leveraging our advanced technology and unmatched reach, we are breaking the barriers around privileged access to premium entertainment”

Back in December, Netflix’s Beyoncé Bowl captured her Christmas Day halftime performance at Houston’s NRG Stadium. The platform’s first foray into livestreamed music events paid off with an average live viewership of 27m, plus another 50m views on the standalone special that followed.

In late January, Coldplay delivered one of their “biggest-ever” 132,000-capacity shows at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India on Disney+ Hotstar.

“By leveraging our advanced technology and unmatched reach, we are breaking the barriers around privileged access to premium entertainment and making it available for all, fostering a shared celebration across the country,” said Sanjog Gupta, CEO of Hotstar’s parent company JioStar’s sports division, at the time of the announcement.

Opportunities in the filmed concert space are rife, with unexplored avenues fostering fresh creations. As the visual medium solidifies its place as an extension of an artist’s creative process, it doesn’t look like the credits will roll on concert films anytime soon.

This year promises much more of the same: Linkin Park has a cinematic release on tap after the recently reformed group captured their From Zero album launch show in São Paulo, Brazil – an event also livestreamed locally. It’s more than likely more acts will follow suit as 2025 is set to be another colossal year for touring.

Multiplied revenues, stronger fan connections, and the ability to transform a single local show into a sustained global event – concert films are quickly becoming an essential stage of album and touring cycles. The real question is, what comes next?

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Concert films are continuing to result in blockbuster business at the box office, with Usher the latest superstar artist destined for the big screen.

AMC Theatres Distribution, Trafalgar Releasing and Sony Music Vision announced this week that Usher: Rendezvous in Paris will arrive in 2,000 cinemas worldwide for a limited run from 12-15 September.

Usher: Rendezvous in Paris features footage filmed during the 45-year-old American’s eight-night residency at Paris’ La Seine Musicale in September/October 2023.

“He is the perfect artist to support our shared vision of creating global experiences around concert films for artists”

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Sony Music Vision and AMC Theatres Distribution to bring the energy of Usher to movie theatre audiences around the world,” says Trafalgar Releasing CEO Marc Allenby. “He is the perfect artist to support our shared vision of creating global experiences around concert films for artists that advance the evolution of the cinema into venues for all forms of entertainment.”

Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour (2023) earned US$267.7 million globally, according to Box Office Mojo, to become the highest-grossing concert/documentary film in box office history. Upon the film’s release in October 2023, The Eras Tour made $92.8m in North America and $30.7m internationally for a cumulative total of $123.5m, making it the biggest opening weekend of all time for a concert film.

Swift opted for a non-traditional release of the presentation, filmed over three nights in August 2023 at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, that saw her work directly with AMC and avoid opting for distribution from a major studio.

Taylor Swift heads a top 5 also featuring Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, One Direction & Beyoncé

In terms of classic concert films (thus discounting the 2009 Michael Jackson’s This Is It documentary), Box Office Mojo data puts Eras at #1 in a top 5 also featuring Justin Bieber: Never Say Never ($99m) from 2011, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert ($70.7m) from 2008, One Direction: This Is Us ($68.2m) from 2013 and last year’s Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé ($44m).

The top 10 is completed by 1970’s Woodstock ($34.7m), Katy Perry: Part of Me ($32.7m) from 2012, BTS’ Permission to Dance on Stage – Seoul: Live Viewing ($32.6m) from 2023, 2013’s Metallica Through the Never ($31.9m) and 2009’s Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience ($30.4m).

Dutch violinist André Rieu has been a forerunner in the space, occupying 13 of the top 50 spots, while Coldplay made history in October 2022 with the first ever live worldwide cinema broadcast of a concert from Latin America.

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Taylor Swift will bring her blockbuster Eras Tour to the big screen this autumn.

The concert film will open at cinemas in the US, Canada and Mexico on 13 October, where fans will be able to watch the pop star’s history-making live tour.

Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour will be available to watch at every AMC cinema in the US – with at least four showings per day on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays – and some Cinemark and Regal branches. Many of AMC’s IMAX and Dolby cinemas will also be screening the film in high definition.

“The Eras Tour has been the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far and I’m overjoyed to tell you that it’ll be coming to the big screen soon,” Swift posted on her social media, alongside a trailer (see below) for the film. “Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged…”

As previously reported on IQ, The Eras Tour is on target to become the first concert tour in history to gross more than US$1 billion.

It was comfortably the highest-grossing tour of H1 2023, generating $300.8m in revenue from its first 22 nights on total ticket sales of 1,186,314 and an average ticket price of $253.56.

“The Eras Tour has been the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far”

The run currently amounts to 117 shows up to August 2024, with the potential for further dates to be added.

Swift isn’t the only artist to capitalise on a successful live tour with a concert film. K-pop stars BTS have enjoyed a record-breaking reign at the box office, having screened several of their tours in cinemas worldwide.

The band’s latest release, which documented their BTS Yet to Come in Busan concert, grossed more than $53 million. The film, titled BTS: Yet To Come in Cinemas, was screened in more than 5,817 cinemas across 128 countries.

Elsewhere, Coldplay last year screened their concert at Buenos Aires’ River Plate Stadium on the Music Of The Spheres World Tour in thousands of cinemas across more than 70 countries.

More recently, Machine Gun Kelly took his 2022 Mainstream Sellout Tour to cinemas worldwide, for one night only.

The film, titled Machine Gun Kelly: Mainstream Sellout Live from Cleveland: The Pink Era, recapped the star’s sold-out hometown concert at the FirstEnergy Stadium (cap. 50,000) in Cleveland, Ohio, and gave fans a behind-the-scenes peek at the whole tour.

French pop-rock band Indochine, classical superstar André Rieu and the Eurovision Song Contest have also been given the cinema treatment.

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Machine Gun Kelly is taking his 2022 Mainstream Sellout Tour to cinemas worldwide, for one night only.

The film, titled Machine Gun Kelly: Mainstream Sellout Live from Cleveland: The Pink Era, will recap the star’s sold-out hometown concert at the FirstEnergy Stadium (cap. 50,000) in Cleveland, Ohio, and give fans a behind-the-scenes peek at the whole tour.

The cut will include fan favourite hits from the night’s set list, including ‘Bloody Valentine,’ ‘lonely,’ ‘el diablo,’ ‘my ex’s best friend,’ ‘Till I Die,’ ‘I Think I’m OKAY,’ among others.

The film, directed by Sam Cahill, will be launched in cinemas on the 13 May via Trafalgar Releasing, the company behind BTS’s hugely successful cinema treatments.

The sellout concert in his hometown saw MGK become the first and only Ohio native to sell out the largest venue in the city

“Machine Gun Kelly’s remarkable journey from Cleveland to meteoric superstardom and back to where it all began gives us an unfiltered look at the emotion and rawness of coming home,” says Kymberli Frueh, SVP of programming and content acquisitions for Trafalgar Releasing. “We are so lucky that this moment was captured so it can be shared with fans across the globe.”

The Mainstream Sellout Tour encompassed 52 concerts across North America and Europe. More than 425,000 tickets were sold for the North American leg alone and several shows, including Madison Square Garden in New York, sold out.

The sellout concert in his hometown saw Machine Gun Kelly become the first and only Ohio native to sell out the largest venue in the city.

Machine Gun Kelly: Mainstream Sellout Live from Cleveland: The Pink Era is the first full-length feature distributed by Floor 13.

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K-pop stars BTS will bring their massive October concert in Busan, South Korea, to cinemas worldwide in February next year.

The BTS Yet to Come in Busan concert took place at Busan Asiad Main Stadium on 15 October to promote the city’s World 2030 Expo bid.

The free show was attended by a 50,000-strong crowd, with 10,000 and 2,000 people tuning in via real-life “Live Play” broadcasts.

The concert, which has been re-edited and remixed for the big screen and features “new close-up angles and a whole new view of the entire concert”, will screen in cinemas globally from 1 February for a limited time, across more than 110 countries and territories.

In addition to a regular cinema format, BTS: Yet to Come in Cinemas will also be screened in multiple special formats, such as ScreenX, 4DX and 4DX Screen.

“The group’s engagement with audiences has always been perfectly suited to the cinema”

In a comment, Marc Allenby of Trafalgar Releasing – which is presenting the film alongside HYBE and CJ 4DPlex – said they were looking forward to “collaborating once again” with the companies.

“The group’s engagement with audiences has always been perfectly suited to the cinema, and we are excited to welcome fans from all corners of the globe to this must-see celebration,” says Allenby.

Jong Ryeol Kim, CEO of CJ 4DPLEX, adds: “We are thrilled to announce our second ScreenX collaboration and first 4DX, 4DXScreeen collaboration with BTS. This film is made for both special formats, which fans can experience our movie completely through enlarged screens with 3 different angles and moving motion seats aligning to BTS’s music.”

BTS Yet to Come marks the fifth film the group has released in recent years. Burn the Stage: The Movie arrived in 2018, with Love Yourself in Seoul and Bring the Soul: The Movie both released in 2019. Break the Silence: The Movie followed in 2020.

BTS’ one-off Busan concert marked their final performance together for some time, due to their members’ mandatory military service.

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A concert film celebrating the 40th anniversary of French pop-rock band Indochine grossed more than $2 million and topped the French box office on its day of release.

Shot at Lyon’s Groupama Stadium in June 2022, the Central Tour was the first recorded music event to be released through the Filmed for IMAX programme. It was screened nationwide on 24 November in 477 cinemas, including 16 IMAX screens in the widest ever release for an event cinema programme. Previews were held the night before, which then continued for five days of exclusive encore screenings.

An additional 10 IMAX locations also screened the film exclusively abroad in Belgium, Switzerland, and the cities of London, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Melbourne. Two additional screenings are scheduled for the Scotiabank Theatre in Montréal on 11-12 December.

A total of 120,000 tickets were sold in France alone for an overall box office gross of $2.08m (€1.97m), matching the previous record holder for an event cinema release in France: Mylene Farmer 2019 – The Film. The 26 IMAX locations welcomed 21,711 fans (17% of the 128,296 total), delivering $482,000.

“We are beyond thrilled with the incredible performance of Indochine Central Tour in Cinema”

“We are beyond thrilled with the incredible performance of Indochine Central Tour in Cinema,” says Megan Colligan, president of IMAX Entertainment. “As the first ever Filmed for IMAX concert and the biggest event cinema box office for a French release, Indochine Central Tour in Cinema further highlights the desire of fans around the world to experience unique and immersive entertainment events in IMAX.”

The Central Tour was captured with 22 IMAX certified digital cameras and the live show featured a 147ft central tower and the specially designed biggest LED screen ever used in a live concert (27,000 sq ft/1,400 LED panels).

“The huge success of Indochine Central Tour in Cinema in post-pandemic times demonstrates that movie theatres remain very attractive to the audience, who is more than ever ready to gather around major and unifying events”, adds Thierry Fontaine, president of Pathé Live. “The quality of the image and sound of this specially Filmed for IMAX historic concert, that celebrated the 40th anniversary of France’s most popular band, offers an unparalleled immersive and collective experience.”

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Coldplay have announced a special live broadcast of the Music Of The Spheres World Tour from Buenos Aires’ River Plate Stadium, which will be screened in thousands of cinemas across more than 70 countries.

The 70,000-cap show in Argentina on 28 October (or 29 October, depending on the timezone) will mark the first ever live worldwide cinema broadcast of a concert from Latin America.

Directed by BAFTA-winning and Grammy-nominated director Paul Dugdale, the presentation sees the band team up once more with Trafalgar Releasing, which is also serving as executive producer alongside CJ 4DPlex.

“We are delighted to be partnering again with the Coldplay team on this major live broadcast, having established a successful partnership with the 2018 documentary release A Head Full Of Dreams,” says Trafalgar Releasing CEO Marc Allenby.

Ticket sales for the Music Of The Spheres World Tour recently passed 5.4 million

“We are also extending our partnership with CJ 4DPlex on this live event featuring one of the world’s biggest artists, giving fans the opportunity to experience the phenomenal Music Of The Spheres tour on the big screen across the globe in unison.”

Repeat screenings will also be available worldwide. The live event is supported by Coldplay’s official logistics partner DHL, which is partnering with the band to reduce carbon emissions from their world tour.

Ticket sales for the Music Of The Spheres World Tour recently passed 5.4 million after UK and European stadium dates went on sale for 2023.

Check out the latest issue of IQ for an in-depth look at the groundbreaking tour.

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BTS have broken the global event cinema record after grossing $32.6 million (€29.8m) with the first live worldwide cinema broadcast of a concert from South Korea.

Beamed from Seoul’s Olympic Stadium, BTS Permission to Dance on Stage – Seoul: Live Viewing was presented by HYBE and Trafalgar Releasing on 12 March in 3,711 cinemas in 75 regions for a one-day limited release, reaching a reported 1.4 million viewers worldwide in total. In North America, the production reached the No. 2 spot in the Saturday box office, generating more than $6.84m and a per-screen average of over $8,500 across 803 movie theatres.

Livestreams on 10 and 13 March attracted 1.02m fans from 191 countries/regions on March 10 and 13, bringing the total worldwide audience to 2.46m.

“As the pandemic made it difficult to access the concert venue, we wanted to create an opportunity for fans to gather and watch the concert together,” says HYBE 360 president DJ Kim said, We came up with the idea of Live Viewing at cinemas and are delighted to offer an alternative experience for fans to enjoy the concert live.”

The event, which was HYBE and Trafalgar Releasing’s fourth global title with BTS, marked the group’s long-awaited return to a stage in South Korea in front of a live audience for the first time since 2019.

“It’s a testament to both the overwhelmingly dedicated fandom of the [BTS] Army and the overall return to cinemas on a global scale”

“We are delighted with the record-breaking success of this project, not only for Trafalgar Releasing but the event cinema industry as a whole,” adds Marc Allenby, CEO of Trafalgar Releasing. “It’s a testament to both the overwhelmingly dedicated fandom of the [BTS] Army and the overall return to cinemas on a global scale.”

BTS completed a three-concert run at Seoul Olympic Stadium on March 10, 12 and 13, attended by a total of 45,000 people in compliance with the Covid-19 protocols, with a maximum capacity of 15,000 per show.

The production used a gigantic moving LED screen that moved up and down, and forward and backward, to maximise the impact of live interaction with the audience.

Covid-19 regulations banned any chanting, shouting or standing-up on-site through the concert. Fans were allowed to clap or use the clappers as well as the official lightsticks to cheer the band during the concert.

BTS will perform additional show dates for BTS Permission to Dance on Stage – Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium on 8-9 and 15-16 April. The in-person live broadcast event Live Play in Las Vegas will be available at MGM Grand Garden Arena on all four days. There will also be an online live stream on the last day on April 16.

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Glastonbury’s Festival’s upcoming Live at Worthy Farm live stream will also be broadcast at cinemas around the UK, organisers have announced.

Through a partnership with Trafalgar Releasing – the company behind record-breaking concert film releases by the likes of BTS and Coldplay, the latter of whom will play Live at Worthy Farm – the virtual festival, broadcast from Glastonbury’s Worthy Home site on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 May, will screen in tandem at cinemas across the UK on Saturday.

Tickets for the cinema screenings, which go on sale today (12 May), are priced from £19.99.

Glastonbury Festival also today announced set times and new guests for the five-hour event, with a “unique spoken-word narrative” featuring PJ Harvey, Jarvis Cocker, Kae Tempest, George the Poet, Kurupt FM, Little Amal and festival founder Michael Eavis adding to previously announced sets from artists including Coldplay, Damon Albarn, Haim, Idles and Jorja Smith.

Live at Worthy Farm will be broadcast across four separate time zones (for EMEA; central, south and the east coast of North America; the west coast of North America; and Asia Pacific) on Saturday, with two global “encore” screenings on Sunday 23rd, at 2pm and 7pm BST. Tickets are priced at priced at £20, €23, US$27.50 & A$35.

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Dutch rock band Di-rect sold more than 14,000 tickets for their latest concert live stream, held at the Omniversum cinema in the Hague last Friday (5 March).

The show, the band’s sixth in the last 12 months, saw Di-rect perform in front of Omniversum’s giant, Imax-style domed screen – which at 840m² is 4,500 times larger than a home television, and wraps halfway around the audience – against the backdrop of immersive light show created by projection-mapping company Mr Beam.

Like previous Di-Rect live streams, tickets for the Omniversum event were sold by GUTS Tickets on a pay-what-you-choose model.

“A band in great shape, a high-quality livestream from a unique location, and the ‘pay-what-you-like’ ticketing defines its success”

“It’s great to see so much enthusiasm for Di-rect’s livestream concerts,” says promoter Agents After All in a statement. “Even though it was their sixth live stream in a year, it was their best sold one to date. The combination of a band in great shape, a high-quality livestream from a unique location, and the ‘pay-what-you-like’ ticketing with GUTS ticketing defines its success, we believe.

“A great compliment to everyone involved and we look forward to the next event on 1 May with the Hague Philharmonic Orchestra.”

Tickets for Di-rect’s seventh live stream, from AFAS Circus Theatre in the Hague, are on sale now via the band’s website. Pay-what-you-like pricing starts from a minimum of €2.

This article forms part of IQ’s Covid-19 resource centre – a knowledge hub of essential guidance and updating resources for uncertain times.

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