The Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT) has inducted its first venue members, Spain’s Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys and Palau Sant Jordi.

The non-profit organisation, formed in 2019 to promote better ticket resale practices across Europe, has worked on several EU-wide campaigns to develop better laws to protect fans and promoters against predatory ticket resellers.

Today, Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys and Palau Sant Jordi – both based in Barcelona and owned by Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (BSM) – become the first major venues in Europe to join FEAT.

The 55,000-capacity Estadi Olímpic is one of the biggest stadiums in Spain and regularly hosts concerts, with Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Rammstein, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers gracing its stage in the past few years. The stadium has also been used by FC Barcelona for training and fixtures in the 2023/24 season whilst their home ground undergoes renovation.

“Estadi Olímpic and Palau Sant Jordi are of huge cultural significance in the city”

The 18,500-capacity Palau Sant Jordi is the largest indoor arena in Spain. It also has a 4,500-capacity club at the back of the building. Between the two venues, Palau Sant Jordi provides a space for medium and large-scale concerts for a wide range of genres and artists. In 2023/2024 alone, the venue will have hosted both national and international artists.

In 2023, the venues closed a record year with 2.1 million spectators and more than 160 programmed events.

“Ticket resale directly affects venues such as the Palau Sant Jordi and the Olympic Stadium,” says Anella Olímpica director Carmen Lanuza. “Joining this initiative is part of our commitment to generate unique and safe experiences for all those who visit us. It is essential to join efforts to make it possible to end this practice.”

Neo Sala, CEO of Doctor Music and Founding Director of FEAT, said “I am extremely excited to welcome BSM, and the venues that they represent, to FEAT. Estadi Olímpic and Palau Sant Jordi are of huge cultural significance in the city bringing the world’s greatest artists to Barcelona. It is great news that they believe in FEAT’s mission of face-value ticket resale and we look forward to working with them to protect fans from predatory resellers.”

FEAT recently celebrated the implementation of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which brings with it major implications for the online secondary ticketing market.

The organisation’s members include Ben Mitha (Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion, DE), Christof Huber (Gadget, CH), Ewald Tartar (Barracuda, AT), Kim Worsøe (All Things Live, DK) and Peter Aiken (Aiken Promotions, IE) among others.

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Coldplay continue to break records around the world after becoming the first band to sell out four nights at a Spanish stadium on a single tour.

The British group drew a total of 225,000 people to the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona from 24-25 and 27-28 May, presented by Live Nation Spain, as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour, reports APMusicales.

They also played two sellout shows at the venue, which has a capacity of around 56,000, during their previous A Head Full of Dreams tour in May 2016.

Kicking off in March 2022, the Music of the Spheres World Tour had sold more than six million tickets across Europe, North America, and Latin America at the last count.

Last year, Coldplay made history in Argentina by completing an unprecedented 10-night sellout run at the 65,000-cap Estadio River Plate in Buenos Aires

Last year, Coldplay made history in Argentina by completing an unprecedented 10-night sellout run at the 65,000-cap Estadio River Plate in Buenos Aires. The national record previously belonged to Roger Waters, who played nine shows at the venue in March 2012 during his The Wall Live tour.

Earlier this month, the band, whose international agent is X-ray Touring’s Josh Javor, announced they are returning to Asia and Australia this November for a special run of stadium shows, including their first Tokyo shows since 2017, their first ever dates in Kaohsiung, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur and a one-off performance at Perth’s Optus Stadium – their first in Western Australia since 2009.

Frontman Chris Martin recently responded to calls for the band to cancel their Malaysian date. Leader of the Malaysian Islamic Party (also known as PAS), Nasrudin Hassan, called for the 22 November show in Kuala Lumpur’s National Stadium Bukit Jalil to be called off.

Subscribers can revisit our in-depth look at the Music of the Spheres trek, first published in Issue 113 of IQ Magazine, here.

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