As summer heats up, a growing number of stars — including The Prodigy, AC/DC, Queens of the Stone Age, Burna Boy, Addison Rae, and Little Simz — are gearing up to take tours around the world this year.

Ahead of their The Other Stage headlining slot at Glastonbury this Sunday, English electronic group The Prodigy have unveiled a 2026 UK/IE arena tour featuring special guest DJ Carl Cox.

The 10-date, SJM Concerts-promoted run kicks off on 15 April at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro (cap. 14,300), stopping at Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bournemouth, Leeds, two in London, Belfast, before closing at Dublin’s 3Arena (13,000) on 26 April.

“We’re bringin’ back that full experience of non-stop noise and beats from doors to getting chucked out. It will be that full Prodigy experience as it was then and how it continues to be now,” band leader Liam Howlett shared in a statement.

Down under, AC/DC is set to return to their native Australia with an eight-show run on their ongoing Power Up Tour, supported by Aussie punk rockers Amyl and the Sniffers.

The famed band will do two shows at Melbourne’s Cricket Ground (100,000) in late November, followed by two stops at Sydney’s Accor Stadium (83,500), a headlining slot at the Adelaide 500 racing event, one at Perth’s Optus Stadium (60,000), before finishing with two at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium (52,500) in mid-December.

The group is currently performing across Europe, with the Power Up Tour taking them across Europe and North America after kicking off in May 2024.

“The end result will be a precious few unique and intimate performances unlike any previous QOTSA tour”

American rock band Queens of the Stone Age have revealed an intimate North American theatre run, The Catacombs Tour, named after the group’s recent works capturing a 2024 performance in the Catacombs of Paris.

“Comprised of all-new arrangements crafted specifically for the occasion and enhanced by assembled ensembles, the end result will be a precious few unique and intimate performances unlike any previous QOTSA tour,” the band wrote online.

The 11-show stint of “North America’s most historic theatres” begins at the Chicago Theatre (3,600) on 2 October, running through Detroit, Toronto, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin before closing at New Orleans’ Saenger Theatre (2,600).

QOTSA will spend the summer headlining arenas and several festivals across Europe, including Romania’s Electric Castle, Switzerland’s Paléo Festival, Norway’s Øyafestivalen, the Netherlands’ Lowlands Festival, and France’s Rock en Seine as part of their ongoing The End Is Nero World Tour.

K-pop group TOMORROW X TOGETHER will embark on their fourth world tour, ACT : TOMORROW, later this year. The run will kick off with two shows at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome (16,744) in August, with future dates to be announced.

The forthcoming run marks the group’s return to the stage only three months after the conclusion of their previous tour, ACT : PROMISE, which helped drive HYBE to its biggest Q1 financial results yet after tripling its concert revenue.

Maroon 5 has revealed a new album and the 23-city Love Is Like arena support tour, kicking off at Phoenix’s PHX Arena (18,422) on 6 October. It will then run through the likes of San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, before closing at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena (22,000) on 25 November.

“I can’t believe I get to sing and dance for you (and with you) this fall”

Elsewhere, Burna Boy has also revealed a North American tour that will see the Nigerian star play in the round. After beginning at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre (9,525) on 12 November, he will bring a 360-degree stage to arenas across 15 cities, including Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, New York City, Atlanta, and Montreal.

He’ll close with two nights at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena (19,800) in mid-December.

Singer Reneé Rapp will also begin her 2025 Bite Me Tour at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in September. From there, she’ll headline arenas including NYC’s Madison Square Garden (19,500), Inglewood’s Kia Forum (17,505), Atlanta’s State Farm Arena (21,000), before finishing in her native North Carolina at Spectrum Center (17,500) on 29 October.

Rapp will also headline the inaugural Toronto edition of All Things Go music festival and perform at its original DC edition during the run.

TikTok star-turned-popstar Addison Rae is due out in support of her debut album, Addison. Kicking off at Dublin’s National Stadium on 26 August, Rae will play across the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, including two shows at London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town (2,300).

From there, she’ll perform 16 shows across North America, beginning in Austin and running through stops like Nashville, New York City, Boston, Toronto, and Chicago, capped off by two nights at Los Angeles’ The Wiltern (2,300). In November, Rae will head down under to perform two nights each in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney.

“THE ADDISON TOUR IS REALLY REAL!!!!!! I can’t believe I get to sing and dance for you (and with you) this fall,” she wrote online.

“It has been – as it always is – a brilliant and interesting journey”

The WME-repped singer was also just announced as Lana Del Rey’s opener for her two Wembley Stadium (90,000) shows in London next month.

Emo act AFI will headline a tour of two dozen North American clubs and theatres this fall, starting in September at Madison, Wisconsin’s The Sylvee (2,500). The run will include stops at Chicago’s Salt Shed (5,000), The Anthem in Washington, D.C. (6,000), NYC’s Brooklyn Paramount (2,700), and will wrap at San Diego’s SOMA (2,300) ahead of a performance at Mexico City’s Corona Capital festival on 16 November.

And finally, British rapper Little Simz will also embark on a North American theatre tour this year, kicking off in Toronto on 27 October.

The Lotus support tour will bring Simz to Boston, NYC, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Denver and more before it wraps in Los Angeles on 18 November.

Prior to that, she’ll perform across several European festivals before headlining an EU/UK tour in September-October, including shows at Manchester’s Co-op Live (23,500) and London’s The O2 (20,000).

Simz curated Meltdown festival’s 30th, taking place edition earlier this month at London’s Southbank Centre, with performances from the likes of Streets, BadBadNotGood, Jon Batiste, James Blake and more. Southbank Centre’s head of contemporary music Jane Bees lauded the “extraordinary” curator Little Simz ahead of the event.

“It has been – as it always is – a brilliant and interesting journey,” Beese shared with IQ. “With Simz this year, it’s been incredibly easy to lean into some of the areas where we have shared values around the next generation and bringing young people into the festival.

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Southbank Centre’s head of contemporary music Jane Beese has lauded “extraordinary” Meltdown 2025 curator Little Simz on the eve of the festival’s 30th edition.

Little Simz’ Meltdown is set for the London venue from 12-22 June, with the WME-represented rapper scheduled to close the event with a one-off performance with Chineke! Orchestra.

“I’ve been an admirer of hers for a long time,” Beese tells IQ. “She’s one of the most extraordinary musicians and creatives around at the moment, and we wanted to celebrate that.”

Launched in 1993, Meltdown is the longest-running artist-curated festival in the world. Simz has handpicked this year’s lineup, which also features Ghetts, Jon Batiste, Lola Young, Sasha Keable, The Streets, Yukimi, Bina and Mahalia, Tiwa Savage, BadBadNotGood, James Blake, Nubya Garcia, Mega, Jon Poppii and Kara Jackson.

Concerts will be held across three venues within the complex: Royal Festival Hall (cap. 2,740), Queen Elizabeth Hall (916) and Purcell Room (300). A free cultural programme will also take place across both weekends of the festival.

“It has been – as it always is – a brilliant and interesting journey,” says Beese. “With Simz this year, it’s been incredibly easy to lean into some of the areas where we have shared values around the next generation and bringing young people into the festival.

“Our priorities are making sure we have a really good range of artists across the three venues, but also that we’re able to make it work from a budgetary point of view and present a lot of free stuff, workshops and sound systems. All these things have to balance themselves out on a pragmatic level and I think we’ve achieved that.”

“There are always two moments: the moment when you announce the curator and the moment when you announce the programme”

For Beese, who returned for a second stint at the Southbank last year following spells as head of music for London’s Roundhouse and director of music at Manchester International Festival, it marks her first time at the Meltdown helm in a decade.

“It’s great to be back,” she says. “The artistic director, Mark [Ball], was my first boss when I went to Manchester, and it’s [Meltdown’s] 30th edition. It’s not the 30th year because we lost a couple through Covid, and we also lost a year in 2008 because the Royal Festival Hall was being refurbished.

“We changed the format at some point. It used to run over a longer period of time, but not on consecutive days, so it’s more compact now. It runs over 11 days across the site and I think that really works, because you can illuminate all of the free stuff in the public programme in a different way.”

She elaborates: “We have a big public programme at the Southbank – about 40% of what we do is free – and we have a creative engagement team that works with schools and communities. That isn’t always something a curator would automatically lean into, but with Simz it was almost the first conversation we had.”

Previous curators have included Christine and the Queens, Grace Jones, Nile Rodgers, Robert Smith, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Anohni, Massive Attack, Jarvis Cocker, Patti Smith and David Bowie, while Beese’s debut Meltdown in 2001 was overseen by Robert Wyatt.

“In many ways, the process of the curator is still the same and yet different,” she says. “It’s still a back and forth of suggestions and ideas, but because of the different curators it always has different flavour to it and a different emphasis.

“There are always two moments: the moment when you announce the curator and the moment when you announce the programme. People have endless opinions about what’s good and what’s not, but we’ve had really good feedback on this one.”

“Being able to think that you’re not only peering into a curator’s record collection, but into their interests is really interesting”

According to Beese, who also worked with London-born Simz during her time at Roundhouse, being able to showcase “a really broad range of work” is a key component of any successful Meltdown.

“It often comes from a musical starting point, but we encourage artists to look at work across genres as well,” she says. “So with David Byrne [2015], we had quite a lot of performance and dance pieces. With Patti Smith [2005], we had poetry and spoken word. And when David Bowie was here [2002], he had an organisation called Bowieart, which was about supporting younger generation visual artists, and we created a gallery space in the Festival Hall foyer.

“With James Lavelle [2014], we had an archive exhibition of stuff from his label. Being able to think that you’re seeing slightly behind the curtain – and that you’re not only peering into a curator’s record collection, but into their interests – is really interesting. It’s always the optimism of a programmer to find an audience that will be curious about something that is not usually on their playlist.”

Beese reveals that while the chance to resume working on Meltdown was a driving force in her decision to return to the Southbank Centre, it was not the only motivating factor.

“Next year is the 75th anniversary of the Royal Festival Hall, so it’s 75 years since [national exhibition and fair] the Festival of Britain, and we have lots of exciting plans for that,” she says, keeping her cards close to her chest. “And we’ve got some quite exciting Meltdown plans for next year as part of the wider anniversary, which we will reveal in the next couple of months.”

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Little Simz has been named as the curator of this year’s 30th edition of Southbank Centre’s Meltdown Festival.

The rapper, who will perform herself during the London event, will put together a “boundary-breaking” lineup for the 11-day festival, which runs from Thursday 12 June to Sunday 22 June. The first names for 2025 will be announced in the spring.

Previous curators have included Christine and the Queens, Grace Jones, Nile Rodgers, Robert Smith, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Anohni, Massive Attack, Jarvis Cocker, Patti Smith and David Bowie.

“I’m super-excited to be the 2025 Meltdown festival curator,” says Simz. “My team and I are preparing 11 days of art, music, workshops and more. So many incredible artists have curated this festival so it’s a true honour to be a part of it.”

Little Simz’ Meltdown will feature two weekends of free participatory programming, featuring grassroots collectives and local organisations, as well as “one-of-a-kind” performances. Southbank Centre will also be transformed into a festival open for all.

“We’re incredibly excited to witness the lineup she’ll curate”

“Little Simz’ ability to forge new genre-defying ideas and her ambition to inspire the next generation of creators aligns with what the Southbank Centre’s artistic programme and vision stands for,” Jane Beese, head of contemporary music, Southbank Centre. “We’re incredibly excited to witness the lineup she’ll curate and for the power of her great art, leadership and culture to bring people together on-site for our 30th year.”

The venue’s artistic director Mark Ball adds: “Meltdown has become one of the most enduring and anticipated highlights of the annual music calendar, shaped each year by the spirit, imagination and artistry of its curator.

“Little Simz is becoming such a powerful influence in London and beyond and we’re delighted that for 11 days in June the Southbank Centre will become her cultural playground where she can fully explore her musicianship, her icons and her cultural passions.”

Meltdown 2024 was curated by Chaka Khan and included acts including Emeli Sandé, Lady Blackbird, Bruce Hornsby and Incognito.

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The Chemical Brothers are the latest act to dismiss touring in the US, as the country’s authorities consider raising touring visa fees for foreign acts by more than 250%.

In an interview with Billboard, the English electronic music duo revealed that they aren’t planning any US shows in support of their new album due to ballooning costs.

“The costs have gone up so much. It’s just not really viable at the moment,” said the duo’s Ed Simons. “I’m apologetic to the people who do want to see us that it is increasingly difficult for us to get to America because we have had the times of our lives playing there.”

The pair also commented on the state of touring post-pandemic and how they attempted to lower the costs of their live touring production to make touring the US more affordable.

“[The production] originally came from the fact that we didn’t want to inflict [audiences with] just the two of us awkwardly standing with the synthesisers,” Simons said.

“So we wanted a big back job, but it’s just grown and grown, and now we’ve got these 40-foot clowns voicing the words.”

The increasing costs of touring the US are not helped by a planned increase in the cost of paperwork to get there.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was planning to raise touring visa fees for foreign acts by more than 250%.

The current petition fee would rocket from $460 to $1,655 (a 260% increase) for a regularly processed ‘O’ work visa and soar to $1,615 (251%) for a regularly processed ‘P’ visa – putting 50% of all UK tours of the US under threat according to data from trade body LIVE.

However, DHS and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have now reportedly agreed to delay the implementation of the rise until at least March 2024 and are considering a lower increase.

Regardless, the costs of touring have still prevented several big-name artists from being able to play shows in the US in recent months.

“The costs have gone up so much. It’s just not really viable at the moment”

Last year, English rapper Little Simz cancelled a run of 10 North American tour dates due to the “huge deficit” it would leave her in financially. Santigold also cancelled a tour of the territory, citing “skyrocket[ing]” price of “gas, tour buses, hotels, and flight[s]”.

English electronic group Metronomy, who also pulled the plug on their North America tour, said “Touring America is one of the most expensive and exhausting things a band can do”.

Earlier this year, Easy Life axed their North American tour dates due to “some insane costs,” adding that “the world seems to cost 10x as much as it used to right now”.

The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has also reckoned it unlikely that his band would be able to tour America again.

“We cannot get insured and most of the big bands doing arena shows, by the time they do their first show and rehearsals and get the staging and crew together, all the buses and hotels, you’re upwards $600,000 to a million in the hole,” he said back in April.

“To earn that back, if you’re doing a 12-show run, you don’t start to earn it back until the seventh or eighth show. That’s just how the business works. The trouble now is if you get COVID after the first show, you’ve [lost] that money.”

Placebo, meanwhile, postponed their entire North American tour, last September, just two days before it was due to begin, citing “visa and logistical issues”.

The Music Managers Forum (MMF) and Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) stepped up their #LetTheMusicMove campaign earlier this year in order to oppose changes to US visa applications.

#LetTheMusicMove was originally established in June 2021 to campaign for reductions in post-Brexit costs and red tape for UK artists and musicians when touring in Europe, but extended its focus following the announcement by the DHS.

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The live music sector contributed £1.1 billion (US$1.42bn/€1.28bn) to the British economy in 2018 – a 10% year-on-year increase – according to UK Music’s inaugural Music by Numbers report.

Music by Numbers 2019 – which builds on and replaces the umbrella body’s forerunner Measuring Music and Wish You Were Here reports – reveals the UK music industry continued to grow across every sector last year, with live once again leading the charge.

UK Music, which includes the UK Live Music Group, measures the health of Britain’s music business each year by collating data on its contribution in goods and services – known as gross value added (GVA) – to the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP), including export revenue.

The findings of this year’s report include:

• The UK music industry contributed £5.2bn to the British economy in 2018
• The live music sector made a contribution of £1.1 bn – up 10% on 2017’s £991 million
• Employment in the industry hit an all-time high of 190,935in 2018
• The total export revenue of the music industry was £2.7bn in 2018.
• Music tourism alone contributed £4.5bn spend to the UK economy – up 12%, from £4bn, on 2017
• Overseas visitors to UK shows and festivals surged 10%, from 810,000 in 2017 to 888,000 in 2018

GVA from recorded music also rose, by 5% to £535m – remaining at around half the contribution of the live sector – while total record label revenues grew for the third consecutive year (3% in 2018).

“The figures in this report are testament to the outstanding creativity of our world-leading artists”

Employment in live, meanwhile, increased 7% to 30,529.

“Our report reveals firm evidence that the British music industry is in great shape and continuing to lead the world,” comments UK Music CEO Michael Dugher. “The figures are hugely encouraging and show that, as well as enriching the lives of millions of people, music makes an incredible contribution to the UK’s economy.

“Live music is now at a record high and continues to draw millions of fans from both the UK and abroad to our arenas and smaller venues alike.

“Music exports are another amazing success story, with the best of British creative talent being showcased across the globe. However, this is not a time for complacency. We face many challenges to ensure we keep our music industry vibrant, diverse and punching above its weight. 

“Live music is now at a record high and continues to draw millions of fans from both the UK and abroad”

“We need to do more to protect grassroots venues by helping them combat soaring business rates. We need to nurture the talent pipeline, including by reversing the decline of music in education, so that children from every background have access to music. 

“We need to make sure that creators get fair rewards for their content and are not ripped off by big tech. And we urgently need to ensure that the impact of Brexit doesn’t put in jeopardy the free movement of talent, just at the time when we should be looking outwards and backing the best of British talent right across the world.”

The UK live music industry first broke £1bn GVA in 2016, though the 2018 figure is around £100m higher, indicating continued growth.

Writing in the Music by Numbers 2019’s foreword, culture secretary Nicky Morgan pays tribute to emerging British acts including Sam Fender, Dave (pictured) and Little Simz, and says “the figures in this report are testament to the outstanding creativity of our world-leading artists”.

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