As caravans of heavy trucks and crew-filled buses rumble down the roads, the reverberations send a signal that summer stadium shows are in full swing. PLSN offers a brief round-up of some concert tours coming to and currently playing outdoor sports venues across the country.
Bad Bunny: Travis Shirley gave PLSN a few quick factoids of the upcoming Bad Bunny: World’s Hottest Tour. Claiming it’s one of the largest tours on the road, he cites its 34 trucks, of which 11 are filled with 1,500 lighting fixtures. The artist hits stadiums starting Aug. 5 across the U.S. and Latin America.
Elton John: Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road The Final Tour, which started in 2018, has returned after Covid lockdowns and more rescheduling and is continuing on its North American stadium run through November. Lighting Designer Patrick Woodroffe and stage designers Stufish Entertainment Architects collaborated on the pop icon’s tour, which goes overseas in 2023. Longtime Lighting Director Kevin “Stick” Bye is operating what is designed to be Sir Elton’s final run on the road before his retirement.
Garth Brooks: Longtime LD David “Gig” Butzler returns with the largely sold-out Garth Brooks Stadium Tour across the U.S. and Canada, which wraps in Ireland in September.
Grupo Firme: Mexican musical group Grupo Firme is filling U.S. stadiums on their Enfiestados y Amanecidos Tour, accompanied by folklorico dancers and incorporating various musical types including mariachi, banda and norteño. Production Designer Andy Ruiz says his team includes Assistant Production Designers Eric Cruz and Rodrigo Rodriguez, Lighting Designer/Operator Arturo Sanchez, Tour Master Electrician Derek Lewis, and lighting crew Rudy Carbajal, Jorge Lobo, Edward Gomez and Josh Forney. The leg started in May and ends in September in Houston, TX.
Lady Gaga: LeRoy Bennett has designed Lady Gaga’s Chromatica Ball Tour, which plays stadiums on its European and North American summer run June 17 to Sept. 17. Steven Mills programmed the show and Celine Royer is operating it on the road.
Mötley Crüe & Def Leppard: Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard are co-headlining The Stadium Tour. Matt Mills says he programmed Mike Cooper’s design for Mötley Crüe , with Michael Willingham at the console. Programming the large show required Mills to ‘“fold the rig in half.” He says the process wasn’t too difficult. ”We made sure our previz file was accurate and anything in question we would reference that.” Def Leppard’s LD is Kenji Ohashi. Opening acts are Poison and Joan Jett and The Blackhearts. Assistant Tour Manager Annie DiBiasi says she’s also running the show as LD for Jett. The North American leg runs to Sept. 9.
Rammstein: Lighting Designers Roland Greil and Patrick Woodroffe of Woodroffe Bassett Design, along with Production Designer Florian Wieder have created a huge technical spectacle for German heavy rockers, Rammstein. “It is indeed one of the biggest and most complex touring shows out there in the world right now,” Greil claims. So much so, that it requires two lighting operators on the tour: Faren Matern and Marc Brunkhardt. The production is playing across European stadiums this summer, and soon they will launch their first-ever North American stadium tour, hitting the U.S. Sept. 6.
The Weeknd: Artist Abel Tesfaye, known as The Weeknd, has launched his first global stadium tour. Part of the After Hours til Dawn Tour design team includes Creative Director La Mar C. Taylor, Production Designer Es Devlin, Scenic Design Producer Jason Ardizzone-West and Lighting Designer Jason Baeri. The North American leg runs to Sept. 22, ending in the artist’s hometown of Toronto.
More Touring News
Nimblist Designs: Justin Collie of design firm Nimblist says, “We just kicked off the arena run for stand-up comedian Kevin Hart, as well as Chris Brown & Lil Baby’s One of Them Ones tour mid-July to mid-August in North America. I’m about to head down to Buenos Aires for a young artist called Tiago, who is shooting a live show at the Movistar Arena. This is followed by Lizzo’s rehearsals for her Special Tour at the end of August, for her North American arena tour kicking off Sept. 23 in Sunrise, FL. Hopefully some kind of break after that!”
Tracking Train: Tracking Train’s tour production, all roads lead to Joel Wojcik. “I did all the lighting design, set design and 75% of the content creation—but that number seems to get larger as they add songs,” the LD says. “We had just been finishing some one-offs and privates before the pandemic started, so the shutdown gave us time to think about what we wanted to do. I have a new respect for content creators and After Effects.”
Leading up to this, earlier this year he did a design for Diana Krall that was postponed numerous times due to the Covid variants. He also helped reconfigure a lighting design for Elvis Costello’s recently completed UK tour and his upcoming U.S. leg for the fall. Considering all the stops, starts and rescheduling in the itineraries, he adds, “This year has been crazy, and it just seems to keep going.”
Send your cool news about upcoming shows this autumn to PLSN Co-Editor Debi Moen at dmoen@plsn.com.
