There’s something almost silly about the picture. The Munich Messe fairgrounds have a temporary stadium that was built just for one artist. It stands out like a mirage. It had huge letters that said “ADELE” all around the outside. There was a theme park next door with rides, food stands, and karaoke that went late into the night. The organizers called it “Adele World.” More than 730,000 people went through its gates over ten nights in August 2024.
It was really amazing. Different people said it was also a quiet war against the live music business in Europe.
It had been since 2016 since Adele last performed in continental Europe. There had been a lot of pressure on them for eight years, and promoters all over the continent knew it. French, Spanish, Dutch, Polish, and many other city fans did not see her come to them when she finally came back. Instead, they packed their bags and flew to Bavaria. It’s not as important as it might seem that difference.
Promoters all over Europe see touring artists as more than just a cultural event. It has to do with money. All of these things happen in the cities where the shows take place: ticket sales, hotel reservations, bar tabs, merchandise, and transportation. Adele didn’t just combine her shows when she chose a ten-show residency in one place over a stadium tour across the continent. All of that money was put into one city, one economy, and one group of organizers. More than 500 million euros were spent by fans in Munich, which was a huge benefit. No one else got anything.
Promoters might have been more willing to accept this trade-off if the model had felt like an outlier. There was a fear that it could be used as a model, which made many of them uncomfortable. The thought of megastars building their own venues in European cities in the middle of the continent and skipping all regional markets made a lot of sense, but it was also very scary. At the time of the announcement, a high-level person in the British music industry made it clear: someone had offered a huge amount of money in exchange for Adele becoming an exclusive artist in Europe.
The phrase “European exclusive” hurt the most. It had nothing to do with Munich alone. It had to do with what Munich stood for.
In any way you look at it, the financials were shocking. It took about $130 million to build the venue, which has a curved LED screen that is 220 meters long and broke the Guinness World Record. Together with promoters Klaus Leutgeb and Marek Lieberberg, Live Nation built a financial structure that most European promoters in the region could not match or compete with. When the infrastructure needed to protect an artist costs nine figures, the conversation about who can work in live music changes in ways that aren’t comfortable.
Then there were the prices of the tickets. The least expensive seats were gone almost right away. Latecomers could only get VIP packages that cost close to £1,000. This price point caused real anger online and led to claims that the event had priced out regular fans. It’s important to note that this anger wasn’t so much at Adele herself, but at the business world that was around her. Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and Leutgeb Entertainment were named in a Change.org petition. Several times, the word “scam” was used.
When you think about it now, the residency in Munich seems to have brought out a tension that had been building in live music for years. There are a few artists who work on such a huge scale that the normal touring model doesn’t work for them anymore. They can set the rules, pick the locations, and build whole new venues instead of adapting to the ones that are already there. It was unsettling for promoters who have spent their whole careers building relationships with venues and audiences in their own markets to see that logic play out.
It’s still not clear if Munich will be a one-time event or the first step in a bigger plan. Adele herself said she would be taking a long break from music after her last shows in Las Vegas. The stadium has been taken apart. But the conversation it started about who the live music industry is really for, who has power, and how to get to it is still going.
