One Year Later… Feast To Famine: Global Concert Activity In March 2020

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 – Feast To Famine

As March 2020 dawned, anticipation was already high for the bustling, record-setting year of concert activity that had been forecast, based on the upward trajectory of live entertainment box office success in recent years. The many high-profile tours that were to launch during the year only added to the expectations.


And gross sales in that first week reached $153.7 million. Even 52 weeks at that level would have produced an overall gross of $8 billion for the year, but that was March and well before most tours had even begun and before an upcoming festival season or any summer stadium and amphitheater touring. Indeed, many predictions for 2020 suggested that the year could see $12 billion in global concert grosses.

But then the pandemic arrived and, by the second week of the month, there was already a reaction. Only about half as many shows were reported in the second week of March due to cancellations and postponements. Sunday, March 15 was the beginning of the third week, and there were only nine events on that day that were reported. After the 15th, there were only two: one on the following day and one on March 17. After that, nothing. The next events reported were not until April when drive-in concerts began appearing in Europe. Then, the remainder of the year saw more drive-in productions around the world and small venues staging shows with social distancing and reduced capacities due to COVID-19.

Week 1
Eagles played two concerts at Houston’s Toyota Center with sales of $6.5 million, the 10th-highest gross of the year at that point and the highest in the first week of March. Post Malone completed concerts at arenas in four cities: Nashville, Memphis, Atlanta and Greensboro, N.C., while Celine Dion sold out shows at three arenas in the New York City metropolitan area. Elton John moved 56,619 tickets at two Australian stadiums and Backstreet Boys performed for more than 60,000 fans in Chile and Colombia. Antwerp, Belgium’s dance music event “Reverze” sold out at the Sportpaleis, and Irish band The Script played concerts in Dublin and Belfast.

Week 2
Vive Latino, the last festival before the shutdown, kicked off with headliner Guns N’ Roses at Mexico City’s Foro Sol stadium on Saturday, March 14, grossing $7.7 million at the two-day event. Soda Stereo played for 46,301 fans at the same stadium just two days earlier. Tame Impala performed in two California cities early that week, San Diego on Monday and a two-night stint at the L.A. Forum on Tuesday and Wednesday. Shania Twain finished only the first two 2020 performances of her “Let’s Go!” residency at Zappos Theater in Las Vegas that had launched in December and was supposed to run for two years.

Week 3
On March 15, Welsh rock band Stereophonics managed to complete its 2020 U.K. tour that wrapped with a two-show hometown finale at Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff. They had played Newcastle, Aberdeen and Glasgow in the preceding week and entertained 45,626 fans in all four markets. Pollstar’s Boxoffice archives only contain two more concerts that occurred after Sunday, March 15, the first a show on the 16th by English singer Louise Redknapp. She drew 303 attendees at O2 Institute 2 in Birmingham. Finally, Scottish musician Midge Ure performed at The Gov in Adelaide, South Australia on March 17 for 414.