Industry News

Five million fans attempt to buy Sheeran UK tour tickets 

Five million people attempted to buy tickets for Ed Sheeran’s 2017 UK arena tour.

After going on sale in February, demand skyrocketed, according to Sheeran’s booking agent, the Music Week website reports.

The tour is being co-promoted by Kilimanjaro Live and DHP Family, with AEG Presents handling the Scotland gigs, such as the tour’s first show this Sunday at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, following two shows at Dublin’s 3Arena.

Aside from a one-off show in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall last month, the tour will be Sheeran’s first domestic dates since his successful three-night run at Wembley Stadium in 2015.

“It has been absolutely off the scale,” his agent Jon Ollier, of CAA, told Music Week. “I’m told that, in the UK alone, five million people tried to buy tickets, which is unprecedented.”

Kilimanjaro promoter Steve Tilley, said: “I expected it to carry on where he left off because Ed is a master of confounding everyone’s expectations. You can’t rest on your laurels with Ed, he’s very unpredictable; you think he’ll do one thing and he’ll do another.

“I’ve heard songs acoustically that didn’t make this record that I thought were outstanding. He just carries on confounding expectations.”

DHP Family’s Dan Ealam added: “Everyone knew that demand was going to be huge. The arenas sold out so fast, even faster than last time. He’s only got bigger since then with the success of the singles and the record.”