August 2024 concert residency by Adele
Adele in Munich was the second concert residency by English singer Adele, held in a purpose-built outdoor arena at in Munich, Germany. The ten-date residency, consisting of two performances per week, began on 2 August 2024 and ended on 31 August 2024. She performed 20 songs at the Adele Arena in front of a total audience of more than 730,000. 
Concert promoters and encouraged Adele to perform in Europe in a temporary venue designed by . The stage production was set up within the largest temporary capacity ever constructed for an arena and stadium. It was surrounded by a catering and attraction area named Adele World, which included additional stages for opening acts and Late Night Karaoke, as well as personal memorabilia on display.
Adele in Munich set a world record for the largest temporary outdoor LED video screen, which was 220 metres long and cost €40 million. The Munich performances achieved the highest attendance of any concert residency outside of Las Vegas over ten consecutive dates. It also broke the "Billboard" Boxscore attendance record for a concert engagement. The residency set the record for the largest total attendance at . Audience spending brought in more than half a billion euros for the city. These were Adele's only concerts in Europe for 2024.
Background.
Adele's Live 2016, the tour supporting her successful third album "25", traversed multiple continents. During the tour, records for ticket sales and attendance were broken. 600,000 tickets were sold for eight concerts in Australia, and she performed to a record 200,000 people over two nights at Sydney's ANZ Stadium. On 28 June 2017, Adele expressed her uncertainty about future tours in a handwritten note in the programs for her concert series at London's Wembley Stadium. She had decided to bring her world tour to a close in her hometown. Adele set the Wembley Stadium attendance record with 98,000 people. It was "a stadium record for a UK music event". Due to issues with her vocal cords, the last two nights at Wembley Stadium were cancelled after 121 concerts performed for this album cycle.
In April 2019, Adele's representatives announced her separation from her husband, Simon Konecki, a former "power player" at Lehman Brothers turned charity entrepreneur. She filed a divorce petition in September of that year in Los Angeles Superior Court.
During her several-year hiatus, Adele reappeared in October 2020 by hosting the American comedy show "Saturday Night Live". She made light-hearted comments about her recent weight loss and updated her fans on the production process status for her new album. In the episode, she played a contestant in a "Bachelor"-themed parody sketch, singing excerpts from her songs.
Adele finalised her divorce from Konecki in March 2021. She gave her first concert in years, performing in an intimate setting at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles for the CBS prime-time special "Adele One Night Only". Adele sang her latest single, "Easy on Me", as well as "I Drink Wine", "Hold On", and "Love is a Game" from her impending comeback album and had a conversation with Oprah Winfrey. 
Adele's fourth album, the first in six years, "30", was released on 19 November 2021. The album, which thematically centred on the collapse of her marriage, was created in the aftermath of her divorce and served as a means of explaining this phase of her life to her son. "30" was "self-destruction", said Adele, "then self-reflection and then sort of self-redemption." She performed at the London Palladium for her ITV special "An Audience with Adele" before "a celebrity-heavy crowd". Music critics acclaimed the album. On 30 November, she announced Weekends with Adele, a concert residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, scheduled to run from 21 January to 16 April 2022. "30" became the best-selling album of 2021.
On 20 January 2022, Adele tearfully said on her Instagram account that she postponed her entire Las Vegas residency. The sudden postponement was controversial; she justified it by citing "delivery delays and COVID" and later added that her "artistic needs" were "not being met". Weekends with Adele would eventually launch later that year. Adele had been absent from Continental European concert stages since 2016 and had not planned to return. However, concert promoters and would challenge her.
Development.
It originated when , driven by an idea but without an execution strategy, approached Lucy Dickins, Adele's agent and global head of contemporary music and touring at William Morris Endeavor (WME). He made a series of propositions for Adele to come and perform on an "open-air site" in Germany, but nothing concrete came to fruition. , an Austrian, called on his "friend and mentor" for the "production". 's commented that has been "one of the most seasoned" organisers. would help for the promotion as well. Adele's two sold-out performances at Hyde Park, London, in July 2022 and the Las Vegas residency were intended to be her only live appearances following the release of "30".
Improvements to 's propositions were thereafter made, accompanied by the recommendation of a purpose-built stadium, illustrated by a sketch from , a production designer. The upgraded offer was submitted to Dickins in 2023, and she examined it. "I knew questions would be asked, like, why Germany? Why Munich?" she recollected afterwards. The held in Munich was decisive, as was her evaluation of the urban infrastructure system supporting this event in a city geographically located in the heart of Central Europe. Persuaded, she presented the concept to her brother Jonathan, Adele's manager, who expressed interest in the project and would become "centrally" involved in the undertaking as with the Las Vegas residency. Jonathan Dickins has been Adele's manager since 2006.
 valorised the infrastructure of the (lit. 'Munich Trade Fair') exhibition centre in conversation with Adele in the United States. Nevertheless, she asked him about their selection of Munich, and he argued that the city functions effectively during significant events and even in the case of high-density crowds, using as an illustration. She found these arguments "madly convincing", said . , known to English speakers as "", is located in Messestadt Riem. Adele accepted the offer after seeing 's designs for an impermanent stadium. admitted they had to "overcome a lot of hurdles and put a great deal of work into convincing her". She deemed the project "fabulous", however. later recalled visiting Adele in America in August 2023 and telling her, "You are the Queen of Music, we will build you your own stadium". Adele responded, "Let's do it!" 
Matt Askem, Adele's creative director since 2016, worked closely with her; thus, the project's progress accelerated in the autumn of 2023. The appraisals highlighted the project's value, which would require a significant financial investment. Live Nation then joined the project. It materialised thanks to the support of Live Nation's chief executive officer (CEO), Michael Rapino, and vice president (VP) of touring, . A senior source in the British music industry said, "somebody's put a lot of money on the table. Not only have they got Adele, but they have her as a European exclusive". 
Meanwhile, , head of Munich's council Department of Labour and Economy and director of , had to conduct "countless conversations" and carry out "enormous" trust-building work at the exhibition centre for a year and a half in advance because the concerts of Andreas Gabalier, Helene Fischer, and Robbie Williams, which organised on the fairgrounds, received "negative feedback" during the summer of 2022. Although there were positive responses, 's suitability as a concert spot remained questionable due to the ground being strewn with stones of different sizes. The efficacy of the "traffic concept" was also questioned. The security environment was complicated at the German edition of Rolling Loud 2023, which also took place at and was organised by Live Nation GmbH and Entertainment Group, as aggressive individuals used these stones as projectiles. Improvements had nevertheless been made to Rolling Loud's organisational strategy. The exhibition centre's chief executives only learned belatedly that the request concerned Adele. 
The pivotal moment occurred shortly after Christmas 2023. The Adele project was formally adopted, and members of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), a party on the Munich City Council, jubilantly praised their colleague . of "Rolling Stone Germany" later wrote: "Various bureaucratic hurdles would have been cleared aside with a sense of proportion." commented that this political reaction denoted a "trend in the global live business", as Adele is part of the slogan " artists", comprising those who are capable of generating "mega-sales" during their tours and having a considerable economic impact on the cities that host them, through concert series in the same place. 
In January 2024, "The Times" journalists said the custom-built venue on a vast outdoor space at the exhibition centre would be the "world's largest pop-up stadium" and "far" exceeding the 44,000-capacity temporary stadium built for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. At this stage, and have been courting Adele for two years. On 31 January, it was announced that the event would be a concert residency at Munich's "bespoke" stadium. She posted a promotional poster titled "Adele in Munich" on her Instagram account that day. Soon after, the press issued two stadium images showing several "Adele" in bright capital letters around the perimeter of the exterior . "Rolling Stone Germany" journalists found the stadium's layout reminiscent of a one-handed clock from an aerial perspective. This music venue was subsequently known as the "Adele Arena". Looking back on the two years spent developing the project, commented in February, "I had a vision that drove me forward". 
Before performing in Munich, she had to complete a leg of Weekends with Adele, which ended on 15 June. Although Munich's Olympiastadion can accommodate 70,000 people, it had never been requested to host Adele concerts. Due to the Olympiastadion's ongoing renovation work, which would be interrupted by construction phases, the concerts would only take place in limited time slots. A spokesperson for the Olympiapark said that ten Adele concerts in a one-month window were not feasible. Another element that made using the Olympiastadion unlikely was the exclusive contract of 's Global Event and Entertainment GmbH, which gave it priority for organising concerts on the fairgrounds. According to a spokesperson for the , it was valid for July and August. 
A press conference was held on 16 July 2024 in hall C6 of , during which the media received information and visuals about the venue's layout. Adele was not present. commented that the idea had germinated two and a half years earlier while sitting next to in Munich. Jonathan Dickins said it would be "the total opposite of the very small shows in Las Vegas". The media event saw the unveiling of "Adele World", a temporary hospitality area built surrounding the stadium. described Adele in Munich as "the most extensive project in my 50 years in the music business". Past concert experiences on the exhibition grounds discussed at the press conference prompted 's to say, "And now?"
 Entertainment Group promoted the concert residency with Live Nation Concerts Germany, led by , who serves as CEO. Adele had no further appearances planned in Europe except for her performances in Munich. She stayed in Germany in July 2024 before beginning her summer concert series. Adele resided in Munich with her son until the end of August, a context that suited her, and rented a floor of the luxury Rosewood Munich, the former Bavarian State Bank, for €30000 (equivalent to $ in mid-2024) per night.
After Adele's first stage appearance, commented, "The whole planning has been going on for over a year now", adding that "4,000 people have worked with us" on the project. Having brought the original idea to fruition, called the enterprise "Adelepolis", which he said was made up of meetings, determination, exploration, and inspiration.
Conception and creation.
 designed both the stadium and Adele World. The entire venue he designed was open-air for audiences. Unlike 's other works, the stadium design was perfected based on the "needs of a single artist". "That's a statement!" said. consulted with Adele, Jonathan and Lucy Dickins for Adele World's design.
Stufish Entertainment Architects, Adele's long-standing collaborative firm, was commissioned to design the stage in the autumn of 2023. Stufish developed the stage and LED video screen concepts. Ray Winkler, CEO and design director of Stufish, and his team met briefly with Adele on 23 October 2023, when