Earlier this summer, with a little help from AI, Adele slipped into a Bavarian-style dirndl dress, cradled a very tall beer and held a giant soft pretzel aloft. “Not long now … Pack ma’s!” was the tagline, translating from Bavarian dialect as “Let’s do this!” Her groundbreaking, potentially record-busting Munich residency was only a few weeks off.
Her Adele in Munich spectacular is now set to begin on Friday, attracting fans from around the world to 10 shows during August at a custom-built pop-up stadium, while pointing a way forward for pop superstardom – a bold project that has sparked excitement and some controversy.
Adele’s AI-enhanced, tongue-in-cheek Instagram story situating her in a mocked-up Oktoberfest showed the multi-platinum, multi-Grammy-winning British singer embracing her long run in southern Germany – her first performances in continental Europe since 2016. “In Munich? That’s a bit random, but still fabulous!” was how she framed it on social media in January when the concerts were announced, calling it “a wonderful way to spend my summer and end this beautiful phase of my life and career”.
Adele is also still doing her Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace, which began in November 2022 and ends later this year. Both the Vegas and Munich residencies give her a high level of creative and logistical control compared with touring – a luxury option only available to entertainment’s biggest draws.
“Superstars with the kind of catalogue that have a towering amount of hits are able to set up shop in one spot and say to their fans, ‘Hey, I’m powerful and famous and popular enough that you will come to me,’” said Jason Lipshutz, senior director of music at US industry magazine Billboard. “It’s definitely a flex.”
The 400,000 sq-metre (4.3m sq ft) venue built for the concert series has been likened to a one-woman music festival. It features an amphitheatre for the performances plus a vast “Adele World” hospitality area with Bavarian beer garden; a pub modelled on the Good Ship in Kilburn, north-west London, where she performed early gigs; and a bar named I Drink Wine after one of her recent album tracks.
Seven hundred people have been working to her team’s specifications for much of this year on site at the Munich fairgrounds outside the city. The singer teased fans in July with photos of herself beaming in a hi-vis vest while inspecting the site: “It’s all a bit bloody exciting.”
The venue will accommodate a maximum 75,000 fans a show, viewing a stage conceived by Eurovision song contest and America’s Got Talent set designer Florian Wieder. A 93-metre catwalk and 200-metre semicircular walkway to a second stage will bring Adele’s blend of ballad-belting diva and salty Londoner as close as possible to fans.
Her manager, Jonathan Dickins, told reporters the atmosphere in Munich, a convenient European crossroads, would be “cosy”. But he said this residency would be the “total opposite” of the intimate Las Vegas shows, with a different setlist apart from the obvious big hits.
A 220 x 30-metre backdrop screen, resembling a very long roll of analogue film, may find a place in the Guinness World Records for its size. The production team said the screen cost around €40m (£34m) and will also block noise from the nearby autobahn.
If it rains, which it has often done this soggy German summer, everyone, including Adele, will get wet but asphalt has been laid across the fairgrounds to avoid a mudbath.
Veteran concert promoter Marek Lieberberg said the total production costs were in the range of hundreds of millions of euros – “the biggest project in my 50 years in the music business”.
Adele will set up in Munich for the whole four weeks with her family, Dickins said. Local media reported that they would be staying at a sprawling suite in the city’s old town with four bedrooms, six bathrooms, four sitting rooms and a dedicated butler.
Residencies with global stars have become commonplace in the US – think Britney Spears and Céline Dion in Las Vegas and Billy Joel and Harry Styles in New York – but are still a relative rarity in continental Europe.
“It’s not revolutionary what Adele is doing – it more falls into a trend” in the post-pandemic world of touring, Lipshutz said. “She wants to replicate a feeling more than just a performance among her fans, and give them an experience. This is a whole event to soak up and really enjoy.”
US residencies tend to take place in destination cities giving fans an excuse to build a mini-holiday around the show while providing a windfall for the hosts.
Munich’s top economic official Clemens Baumgärtner has estimated that Germany’s third biggest city would make €566m from Adele’s August dates thanks to hospitality revenues and the rent from the fairgrounds, without Munich having to contribute to the cost of production.
About two weeks before the opening, organisers said 95% of the tickets were sold. But Ticketmaster, using a last-minute discount concept also practised by the Rolling Stones, is offering “Lucky Dip” tickets for €35 including all fees to move the remaining tickets. That is less than half what was charged for the cheapest seats during the first round of sales in February.
Buyers can’t choose their places and can only claim up to two tickets, which have to be picked up in person. They go on offer at 10am each Monday morning for the following weekend’s concerts. This week’s allocation was snapped up within half an hour.
Some fans criticised the bargain-basement prices as unfair given what they paid early on to be assured a spot in a crowd. However, Lipshutz said it was not unusual for tickets to still be available given the giant scope of Adele in Munich.
“Selling out a residency at an enormous venue is always going to be tricky for an artist of any stature. I truly think Adele will be fine, no matter how many thousands of tickets are sold.”
Much has been made of the carbon footprint of big acts such as Taylor Swift while on tour. But fans traversing continents for once-in-a-lifetime encounters with their favourite stars have a huge climate impact too, noted Jan Stremmel, a journalist with Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.
“Gig tripping” is now competing with world touring, he said after speaking with people coming from as far as Washington DC and Manila to see Adele. “Now fans are increasingly going to where there idols are, even if it’s on the other end of the planet,” he said. “It’s a remarkable development, not only economically but also ecologically.”
It’s understandable why they’re making the trip, however, as it is likely to be the last opportunity for some time.
Adele recently announced a “big break” from music after the conclusion of the Las Vegas residency in November. “My tank is quite empty from being on stage every weekend in Las Vegas,” she said while promoting the Munich concerts. “I don’t have any plans for new music, at all … I think I want to do other creative things just for a little while.”