U2360 Tour
The U2 360° Tour is named after the 360-degree staging and audience configuration it uses for shows, which U2 claims is "the first time a band has toured in stadiums with such a unique and original structure."
The tour will be U2's first under their 12-year deal with Live Nation. It is sponsored by BlackBerry, in a move that breaks U2's prior relationship with Apple Inc. and opens possibilities for collaborations between U2 and Research in Motion on mobile music experiences.
Itinerary
The initial tour dates were formally announced on 9 March 2009.
U2 are planning to play 40–45 shows in 2009. The tour will begin in Barcelona on 30 June and play in Europe through to 22 August 2009. The North American leg of the tour is planned to begin on 12 September 2009 at Soldier Field in Chicago and will end on 28 October 2009. The band will return to American stadiums for June and July 2010, and travel back to Europe for August and September 2010.
The band tentatively plan to tour South America sometime in 2010. The U2 360° Tour could potentially consist of 90–100 shows over the two years.
Stage design
A 3D mockup of the stage design.
The tour will feature a 360-degree configuration, with the stage being placed closer to the center of the stadium's field than usual. The stage will have no defined front or back and will be surrounded on all sides by the audience. The stage design will also include a cylindrical video screen and will increase the venues' capacities by about 15–20%. Only tiered football stadiums (whether soccer or American football) can be used with this scheme; flat fields and baseball stadiums are not possible venues. Willie Williams, who has worked on every U2 tour since 1982, is again a designer for this tour. Mark Fisher serves as the architect.
As the tour was announced, U2 guitarist The Edge said of the show's design: "It's hard to come up with something that's fundamentally different, but we have, I think, on this tour. Where we're taking our production will never have been seen before by anybody, and that's an amazing thing to be able to say.
For a band like U2 that really thrive on breaking new ground, it's a real thrill." Lead singer Bono said the design was intended to overcome the staid traditional appearance of outdoor concerts where the stage was dominated by speaker stacks on either side: "We have some magic, and we've got some beautiful objects we're going to take around the world, and we're inside that object."
Tickets
U2 manager Paul McGuinness confessed anxiety over initial ticket sales taking place during the late 2000s recession. The tour will feature a tiered pricing system for tickets; the most expensive ticket will be slightly higher in price than the last tour, but the cheapest tickets, the general admission tickets, will be lower in price than the previous tour. Playing larger capacity venues allows the band to price tickets more conservatively. Field level tickets will be priced at $55, and approximately 10,000 tickets per show will cost $30.
The price points will be $30, $55, and depending on the market, $90–95 and $250. McGuinness said, "We have worked very hard to ensure that U2 fans can purchase a great-priced ticket with a guaranteed great view."
Tickets for European shows will go on sale in mid-March, while North American tickets will go on sale in late March or early April.