Coldplay’s four-night stint in Abu Dhabi's Zayed Sports City Stadium cements their place in UAE music history

Sustainability met spectacle for British band who brought their eco-friendly blockbuster tour to capital

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin performing at the Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Pawan Singh / The National

Coldplay completed their record-breaking four-night run at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City Stadium on Tuesday, marking the largest and longest series of shows by a major international artist in the UAE. According to Live Nation Middle East, 200,000 fans attended the sold-out performances, surpassing the nearly 69,000 people who attended Ed Sheeran's two sold-out concerts at Dubai's Sevens Stadium last year.

This achievement solidifies Coldplay’s status as one of the UAE's favourite live music acts. The band has a history of large performances in the region, including their 2016 New Year's Eve concert at Abu Dhabi's Etihad Park, which drew a crowd of 40,000. Their UAE debut in 2009 was equally memorable, featuring a rain-soaked set-in front of approximately 20,000 fans at Emirates Palace.

The British band’s recent visit to the capital was part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour. One of the largest rock tours of all time, it has already grossed more than $1 billion since launching in Costa Rica in 2022. Its arrival in the UAE necessitated an immense logistics operation, including park-and-ride shuttle buses from various locations across Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Additionally, fan zones were established and sensory rooms were created to accommodate individuals with sensory needs, including autism and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Committed to making the tour “as sustainable as possible”, Coldplay have introduced several innovative initiatives at all shows. These included using solar stations, a kinetic floor that generates energy from the crowd’s movements, and providing free water to discourage the use of single-use plastic bottles.

All these carefully crafted plans wouldn’t have resonated without the stunning production and brilliant performances from the band, delivering sets combining their latest tracks with beloved classics.

The National's review of the opening night highlighted the production values of the show, particularly the use of their wristbands which light up to “create cascading waves of purples and blues in time with the music.” Song selections were carefully curated to generate a number of emotional crescendos, from the tender combination of Yellow and My Love to the euphoric hits like Something Just Like This, My Universe, and A Sky Full of Stars to close the set.

With each of the 178 shows on the tour selling out, securing tickets to the Abu Dhabi performances was no easy feat. When tickets officially went on sale in September, The National reported long online queues, with more than 1,000 fans waiting at a time. A select number of Infinity tickets – available at all stops of the Music of the Spheres Tour, costing as little as Dh74 and assigned randomly – were quickly snapped up in November. A final tranche of tickets was also released a week before the concerts began, adding to the anticipation.

Abu Dhabi residents Marcos and Maria Mascolli managed to secure tickets for Tuesday’s show, but were seated five rows apart. “It was not ideal, but we still enjoyed it,” Marcos told The National. “We saw them 12 years ago and that was an awesome show, so we knew we had to come again.”

Dubai resident Lara Zawaedi praised the band’s inclusive approach. “I was standing in the general admissions section and since I am not too tall I had to tip-toe a lot to see many parts of the show,” she said after Tuesday's performance. “But it didn't matter because they did a great job of making us all feel valued. It was such a great concert.”

India is the next stop on the Music of the Spheres tour, with five shows scheduled across Mumbai and Ahmedabad from January 18 to 26.