U2 to play in Moncton - first ever show in Atlantic Canada
Over thirty years since U2 first performed in Canada, U2 are finally going to perform a concert in Atlantic Canada. It has been confirmed that U2 will play in Moncton, New Brunswick on 30 July 2011 at the Magnetic Hill Festival Site. Although this is a festival location, it will be a proper 360° Tour gig with the full production. Support acts will be Arcade Fire and Carney. Arcade Fire have supported U2 before at three Canadian Vertigo Tour concerts, and even covered a Joy Division song with U2 on 28 November 2005.
The general sale for tickets is on Tuesday, 8 February 2011. This will be preceded by a presale for U2.com members. The presale begins at 10am on Wednesday, 2 February and will run until 5pm on Friday, 4 February.
If you have been trying to make it to U2's last North American show for the 360° Tour, we feel sorry for you. Moncton is now the fourth city to hold the title of "last North American show" (and possibly last show anywhere). Under the original 2010 tour schedule, the 20 July 2011 show in East Rutherford would have been last, on 19 July 2010. When the rescheduled 2011 itinerary was announced in July 2010, the last show instead became Minneapolis on 23 July 2011. It lost this status in October 2010, when a Pittsburgh show was added for 26 July 2011. U2.com at the time touted Pittsburgh as the final show of the leg, but recently changed the wording of their article to say it would just be the last US show, as if nobody would notice or care. Now Moncton is last - and, we suspect, really and truly last for North America.
Will Moncton be the last show of the entire tour? We don't know. The rumour mill has been very quiet over the last month regarding shows in Europe or Asia, except for vague rumours regarding a show in Bucharest, Romania in September. So at the moment we just have to wait and see. Any post-Moncton tour leg is unlikely to begin until the start of September, a whole seven months away - plenty of time for an announcement to be made.
By the way, on a statistical note, the announcement of this show in Moncton has taken U2's total Canadian gigs on 360° Tour to nine. 360° is now longer than any previous Canadian tour featuring stadium shows; ZooTV featured eight shows in Canada, but three were in arenas. Popmart, the only previous tour to feature solely stadium shows in Canada, clocked in at seven shows. The 360° Tour has now equalled the record for most Canadian shows on a single tour; Elevation and Vertigo both featured nine, but all of those shows were in arenas. Thus 360° is playing to considerably more people than any previous Canadian tour, and the geographic spread of its nine shows is greater than the geographic spread on any previous Canadian tour too.
The general sale for tickets is on Tuesday, 8 February 2011. This will be preceded by a presale for U2.com members. The presale begins at 10am on Wednesday, 2 February and will run until 5pm on Friday, 4 February.
If you have been trying to make it to U2's last North American show for the 360° Tour, we feel sorry for you. Moncton is now the fourth city to hold the title of "last North American show" (and possibly last show anywhere). Under the original 2010 tour schedule, the 20 July 2011 show in East Rutherford would have been last, on 19 July 2010. When the rescheduled 2011 itinerary was announced in July 2010, the last show instead became Minneapolis on 23 July 2011. It lost this status in October 2010, when a Pittsburgh show was added for 26 July 2011. U2.com at the time touted Pittsburgh as the final show of the leg, but recently changed the wording of their article to say it would just be the last US show, as if nobody would notice or care. Now Moncton is last - and, we suspect, really and truly last for North America.
Will Moncton be the last show of the entire tour? We don't know. The rumour mill has been very quiet over the last month regarding shows in Europe or Asia, except for vague rumours regarding a show in Bucharest, Romania in September. So at the moment we just have to wait and see. Any post-Moncton tour leg is unlikely to begin until the start of September, a whole seven months away - plenty of time for an announcement to be made.
By the way, on a statistical note, the announcement of this show in Moncton has taken U2's total Canadian gigs on 360° Tour to nine. 360° is now longer than any previous Canadian tour featuring stadium shows; ZooTV featured eight shows in Canada, but three were in arenas. Popmart, the only previous tour to feature solely stadium shows in Canada, clocked in at seven shows. The 360° Tour has now equalled the record for most Canadian shows on a single tour; Elevation and Vertigo both featured nine, but all of those shows were in arenas. Thus 360° is playing to considerably more people than any previous Canadian tour, and the geographic spread of its nine shows is greater than the geographic spread on any previous Canadian tour too.
Posted on by Axver