Bono / U2 / U2TOURFANS/ Nick Walker U2 started out with an idea of getting closer to its fans and ended up with the largest grossing tour with a whopping $736,421,586. The 360 tour has broken stadium records and changed the way people attend concerts. The tour ended in July, which at that time became the highest grossing and biggest ticket seller in the history of the tour business.
Quoted from Billboard:
Months after 360° wrapped in Moncton, New Brunswick, the tour’s significance was finally sinking in for Live Nation Global Touring chairman Arthur Fogel, global producer of the epic trek.
“As time moves on and we get further away from it, it actually seems more impressive than when you’re actually in the middle of it,” says Fogel, not a man given to overstatement. “It just leaves a tremendous sense of accomplishment, and is without a doubt one of the greatest experiences in the business that I’ve ever had.”
While it was under way, 360° was a beast to execute, from its initial yearlong setup, to the postponement of the second North American leg due to Bono’s back surgery, to the daily grind of pulling off the most ambitious tour ever mounted.
“It was a lot of pressure, even during the down times, because it was so big and so complicated,” Fogel says. “The postponement issue was a lot to deal with, so when it ended and time goes by, it seems that much more impressive and an accomplishment to be incredibly proud of.”
While 360° is in a class all its own in terms of scale and box office, the principals that made it a success-scaling, routing, showmanship and songs-are relevant across the entire live business. The fact that such numbers could even be achieved, let alone in a down global economy, is a testament to the power of live music
Fogel dismisses the notion that 360° somehow is isolated from the realities of the rest of the touring industry. “I don’t subscribe to the theory at all that somehow this tour is its own animal,” he says. “This is what drives our business, this is what gets people excited about going to shows, this is what proves that we are the real deal as an industry. When you can capture the attention and imagination and enjoyment of 7 million people, that’s what this business is all about.”
We can look back on this tour with the thousands of hours of concert video, concert photos and stories. The idea that a simple stage can bring people together to experience music like never before is only the start of somthing greater.
