Here's why Oasis won't be playing festivals next summer

Oasis' Liam and Noel Gallagher couldn't have picked a better time to hit the road for their reunion tour – they don't need to do press, they can skip the big festivals and they won't be running through '90s-pop Britain Blur opponents.

Blur and frontman Damon Albarn already reunited last year and released a documentary in July, with plans to hit the road and be out of the loop in 2025. And instead of suffering from NME Interviewed or having to talk about their colorful history with TV presenter Graham Norton, the Gallaghers can simply log on to Instagram and share a post with the band's 3 million followers.

The sales, covering 17 stadium shows — including three at the last minute due to demand — likely brought in $200 million to $225 million based on Bulletin boardHis own calculations conservatively estimate that each concert will bring in $11 million to $13 million per show. Add in the two new shows it announced earlier today — Sept. 27-28 at Wembley Stadium — and the potential gross jumps to $209 million to $251 million for all 19 dates.

This huge revenue is not possible in a festival. Unlike the brothers' last show on August 22, 2009, at the now-defunct V festival at Weston Park in the UK, the economics of touring have changed so much over the past decade that the band is pulling out of all festivals in 2025, according to their Instagram page. Instead, the Gallaghers only headline UK stadiums, where they'll make a lot more money – probably eight to 10 times more than they would topping the bill for Coachella, Glastonbury or any other festival.

For the only leg of the tour announced so far, the band are playing gigs in huge stadiums such as Dublin's Croke Park, which holds 80,000 people. While prices for the current tour vary widely, the average sticker price for the top 20 stadium shows of 2023 was $138.

That means if Oasis manage to pull off all 19 shows, the boys could earn $209 million, or about $11 million per show, on just the average ticket price of $138, excluding platinum and VIP. Compare that to festivals, where attendance typically ranges between 30,000 and 80,000 fans who spend an average of $133 a day for a ticket, often buying a weekend pass for $399. With that number in mind, roughly 30,000 tickets sold would bring in $12 million, while 80,000 tickets would bring in $32 million in sales. Not bad – but that gate money would have to be shared between all the headliners and all the other performers over the three days of the festival.

Stadium shows have other advantages over festivals. Using pricing tools, organizers can charge more money per seat, and the best that festivals can do is charge for VIP sections. And unlike festivals, stadium concert organizers can easily add additional concerts based on demand. By asking fans to register in advance, promoters from SJM Concerts and Live Nation already have a decent idea of ​​how many people want to buy tickets and can add shows based on those numbers.

That's bad news for festivals like Coachella and Glastonbury, which have built their reputations on reunion tours. However, there are still many superstars looking for platforms to land another gig. Last year, No Doubt – one of the biggest bands of the 1990s – played a reunion set at Coachella, along with Sublime, their reggae-punk brethren in Long Beach. French pioneers DJ Justice? and Blur, who probably could have toured after their Coachella set, but decided to make a statement high on the lineup on the biggest festival stage in the world.

Sure, Blur would have made more money around the world on a multi-city tour – but sometimes bands have different priorities, and a high-profile stage at Coachella is a major milestone many acts want. But when it comes to cashing in on a reunion toward the $100 million mark, there simply aren't enough festivals to bring in that much money.