Earlier this summer, with a little help from AI, Adele donned a Bavarian-style dirndl dress, held a towering beer, and brandished a giant soft pretzel. “Not long now … Pack ma’s!” read the tagline, translating from Bavarian dialect as “Let’s do this!” Her groundbreaking, potentially record-breaking Munich residency was only weeks away.
The highly anticipated Adele in Munich series kicks off this Friday, drawing fans from around the globe to 10 shows in August at a custom-built pop-up stadium. This bold project aims to redefine pop superstardom, generating both excitement and controversy.
Adele’s AI-enhanced, playful Instagram story, showing her in a mock Oktoberfest setting, highlighted the multi-platinum, multi-Grammy-winning British singer’s embrace of her extended stay in southern Germany – her first continental Europe performances since 2016. “In Munich? That’s a bit random, but still fabulous!” she said on social media in January when the concerts were announced, calling it “a wonderful way to spend my summer and end this beautiful phase of my life and career.”
Adele is concurrently maintaining her Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace, which began in November 2022 and concludes later this year. Both the Vegas and Munich residencies offer her extensive creative and logistical control, a luxury reserved for the entertainment elite.
“Superstars with a vast catalogue of hits can set up shop in one location and tell their fans, ‘Hey, I’m powerful and famous and popular enough that you will come to me,’” said Jason Lipshutz, senior director of music at US industry magazine Billboard. “It’s definitely a flex.”
The 400,000 sq-metre (4.3m sq ft) venue built for the concert series has been described as a one-woman music festival. It features an amphitheatre for performances, along with a sprawling “Adele World” hospitality area complete with a Bavarian beer garden, a pub modeled on the Good Ship in Kilburn, north-west London, where she performed early gigs, and a bar named I Drink Wine after a recent album track.
Seven hundred people have been working on-site at the Munich fairgrounds to meet her team’s specifications. In July, Adele teased fans with photos of herself beaming in a hi-vis vest while inspecting the site: “It’s all a bit bloody exciting.”
The venue will accommodate up to 75,000 fans per show, viewing a stage designed by Eurovision Song Contest and America’s Got Talent set designer Florian Wieder. A 93-metre catwalk and 200-metre semicircular walkway to a second stage will bring Adele’s unique blend of ballad-belting diva and cheeky Londoner closer to her fans.
Her manager, Jonathan Dickins, said the atmosphere in Munich, a convenient European crossroads, would be “cosy.” However, he noted that this residency would be the “total opposite” of the intimate Las Vegas shows, featuring a different setlist apart from the big hits.
A 220 x 30-metre backdrop screen, resembling a very long roll of analogue film, could earn a place in the Guinness World Records for its size. The production team said the screen, costing around €40m (£34m), would also block noise from the nearby autobahn.
If it rains, as it often has during this wet German summer, everyone, including Adele, will get wet, but asphalt has been laid across the fairgrounds to prevent a mudbath.
Veteran concert promoter Marek Lieberberg stated that total production costs were in the range of hundreds of millions of euros – “the biggest project in my 50 years in the music business.”
Adele will reside in Munich for the entire four weeks with her family, Dickins said. Local media reported that they would be staying in a lavish suite in the city’s old town, complete with four bedrooms, six bathrooms, four sitting rooms, and a dedicated butler.
Residencies with global stars are common in the US – think Britney Spears and Céline Dion in Las Vegas and Billy Joel and Harry Styles in New York – but remain relatively rare in continental Europe.
“It’s not revolutionary what Adele is doing – it more falls into a trend” in the post-pandemic world of touring, Lipshutz said. “She wants to replicate a feeling more than just a performance among her fans, and give them an experience. This is a whole event to soak up and really enjoy.”
US residencies often take place in destination cities, giving fans an excuse to build a mini-holiday around the show while providing a windfall for the hosts.
Munich’s top economic official Clemens Baumgärtner estimated that Germany’s third-biggest city would earn €566m from Adele’s August dates, thanks to hospitality revenues and fairground rent, without the city having to contribute to production costs.
Some fans criticized the bargain-basement prices as unfair, given what they paid early on to secure a spot in the crowd. However, Lipshutz said it was not unusual for tickets to still be available given the enormous scope of Adele in Munich.
“Selling out a residency at an enormous venue is always going to be tricky for an artist of any stature. I truly think Adele will be fine, no matter how many thousands of tickets are sold.”
Much has been made of the carbon footprint of big acts like Taylor Swift while on tour. But fans traveling across continents for once-in-a-lifetime encounters with their favorite stars have a significant climate impact too, noted Jan Stremmel, a journalist with Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.
“Gig tripping” is now competing with world touring, he said after speaking with people coming from as far as Washington DC and Manila to see Adele. “Now fans are increasingly going to where their idols are, even if it’s on the other end of the planet,” he said. “It’s a remarkable development, not only economically but also ecologically.”
It’s understandable why they’re making the trip, as it may be the last opportunity for some time.
Adele recently announced a “big break” from music after the conclusion of her Las Vegas residency in November. “My tank is quite empty from being on stage every weekend in Las Vegas,” she said while promoting the Munich concerts. “I don’t have any plans for new music, at all … I think I want to do other creative things just for a little while.”
