This summer, fans of some of rock and roll's biggest names will flock to two United Kingdom cities.
Rock titans Black Sabbath — founded in 1968 — and AC/DC — founded in 1973 — will return to the U.K. for just two shows this summer. Both bands have links to the land that brought the world The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, The Kinks, Queen and countless other rock royalty.
AC/DC will perform only one U.K. show on its latest tour on Thursday, Aug. 21, in Edinburgh. The concert will be held at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium, a 67,000-seat venue and home of Scotland’s national rugby team.
For AC/DC, the Edinburgh show is a return to Scotland, where guitarist Angus Young and his older, late brother, bass player Malcom Young, were born. The brothers later emigrated to Australia in the early 1960s.
Val Walker, councillor on the Edinburgh City Council — and its culture and communities convener — said the city is proud of its ability to land such huge events but added Edinburgh is conscious of the potential effect of these huge events on the city and its residents.
“With AC/DC set to perform live at Murrayfield this August, marking their first Scottish concert in a decade, I’m sure residents and visitors alike will be very excited. Edinburgh will also be the only U.K. stop on their 'Power Up' tour, which shows the unique attraction of our city,” she said.
Edinburgh will also host three concerts in mid-August from Manchester rock band Oasis, which is playing its first tour since 2009.
“Whilst we’re proud to host the biggest and best events, we remain conscious of our residents who live here year-round,” Walker said. “We’re also acutely aware that this concert will happen at an already extremely busy time of the year with our summer festivals in full swing and Oasis also performing three concerts earlier in the month.”
Black Sabbath — forefathers of the heavy metal music genre — will play a one-off show in the band's native Birmingham, England, on Saturday, July 5, at Villa Park stadium. The concert will be the first time Black Sabbath's original lineup — Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward — have performed together since 2005. It is also being billed as the band’s farewell show.
Villa Park stadium has a capacity of nearly 43,000 and is home to Aston Villa F.C. of the English Premier League. Black Sabbath was formed in the Aston district of Birmingham.
Ticket prices for the Villa Park show are high, even if the day includes performances from other notable bands such as Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax. Birmingham Live reported the 40,000 tickets sold out in 16 minutes, and The Independent reported “ticket prices ranged between £197.50 ($250) to as much as £834 when they went on sale.”
Tickets to see AC/DC, which has not announced its retirement, sold just as quickly and also for eye-watering prices, with dynamic pricing a staple now of most mega-events.
Both Villa Park and Murrayfield are approximately three miles outside of the center of their respective cities.
Hotel occupancy rises around concert dates
Forward-looking hotel performance data from CoStar Group shows hotel demand is high in both Birmingham and Edinburgh for both summer rock shows.
From a hotel demand standpoint, Edinburgh is a bigger leisure draw than Birmingham, which is a mix of business and leisure and a regular rotating host of annual conventions of the U.K.'s major political parties.
As of March 12, hotel occupancy in Birmingham on July 4 — the night before Black Sabbath's show — reached 63.8%. On July 5, the night of the concert, hotel occupancy is projected at 83.9%. In 2024, forward-booking occupancy for the same dates was 14.7% and 15.6%, respectively.
For AC/DC's Aug. 21 in Edinburgh, hotel occupancy on the books for Aug. 20 is projected at 50.5%, based on forward-looking data as of March 12. The next night, Aug. 21, Edinburgh hotel occupancy is projected to reach 56.7%. In 2024, forward-bookings occupancy in the Scottish capital for the same dates was 46.7% and 50.7%, respectively.
Walker said Edinburgh is seeking to host more large concerts and mega-events that drive tourism and hotel demand.
“Over the past few years, we’ve hosted many similar events and managed to strike the right balance between communicating well with local residents and fulfilling the needs of major events, and I have no doubt we can do so once again,” she said.