The Live World: World Cup Gets More Worldly, JAŸ-Z's Stadium Run, A New Festival

Each week, we track major tour announcements and live world news across ROSTR & NIF. The Live World is your weekly Thursday wrap-up of the live music biz stories you should know about. Let's take a look at this week's…

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JAŸ-Z’s Yankee Stadium anniversary performances last weekend featured a more than 3-hour delay and surprise guests Beyoncé, Rihanna, USHER & Clipse.

⚽️ Scoring The Game

• The FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show has added the NY Philharmonic and Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, to the lineup

• Headlining the beautiful game’s closing ceremony is Post Malone; also set to perform are Nicole Scherzinger, Laura Pausini and Robbie Williams with Tom Cruise & IShowSpeed participating as well

🏟️ Venue News

• Oak View Group & Live Nation are partnering on a JV with the Saudi Public Investment Fund to grow the Kingdom’s stadium portfolio and infrastructure to host more live music and sporting events

• AXS will be the official ticketing partner of Hordern Pavilion in Australia, expanding the ticketing giant’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region; AXS takes over for the 5.5K-capacity from Ticketek starting August

• Barcelona announced a funding venture that will aid over 100 sub-250-capacity venues with a €1M+ grant

🎟️ Festival Headlines

• Goldenvoice announced the debut of Ocean Way Festival, which will feature performances from The Killers, Olivia Dean, Jack White, Khruangbin & more in Santa Monica this September

• Also this September, Bailey Zimmerman will headline Wichita’s Somewhere Festival

• Keeping it in September, Cardi B will serve as Create & Cultivate Festival’s headliner in LA

• Wyatt Flores, Kaitlin Butts, Old Crow Medicine Show, Cross Canadian Ragweed & Ryan Bingham are set to headline the 10th anniversary edition of Florida’s Mile 0 Fest in, you guessed it, January 2027

❌ Cancellations

• Heritage Live cancelled 3 UK festival events following a funding deal for future events falling through; Christina Aguilera, Janet Jackson & more had performances cancelled

• Lily Allen revealed she is downsizing the upcoming leg of her tour from arenas to theaters; she gave no reason for scaling down

🔥 Check out this week's hottest tours in the gallery below: