Who’s Playing Canada’s Most Popular Summer Tours?
Warm weather is officially around the corner, which means it’s time for some summer tours! Plenty of international super stars pass through Canada each year, but which ones are actually the biggest? For the third year in a row, ticket marketplace StubHub has compiled a list of the country’s hottest-selling acts. The rankings are based on total sales for all Canadian shows between Victoria Day and Labour Day, and the results are pleasantly rock-heavy.
2017 Summer Top Selling Acts
- Ed Sheeran
- Bruno Mars
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- U2
- Tool
- Coldplay
- Metallica
- The Weeknd
- Lady Gaga
- Tim McGraw
Ed Sheeran’s X tour put him in the #2 spot behind Taylor Swift in 2015, and it seems the algebraic album titles are paying off. His tour for ÷ is the biggest Canadian tour this summer, outselling Bruno Mars by 42% despite having one fewer show.
Rock acts are really well-represented this year with Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Tool, Coldplay, and Metallica firmly holding the 3-7 spots. The story of U2’s Joshua Tree Tour is especially interesting. The tour kick-off in Vancouver fell outside StubHub’s summer dates, meaning the Toronto gig is the only Canadian date being counted. That one June 23 date is the single most in-demand show of the summer! Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran’s top dates don’t even come close to U2’s, which has 288% more interest than Bieber and 308% more than Sheeran.
The summer of 2016 might have been dominated by Canadian acts like The Tragically Hip, Drake, and Justin Bieber, but 2017 isn’t quite the same. The Weeknd, at #8, is the only Canadian artist to crack the top 10 this year. However, Canadian festivals have been selling pretty well. Osheaga has consistently been one of StubHub’s fastest growing international festivals since 2014, and was the biggest-selling one in Canada last year. But this year, there’s a new big kid in town: BC’s Shambala Music Festival, as of the report’s initial release on May 9, is the most in-demand festival in Canada.
