The Weeknd will bring his blinding lights to Australian stadiums in November as ticket prices are revealed

The mammoth cost of VIP seats for The Weeknd’s Australian stadium tour have been revealed, but it’s not all bad news for fans keen to bag a bargain ticket.

Canadian pop superstar The Weeknd has finally confirmed the Australian leg of his After Hours Til Dawn global stadium tour, with three east coast concerts from November.

The Blinding Lights stream king’s shows will be another box office bonanza in Australia with his North American, UK, European and Latin American concerts already grossing more than $540 million in sales of two million tickets.

It has been six years since The Weeknd last toured and with his two most recent records After Hours and Dawn FM fuelling his constant presence on our airwaves and charts, fan demand for the Australian shows will be hectic.

THe Weeknd as the masked pop avenger on his global stadium tour. Picture: Supplied

The Can’t Feel My Face chartslayer will kick off his Australian tour at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on November 20 then hit Sydney’s Accor Stadium on November 24 and Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on December 1. There are no dates for Adelaide or Perth.

There should be about 180,000 tickets up for grabs for the three shows. Big pre-sale demand may prompt extra dates to be announced as evidenced by the recent rollout of the Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney tours.

A prime position ticket for The Weeknd’s Australian shows will cost from $240 to more than $810 for a VIP package.

As the Vodafone pre-sale for the After Hours Til Dawn concerts in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane opens on Friday, the cheapest seats in the nosebleed sections will cost from $106 to $108 depending on your venue.

But the majority of coveted general standing and VIP tickets either standing or seated on the stadium field range from $239 to more than $310.

The most expensive ticket for the VIP Lounge Experience is $810 and gets you an A Reserve seat in a prime location and access to the official pre-show party but no meet and greet.

Tickets for the Sydney and Brisbane concerts will be sold via Ticketek while Melbourne fans will have to purchase via Ticketmaster.

The big stadium concerts for the 2023/24 summer season have tended to offer limited nosebleed seats at a bargain price around $80 in recognition of cost-of-living pressures on fans.

And the VIP package costings have been wild.

KISS topped the price list with $4000 for the Ultimate VIP package for their Final Curtain show at Accor Stadium in Sydney in October; all of those tickets have sold out.

Taylor Swift offered fans the choice between the lowest priced seat for $79.90 with her most expensive option, the It’s Been A Long Time Coming Package completely sold out at $1249.90.

Rock heroes Foo Fighters are the most egalitarian of the big gig players with tickets ranging from $94.90 to $229.90 and no VIP action.

The concert features 34 songs over two hours with the setlist drawing widely from his enviable catalogue of hits including The Hills, Starboy, Die For You, Call Out My Name, Save Your Tears and Creepin’, the smash banger with Metro Boomin.

He has made a giant leap from arena spectacular to his first stadium extravaganza with the After House Til Dawn production, creating a post-apocalyptic pop world with giant props of robots, moons, and a crumbling cityscape. And there’s lasers, of course, with the crowd also lighting up the stadium with those Coldplay-inspired flashing wristbands.

The Weeknd’s stadium extravaganza is massive. Picture: Supplied

He joins Foo Fighters, Robbie Williams, Paul McCartney, Motley Cure and Def Leppard kicking off the 2023/24 summer pop and rock takeover of our sports stadiums.

P!nk and Taylor Swift will keep the big gigs going in early 2024 with Aussie live music fans holding out for tour announces from Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones.

In between his global stadium tour runs, The Weeknd was credited by his birth name Abel Tesfaye as the creator and lead actor in the controversial drama series The Idol which is on Binge.

He plays a sinister svengali and cult leader to Lily-Rose Depp’s vulnerable pop star making a comeback after a breakdown.

Abel Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp had everyone talking about The Idol. Picture: AFP.

Its intention was to critique modern stardom and the music industry machine but the series became one of the most talked-about shows of the year as it drew widespread criticism as a “toxic man’s fantasy”.

HBO has not ruled out a second season.

Vodafone customers will have first crack at buying tickets to The Weeknd’s three shows here with the telco’s pre-sale on August 25, with staggered box office opening times to reduce online congestion.

The pre-sale opens at 10am for the Melbourne show, 11am for Brisbane tickets and noon for the Sydney concert via Vodafone.com.au/ticket

Foxtel Rewards members will have access to exclusive reserved tickets on sale from 10am on September 1 with instructions at foxtel.com.au/music

The general public tickets also launch on September 1, again at the same staggered times as the Vodafone pre-sale.

For details about ticket and VIP packages, livenation.com.au

Originally published as The Weeknd will bring his blinding lights to Australian stadiums in November as ticket prices are revealed