The O2 Arena


The O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of The O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the second-highest seating capacity of any indoor venue in the United Kingdom, behind the Manchester Arena, and in 2008 was the world's busiest music arena.
The arena was built under the former Millennium Dome, a large dome-shaped building built to house an exhibition celebrating the turn of the third millennium; as the structure still stands over the arena, The Dome remains a name in common usage for the venue. The arena, as well as the overall O2 complex, is named after its primary sponsor, the telecommunications company O2, a subsidiary of Spain's Telefónica.

History

Following the closure of the Millennium Experience at the end of 2000, the Millennium Dome was leased to Meridian Delta Ltd. in December 2001, for redevelopment as an entertainment complex. This included plans for an indoor arena.
Construction of the arena started in 2003, and finished in 2007. After the interior of the dome had been largely cleared and before building work inside began, in December 2004, the dome was used as the main venue for the annual Crisis Open Christmas organised by the London-based homelessness charity Crisis.
Owing to the impossibility of using cranes inside the dome structure, the arena's roof was constructed on the ground within the dome and then lifted; the arena building's structure was then built around the roof. The arena building, which houses the arena and the arena concourse, is independent from all other buildings in the O2 and houses all the arena's facilities. The arena building itself takes up 40% of the total dome structure.
The seating arrangement throughout the whole arena can be modified, similar to the Manchester Arena. The ground surface can also be changed between ice rink, basketball court, exhibition space, conference venue, private hire venue and concert venue.
The arena was architecturally built to reduce echoing, a common problem among London music venues.
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Events

In August of 2007 the legendary rock star Prince, began the first of 21 sellout nights at the O2 arena. A record breaking run, featuring many of his extensive hits while changing the set list every night so no two shows would be the same.
On 21 July 2007, British rock band Keane played the arena as part of their Under the Iron Sea Tour, and the performance was later released as their Keane Live DVD.
Beginning in July 2009, Michael Jackson was scheduled to hold a 50-show residency at the arena, titled This Is It. However, Jackson died on 25 June, eighteen days before the first scheduled show.
From 2008, the O2 Arena has hosted Capital's Jingle Bell Ball which is an annual mini-festival held over two nights, usually in early December.
During 2008, the Canadian singer Celine Dion performed two sold out shows, also in 2017 during her Celine Dion Live 2017 she performed four sold out shows and she will return on April 22 and 23, 2021 for her Courage World Tour.
Since 2009, the arena has hosted the ATP World Tour Finals, the season-ending finale of men's professional tennis, featuring the top eight players in the world. The venue has hosted the event for the second longest tenure, behind only Madison Square Garden.
Cirque Du Soleil hosted on 12, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 19 October through 21 of 2012.
During the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, the venue was referred as the North Greenwich Arena due to Olympics regulations regarding corporate sponsorship of event sites.
Ariana Grande was scheduled to perform on 25 and 26 May 2017 as part of her Dangerous Woman Tour, but the event was cancelled after the Manchester Arena bombing on 22 May. The event was not rescheduled. Ariana has since then held five concerts at the arena for her Sweetener World Tour on 17, 19, and 20 August 2019 as well as 15 and 16 October 2019.
Since March 2013, the arena has hosted, Europe's largest country music festival, which annually attracts over 20,000 fans. UK and Irish acts as well as up-and-coming American acts perform sets several times across various pop-up stages in and around the arena, with the main stage accessible only to ticket-holders. The seventh C2C was held on 8–10 March 2019.
Since 2014, the Australia-based charismatic Christian church Hillsong has held the Hillsong Conference London at the arena.

Ticket sales records

Despite being open for only 200 days per year, the venue sold over 1.2 million tickets in 2007, making it the third most popular venue in the world for concerts and family shows, narrowly behind the Manchester Arena and Madison Square Garden in New York City.
As of 2020, the O2 Arena was still the busiest music arena in the world in terms of ticket sales.
Venue2017 Ticket sales for concerts/shows
The O2 Arena, London, England, UK1,443,232
Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA1,167,544
Manchester Arena, Manchester, England, UK1,072,079
SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Scotland, UK1,028,934
Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA936,794
Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany931,394
Arena Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico906,290
Mexico City Arena, Mexico City, Mexico881,665
The Forum, Inglewood, California, USA790,728
WiZink Center, Madrid, Spain784,699

Prizes and awards