“You’re only as good as your last event.” It’s not a bad ethos to work off and considering the last event at the Principality Stadium smashed all attendance records and was a Metallica show for the ages, it sounds like Alex Luff – the man behind securing the bands for the Principality Stadium – is doing all right in that respect.
The Pencoed native is the head of event sales and operations at the memorable venue and in his 21 years working there has seen the likes of Madonna, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce and Oasis bring millions of fans into the heart of Wales’ capital city.
We spoke to him about the task of keeping those A-list level acts coming into the near 74,000-seater (76,000 for Metallica), but first things first, asking Alex about the 2027 gig diary was top priority – something everyone wants to know.
Keeping his cards close to his chest, because building relationships of trust (and NDAs) are key to securing these top-tier artists, he didn’t even fall for the “blink twice if I’m right” method.
Alex did say that in the next few years the team are aiming high: “We’ve set the standard with Metallica, we’ve got to beat that again now going into next summer because that is where we’re at, and that was one hell of a night.”
He did also add that the next few years would be busy, with music tours having to fit around Euro 2028 matches coming to the city: “We’re always chasing. [There’s] nothing I can give you the hot scoop on, but we’re always having conversations.
“The diary now for the next three years, we know what’s coming. We’ve got the Euros in 2028, so that’s having an impact not just on our calendar but more widely on all the big stadiums in the UK. So the whole concert season is having to adjust around the fact that 11 of the principal venues are going to be out of action delivering Euro commitments in ’28.
“So that just goes to show the level of planning and conversations that are ongoing for an event when we know that it’s in two years’ time. It’s like events jenga as I call it.
“I’ve got what we call pencil holds already in the diary as far as 2028. Things change in life. Certain tours that you think are actually ironclad, they’re locked in for a certain year, may move a year because the album doesn’t get released or the artist isn’t traveling, you know, for personal reasons, they may get married, they move. So we are constantly adjusting.”
Taylor Swift performs on stage during “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at Principality Stadium on June 18, 2024 in Cardiff(Image: Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images)
Metallica had a great time in Cardiff, Taylor Swift was taught Welsh by the stadium team, Ed Sheeran called it a “lovely” stadium on a signed poster of his four-night run in 2018 that we sit looking at in the room where we speak to Alex, the Rolling Stones also praised the venue.
So what are the chances of bands and singers influencing their famous friends to book a gig date at the Welsh cathedral of sport?
“Tours talk, artists talk, promoters talk, [but] it comes back to: ‘Can the city deliver? Can the stadium deliver? Can we sell enough tickets?'” adds Alex, who stayed in Cardiff after gradutating from Cardiff University.
“Yes, we can. 76,000 Metallica fans tell you we can sell tickets on a Sunday night. And then it comes down to the experience. Was it a positive experience for the promoter and the tour to come into the building and build the show? And then did the artist have a great time? Did they feel it? Did they have that unique experience that only Cardiff can offer?
“If all of those tick all those boxes, it then makes it a lot easier for me to have those conversations with the promoter for the tours that come next. And absolutely, we’ve just got to keep building and, as I say, we keep going back to ‘you’re only as good as your last event’.”
One thing they can deliver on is privacy. When Oasis’ huge Live ’25 comeback tour was mooted as starting off in Cardiff, two years ahead of the actual gig, the Principality had the edge.
He said that the band, or at least their crew, were in the stadium for way longer than any fan knew – until the emotional moment of hearing the soundcheck one day ahead of the July 4 gig in 2025.
Alex explained: “We were fortunate to be the first venue for the return of Oasis. We had them here for a prolonged period of time testing the new stage design.
“The band came in and rehearsed. It could only happen in Cardiff because of the roof. We could give them the guarantee of privacy, and then to have the scoop the first time that the brothers came out on stage, which was here in Cardiff, was phenomenal and probably one of the highlights of the stadium.”
Taylorgating was a new one on Alex as fans gathered outside the stadium to listen to the concert(Image: WalesOnline/ Rob Browne)
Alex has seen it all happen; Taylor’s 200 lorries of staging and kit, the Taylor-gating of fans without tickets setting up on the riverbanks of the Taff to listen to the show, Coldplay’s light-up wristbands, and Take That’s The Circus balloon and huge elephant, tonnes and tonnes of shale transported for events like Speedway and Monster Jam, intricate stage builds that take days to put together and some that disappear within hours.
He’s keen to point out the effort that goes into bringing this level of entertainment takes years of planning, but blood, sweat and tears of crews and staff doing the heavy lifting – to bring a two-hour show to life that will more often than not blow a fan away.
“We’re having to be competitive, offer different things, and ensure that the standard of delivery here in Cardiff is of the highest standard, that we don’t give any excuses for them to go to another venue.
“And we’re very lucky here in Cardiff that we’ve got a really great relationship with our local stakeholders, South Wales Police, Cardiff Council, Welsh Government, they all have a role to play in what we call Team Wales. We all come together and we deliver these iconic events.”
One show that blew his mind, and the stadium’s phonelines up, was the 2022 gig from German metal legends Rammstein. “From a show perspective I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it,” Alex said.
“We had the most number of people ringing in thinking the stadium was on fire because their production is very flame-oriented and pyrotechnics, it’s extreme.
“So that was interesting with how we were handling that with the council in terms of people genuinely thought something was wrong, but it’s just their show. It was an amazing night. I don’t think we’ll ever see the like of that again.”
The scenes inside the stadium during Rammstein’s performance(Image: WalesOnline/South Wales Echo)
Next in the diary for the Principality Stadium is the Community Shield between Manchester City and Arsenal on August 15. The fixture’s returning to Cardiff for the first time in 20 years and it’s back in Wales due to Wembley Stadium being unavailable due to pre-planned gigs.
This summer has also seen a six-day Hyrox event, Monster Jam, and Take That’s The Circus, outside of Metallica’s M72 record-breaker on June 28.
So there were fewer big music gigs touring this year, and top artists were taking up residencies, like Harry Styles at Wembley. We asked Alex whether this is something to worry about in terms of Cardiff’s golden gig run petering out.
“The industry is changing, Harry Styles doing 12 nights in London is an unbelievable achievement for an artist. We’ve just got to make sure that Cardiff is still being talked about and considered and being seen as being an option for future tours, and if we’re doing that then at least we’re in the conversation. Then it’s down to how we then look to secure it.
“We did four nights of Ed Sheeran. That’s before residencies even became a thing. So, the stadium can do it, the city can sustain multiple nights. And again, it’s just making sure that we are presenting the stadium to the promoters as a viable option if they wanted to look at residencies in Cardiff.”
Alex’s position at the Principality Stadium means he hardly ever sees the shows, watches Wales play rugby, he doesn’t meet the acts (other than a one-off Billy Joel Welsh jersey presentation!) to maintain a certain level of professionalism and most dramatically, he doesn’t even tell his wife who’s booked in.
“When we launch shows she looks at me and goes, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about that?’ That’s the way it is. When we’ve been tasked and trusted to work with a promoter on an event like Oasis, we’re working with code names for months, so it’s nice when we can eventually let the cat out of the bag and say it’s coming.
“Oasis’ first show coming to Cardiff, it was a special moment. We started the tour off in the right light. Cardiff was such a success and the band called it biblical. It was biblical. But, and for all the best possible reasons, it was phenomenal.”
The brothers locked hands on stage(Image: Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
With Principality Stadium indelibly linked with the heart of the Welsh capital, if there’s something going on in there, the whole city centre knows about it. It’s always busy, but Alex feels like it means something more than just an events destination to the fans who commit and book.
“Having done this job for a long time and been lucky enough to go to other stadiums, this one truly feels like the nation’s stadium,” he says. “It’s definitely an intrinsically Welsh thing, but people are passionate about Principality Stadium, or the Millennium as it was.
“They feel it’s part of them, and there are so many memories that people have with what we’ve done here, I think sometimes you forget what it means to people.
“People remember the Grand Slam in 2005 or Champions League Final in 2017. Yeah, that’s the power of events, but Welsh people, our stewards particularly, they’re so passionate and want the stadium to succeed, they want the stadium to be a great venue. And I think that’s something that only we can bottle up and call the warm Welsh welcome.
“So when fans come to us we want to make sure that they know they’re in Wales, they’re going to have a great time, and a positive experience.”