Ghost’s “Phone-Free” Rule Causes Disturbance in Birmingham
While originally many welcomed the Swedish rock/metal band's initiative to ban phones in their 2025 European tour, searching for phones in the attendees' bags caused a huge line to pile up before their show in Birmingham, UK.
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The Swedish rock band Ghost has decided to make their 2025 European tour “phone-free,” meaning they want their audiences to leave their phones behind and enjoy their show in the moment.
This may sound like a welcome, wholesome idea - however, people likely underestimated how seriously the band would take its enforcement.
At their recent show at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham, United Kingdom, the line stretched for miles as the 16,000 people waiting to get in got their bags searched for cell phones. Many concert goers, ironically, whipped out their phones, filmed the devastatingly long lines, then used them to post on social media sites like X (Twitter) to report on the less than pleasant experience.
However, after everyone got in and the show started, some attendees even told the local news site BirminghamLive that they actually appreciate the prohibition on phones.
The next gig Ghost is playing will be at the 19,000-seater Sportpaleis Arena in Antwerpen, Belgium on April 22nd. We’ll see if the organizers will come up with a smoother way of enforcing the phone-free rule at the concert.
Also, the Swedish rock band is releasing a new album in just a few days. “Skeletá” is coming out on April 25th, and based on the hype around the band’s tour across Europe, it is likely going to be a hit on the Old Continent.
