The U.K.’s summer of live music kicked off in earnest this week with a number of huge tour debuts throughout major cities, particularly in London. Over at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday (June 5), Beyoncé brought her Cowboy Carter tour to these shores for the first time, and a day later, Robbie Williams was just a stone’s throw away at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. The festival circuit also got off to a powerful start with Massive Attack in Victoria Park’s LIDO, and Charli XCX set to grace the same venue next weekend.

No gig was bigger than Sam Fender’s record-setting show at the London Stadium on Friday (June 6) night with a whopping 82,500 tickets sold for his largest-ever show (1,000 more than The Weeknd at the venue in 2023). The event arrived during a banner year for the North Shields-born rocker. His third album, People Watching, is the best-selling British album of 2025 so far, and the fastest-selling LP by a British solo act since Harry Styles in 2022. Over the course of the summer, he’ll play more huge shows in his hometown Newcastle, and headline outdoor shows in Manchester and across Europe.

Packed to the brim with fans of all ages (but a large contingent wearing the homestrip of his beloved Newcastle United Football Club), it was a moment to celebrate just how far he’d come since his 2017 arrival, a hard-won British success story when they feel worryingly scant. 

These are the best moments from Fender’s headline show at London Stadium.