Road Work: The Path to Noah Kahan’s First Stadium Tour

Kahan’s first reported show was at Northcote Social Club in Melbourne, Australia, bringing in $8,500 from 248 tickets sold on June 6, 2018. Three others that year – one apiece in Sydney, Montreal, and Austin, Texas – combined with the Melbourne date for $29,100 and 1,349 tickets sold. Those are respectable numbers for an artist yet to release a debut studio album, but his nightly ticket sales represent less than 1% of the projected attendance at his upcoming tour.

Alongside the release of 2019’s Busyhead, nightly ticket sales doubled from an average of 337, to 740. In 2021, The I Was / I Am Tour continued to grow Kahan’s audience, topping out with a sold-out show at New York’s Beacon Theatre (2,878 tickets) and more modest audiences in the middle of the country (600 tickets at Majestic Theatre in Madison, Wis.).

It was Stick Season and its accompanying concerts that properly set Kahan’s rise in motion. The album was released on Oct. 14, 2022, and became his first entry on the Billboard 200, debuting at No. 14 before the end of the month. The album lingered in the bottom half of the chart for months before a deluxe version billed as Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) dropped on June 9, 2023, sending it from No. 100 to No. 3 in one week.

“Dial Drunk” debuted as Kahan’s first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 alongside the deluxe reissue, arriving at No. 43 and eventually peaked at No. 25 during its six-month stay on the chart. Amid that song’s run, he kicked off the album cycle’s next evolution, releasing duet versions of its original tracks, hitting the Hot 100 in successive months alongside Kacey Musgraves, Hozier and Gracie Abrams, not to mention his featured role on Zach Bryan’s “Sarah’s Place.”

But it was Stick Season’s title track, debuting a week after “Sarah’s Place” and a week before “She Calls Me Back” with Musgraves, that went the distance. It debuted at No. 80 and eventually climbed to No. 9 six months later, ultimately spending a full year on the Hot 100. All the while, Kahan dropped Stick Season (Forever) in February 2024, returning to No. 3 upon release, and rising to No. 2 a month later. In May, I Was / I Am finally made its debut on the Billboard 200 three years after its release, with two different live albums reaching the chart later that year.

The slow burn of Stick Season translated to Kahan’s live shows. He consistently sold more than 1,500 tickets across the U.S. in the fall of 2022 (seven shows reported) and improved to 2,559 in the early months of 2023 (20 shows between January and March).

He returned in summer 2023, escalating from clubs and small theaters to large theaters and boutique amphitheaters. By September, he struck the “boutique,” playing to 15,000-25,000 fans at outdoor sheds in hometown-adjacent cities in the Northeast, and then in the Southeast in October.

All told, The Stick Season Tour grossed $25.4 million and sold 440,000 tickets across 83 reported shows in 2022-23.

And just as Kahan expanded Stick Season for two deluxe re-releases, 2024 brought The Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever) Tour. After trips to Australia and Europe, he returned to North America, selling out nine arenas in Canada (including three nights at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena) before moving on to amphitheaters in the United States. Summer 2024 introduced his first-ever stadium shows, playing two nights at Boston’s Fenway Park (July 18-19).

Kahan’s 2024 world tour came dangerously close to major Boxscore milestones, finishing with $96.7 million and 998,000 tickets sold over 70 shows on three continents.

With multiple nights at several amphitheaters in 2024, Kahan sold more than 25,000 tickets in St. Paul, Minn., and more than 30,000 in Denver and Los Angeles. Multiple shows in arenas brought similar sales in Nashville and New York, hitting 44,500 over three nights in Toronto. The move from double-headers at amphitheaters – often with more seats to sell than arenas, but at a lower price – to baseball stadiums, isn’t such a huge leap, targeting an average attendance in the range of 36,000-40,000 tickets per night.

Kahan worked hard for his success, on record and on stage, but he didn’t get here alone. He hit the Hot 100 in collaboration with Musgraves, Hozier and fellow 2024 best new artist nominee Gracie Abrams. The Forever edition of Stick Season also featured Brandi Carlile, Lizzy McAlpine and Post Malone, among others. He’s been featured on Kelsea Ballerini’s Grammy-nominated “Cowboys Cry Too” in addition to Bryan’s “Sarah’s Place.” He even performed “Stick Season” with Olivia Rodrigo at Madison Square Garden during her Guts World Tour in 2024.

He can especially look to Bryan, Post and Rodrigo for a path to walk, all of whom also played stadium shows before turning 30. Bryan especially took a similarly fast route to such a giant tour, finishing at No. 3 on Billboard’s 2024 Top Tours ranking with more than $300 million, less than three years after his first appearances on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100.

It’s become increasingly common to see contemporary artists escalate to stadium concerts, from country stars such as Bryan and Morgan Wallen, to — in 2025 alone — stars of pop (Dua Lipa), R&B (SZA), K-pop (Stray Kids) and beyond. Kahan’s entry into the canon is unsurprising given his momentum, but will be another to further break down the door for rising stars.

For this summer’s routing, Kahan condensed his calendar from 32 North American markets to 22, focusing on the major cities that fueled the highest ticket sales on his last trek. Upcoming pre-sales could expand the routing if demand warrants it, but even at the initial slate of 23 shows (he’s playing back-to-back again in Boston), it’s likely to cross the threshold that 2024’s tour barely missed. Considering Kahan’s average ticket price in the same markets on his last stint, his 2026 tour is all but guaranteed to gross more than $100 million.

But just as the long shelf life of Stick Season sparked an extended touring run and turned Kahan into a superstar, early success for “The Great Divide” indicates that his audience is still growing. If his average ticket price grows by 20%, he could look at $125 million or more. With added shows or international extensions, the sky’s the limit.

The Great Divide Tour is set to kick off on June 11 at the Kia Center in Orlando, Fla., as a warm-up for his Bonnaroo set that weekend, before officially moving to stadiums for June 26’s Citizens Bank Park date in Philadelphia.