In the room, the deafening screams evoke a crowd movement. Four musicians pass through a frenetic audience of 8,000 people spread around a square stage. The drummer notices that his podium has been placed with his back to the other musicians and must turn his instrument over himself. After two minutes of hesitation, the concert can begin. It is February 11, 1964 and the group at the heart of the cauldron is called The Beatles. At the Washington Coliseum, a former sports hall equipped with a wrestling ring converted into a stage, located in the federal capital of the United States, they gave their first concert across the Atlantic.
Far from today’s precise shows, this astonishing sequence reminds us that the four boys in the wind were among the first known rock groups to perform on a central stage and to be filmed. This configuration, inherited from the circus and sports like boxing, already existed in jazz or revues, as early as the 1940s. In the absence of a rotating stage, the Beatles had to interrupt themselves four times to turn towards each corner of the room, so as to be seen by the entire assembly of the Washington Coliseum. They will never repeat the experience.
Many stars will in turn try this format evoking a “musical ring” and called in English “in the round”, a term taken from the theater when the stage is circular, “in the round” as its name literally indicates. We can cite Elvis Presley, with his “Comeback Special” televised and recorded in the NBC studios in Burbank (California) in June 1968 – the ancestor of the show “MTV Unplugged” – or Frank Sinatra and his series of orchestral concerts given in October 1974 in the legendary Madison Square Garden, in New York, where the crooner paraded alone on stage (“Sinatra – The Main Event”).
A format designed for stadiums and arenas
In the following decades, more and more immersive shows developed in the gigantism of large halls and stadiums, with the heavyweights of the music industry: from Yes from 1978, to Def Leppard in 1987-1988, from the Rolling Stones from 1997, to U2 in the 21st century.e century. Designed for football stadiums, the “U2 360° Tour” shattered the attendance records of the time, between June 2009 and July 2011, with a central stage surmounted by a claw-shaped frame – like a lint-catching machine – of questionable taste.
After opening for some of the Irish’s tour, Muse and Arcade Fire reproduced the arena experience in the 2010s. “In this type of theater, the financial interest is enormous. By using all of the stands, we significantly increase the number of seats at higher prices”underlines Samuel Capus, associate director of the company Bleu Citron, which produces festivals in the south-west of France (Pause Guitare in Albi or the Rose Festival in Toulouse) and sets up tours.
We can count on an average increase of 15% in the capacity of rooms equipped with a removable stage and 360-degree stands, estimates Arnaud Millard, director of programming and ticketing at Paris Entertainment Company, notably responsible for the operation of the Accor Arena. This optimization is, however, made according to the size of the stages: between the immense, refined rectangular platform of Billie Eilish’s gigantic show in 2024 and 2025 (“Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour”) and the tight octagon imagined by Radiohead for its European arena tour in November and December 2025, the space sacrificed in the pit varies greatly.
Like in a club or studio
At the O2 Arena in London, from November 21 to 25, the attendance record set by Metallica in 2017 was beaten four nights in a row by Radiohead, with a peak of 22,355 spectators (compared to a maximum of 20,000 in normal times) and more than 90,000 seats sold. Should we conclude that if the British rock group went on tour again, it would be in the same format? Arnaud Millard would not put his hand in the fire: “Most artists who can afford it alternate between a classic frontal device and 360 degrees, an artistic choice that can only be duplicated in arenas and involves strong technical constraints.”
If “the quality of omnidirectional sound depends mainly on the experience of the rooms”says Samuel Capus, visually, everything is done so that the public enjoys it. Artistic director of Radiohead’s latest tour, Sean Evans confirmed this in an interview with the specialized media TPI Magazine: “I like the idea that the cheapest seats offer the best overview. (…) I (also) love starting from a design on the scale of an arena and making it intimate to create a real collective experience.”
By immersing the members of Radiohead in the crowd and taking inspiration from their live session “From the Basement”, filmed at The Hospital Club studio, in London, in April 2008, Sean Evans wanted “give the audience the impression of spending time in the studio with the group”. Guaranteed effect.
Even festivals are going 360 degrees
It was while attending an Indochina concert during his “Central Tour” (summer 2022) that Ludovic Larbodie, boss and founder of the Garorock festival, got the idea for his event which takes place every year at the beginning of July in Marmande (Lot-et-Garonne). Since the last edition in 2025, Garorock has set up a new 100% electro central stage, 360 degrees and rotating around which nearly 20,000 people can enjoy themselves until 4 a.m.
“I wanted it to be spectacular and to differentiate us from other festivals”justifies Ludovic Larbodie. This bias has a cost: the total budget is 150,000 euros for this dedicated CTRL+B scene, compared to 100,000 euros for a comparable ordinary scene.
Other events such as the Peacock Society festival (in Paris) or the Rose Festival (in Toulouse) also operate central stages dedicated to electronic music. JB Devay, agent at Super, an independent artistic booking agency which notably produces concerts by English DJ and producer Four Tet, ensures that the 2023 edition of Coachella left its mark: “When the biggest festival in the world creates an event by lining up a set of Four Tet x Fred Again x Skrillex on center stage for its closing night, everyone is inspired.”
At the helm of the Parisian Rock en Seine festival, Matthieu Duclos nevertheless has difficulty seeing how to replicate the system on a big stage with live music. “Electro or rap aesthetics allow us to see artists parade on a small stage, without heavy set changesspecifies the director of the event at the end of August. To set up an interesting and viable system, we would have to create an experience that is not a gimmick.”
Welcome to the world after
Given the current escalation of mega shows, central stages have become a powerful marketing argument. “Producing images that will live for a long time on social networks is a significant challenge”underlines Maxime Mallet, marketing director at Gärten, organizer of events in exceptional settings. To have the French composer and pianist Sofiane Pamart play in the center of the fountain at the Château de Chantilly (Oise), on July 12, 2025, Gärten did not hesitate to empty the basin to install the stage before filling it again.
In the future, these large productions should therefore mainly concern the behemoths of a live industry increasingly oriented towards entertainment. On October 31, 2025, in Los Angeles, the American group Foo Fighters led by Dave Grohl went so far as to remove the stage (but not the barriers) during a live broadcast for Amazon Music Live. A way of putting the group and the public on the same level and therefore on equality.
“It’s the logical continuation of the way artists’ communication is managedreacts JB Devay. Social media engagement rates skyrocket when a fan feels like the artist is their friend. Same with the central scenes, we decide that the “star system” is the old world. When you watch Four Tet, Fred Again and Skrillex cut through the crowd dressed like average guys to join the stage, it’s even more magical.
January 24, 2026. London musician Four Tet performs at the Zénith de Paris on the central stage during a five-hour marathon DJ set which transformed the venue into dance floor giant. Immersive show with light curtain sweeping across the audience, possibility for spectators to navigate freely between the pit and the stands… Everything had been designed here to abolish – or at least reduce as much as possible – the boundary between the audience and the artist. And give the audience the impression of becoming one of the central elements of the show.
Would recreating this atmosphere only be possible in a 360-degree concert? The Canadian artist Feist herself tested this inclusive system during the Covid-19 pandemic by exposing the workings of the show to a reduced audience, with the aim of erasing its grandeur.
But after attending an “ordinary” Nick Cave concert in Los Angeles in March 2022, Feist told the American magazine Variety that the main thing depends above all on the attitude of the musicians towards their audience: “(Nick Cave is) one of those people who was so generous on stage that even though I was in the back of the room, I felt like I was in the front row. Ultimately, everything about this show felt like it was in the round.”
