The Joshua Tree 2019 is Here! Announcement Wrap Up!

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2019-05-31)

Yesterday was a bit of a blur! But we are so happy that the fans in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Japan and South Korea finally are going to see the tour that previously took U2 through Europe and North and South America. Will it be the same? It’s U2. There’s always surprises, upgrades, and unexpected bonuses. But we’re excited to see what is next.

The tour was announced at 8am in the morning, Auckland NZ time. The announcement took place on Twitter. A fan in New Zealand had asked about where the announcement was, at 8am, U2 replied, and officially announced they were coming to New Zealand:

The next four hours saw members of U2 replying to fans on Twitter from areas where the tour would visit. Bono spoke about falling in love with Japan when they first toured there in 1983. Adam joked about breaking out the Tim Tams to a user in Australia, and joked that it would be a holiday but they get to call it a job. The Edge commented on being able to feel the hum from New Zealand all the way from Dublin. All told U2 sent out 16 replies, and Bono also posted a goodnight before they signed off, and someone quoted Noel Gallagher’s “Black Star Dancing” with a hashtag “It’s Gonna Be A Ripper”.

The announcement and interaction on Twitter was U2’s first time using the social media platform for a live Twitter interaction, but based on the reaction from fans we hope it won’t be their last!

The announcement was updated across many sites while fans were watching the interaction on Twitter. Local ticketing agencies launched sites. The photo of the four members of the band walking in the desert with their instruments was uploaded to many of these sites, a photo taken by Ross Andrew Stewart in California last May. Some very important pages at U2.Com appeared:

Over on YouTube, the band have uploaded a promotional video for the tour. That video can be viewed below. The video features gorgeous footage of songs and photos of “Where the Streets Have No Name” performed during the Joshua Tree 2017 tour.

Over on Instagram, U2 used the stories feature to share a number of short videos which saw images of The Joshua Tree materializing in various locations that the tour will visit. We see it in Japan, and we see it in Singapore and we see it in other locations. Each video is accompanied by a short clip of music from The Joshua Tree, and feature hashtags written in Bono’s handwriting.

Over at U2.Com they also added a new shirt to their merchandise offerings. A red shirt with the band silhouetted in black on the front with the tour logo along the bottom. A similar shirt was sold at limited shows on the first leg of the tour in 2017, but was never made widely available. The shirt can be ordered now.

For those specifically interested in Japan, a special micro site has been set up with information in both Japanese and English, including seat maps and other information at u2japan2019.com. It was one of the first sites to update with seating maps, pricing and other information, but other sites around the world have been updating throughout the day of the announcement.

And promotion is not just limited to the Internet, posters are also going up in the cities, and we’re happy to share this look at one of those thanks to Sallie:

It’s been a long road to this date. The band had initially looked at taking the tour to Australia at the end of 2017, but promotional commitments became a concern when they decided it was time to launch Songs of Experience. The tour was again rumoured to happen at the end of 2018 following the end of the Experience and Innocence tour, but the band decided to take a break from work to recharge. Fans in Australia, New Zealand and Asia were vocal all along in their requests to the band to return to those areas. A petition started in 2017 was delivered to Live Nation to urge the band to come back to those areas. Social media campaigns asked for the band to return. And the band were often asked in person, and often gave reassurances that they did intend to take The Joshua Tree tour to Australia.

Rumours that the tour would actually happen started last November in Dublin, when the crew mentioned they had been asked to hold open time for 2019 as a tour was planned. Just before Christmas we were able to confirm the band was looking at stadiums, and were looking at new locations in Asia that they had never played before. On February 7 of this year we were able to confirm that the tour scheduling had started and we were able to share the first dates for the tour, in Auckland NZ, and throughout the last few months we’ve kept an ongoing list of rumours about the tour. An announcement of the tour was initially planned for April 5 but was cancelled some time in advance. The announcement was later scheduled for May 20, 2019, which was also cancelled, just days before it was due to happen. The announcement was finally made on Twitter on May 31, 2019 at 8am in New Zealand, and was made simultaneously around different platforms.

We’ve been doing some updating in preparation for the tour as well. We’re happy to direct you to our Questions and Answers document, which gives information on ticketing, presales, seat configuration, VIP packages, pricing and more. If you have a question we’d be happy to try to answer it, but be warned, we will ask if you’ve looked at the reference materials provided at U2.Com first! We’ve also added a countdown clock on our front page, you can go in at any time to view how many days, hours, minutes and seconds before the tour starts in Auckland. We are also providing updates on Facebook and Twitter as we update things at the site, and we will have some content at Instagram as well in the near future. And we invite you to take a look at the stage from 2017 as it looked in Dublin in 360 we are told it might look a little like that again.

We’re excited that U2 is going back out on the road. We’re excited to see fans getting a chance to see these shows after a long time away from playing these areas.

Finally, a big thank you must be extended to our readers, and especially to the sources who have been providing information to us about this tour for months. We appreciate all of the feedback we’ve been given, and love to hear from you, and just wanted to stop and say thank you one more time. Looking forward to hearing the streams on opening night! New Zealand you’re up first!!

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