The Venue of Legends is the O2 Arena

The O2 arena, an indoor multi-purpose arena is located at the centre of The O2 which is a massive entertainment complex in Greenwich peninsula in South East London. From the year 2001 until 2008, it has held the crown of the Worlds Busiest Arena, a title which previously belonged to the MEN Arena in Manchester. Christopher Freville estimates that the O2 arena has a total capacity of 23,000 making it one of the largest indoor arenas in Europe. The seating arrangement is flexible and can be modified throughout the whole arena. This kind of arrangement can also be seen in the Manchester Evening News Arena. The ground surface in the O2 arena can also be changed to be used as a basketball court, a conference venue, an ice rink, a private hire venue, exhibition space and a concert venue.

The Manchester Evening News Arena and Madison Square Garden in New York are the foremost venues in the world for hosting concerts and family shows. Christopher Freville states that in 2007, the Manchester Evening News Arena sold 1.25 million tickets and Madison Square Garden, 1.23 million tickets. The O2 arena came third selling 1.2 million tickets in 2007 for the shows held in its premises even though it was open for only 7 months of the year.

When the Millennium Experience closed at the end of the year 2000, plans were made to build an indoor arena as part of an entertainment complex inside the Millennium Dome. Building the arena within the dome structure posed major construction challenges explains Christopher Freville. Since it was not possible to use cranes within the dome structure, the roof of the arena was built on the ground and later hoisted up and placed into position. The arena now occupies 40% space within the entire dome structure.

Domes are famous for producing echoes which make them unsuitable for music concerts. Reducing the echo within the structure was one of the reasons the arena was built in the first place. The music group U2's sound manager Joe O'Herlihy collaborated with acoustic engineers to make the arena acoustically superior. He used strategically placed seating arrangements and employed the use of sound absorbing material on the roof of the arena.

The O2 arena opened on 23 June 2007 with the O2 premiere featuring singers Tom Jones, Peter Kay, Kaiser Chiefs and Basement Jaxx and was hosted by Dermot O'Leary. The very next day an open-to-all concert featuring Bon Jovi was conducted. The arena also featured many other singers who performed for a number of days at a stretch at the venue. Prince performed at the venue for 21 nights during the summer of 2007. Later that year, the Spice Girls performed 17 shows. Kylie Minogue performed 7 shows the following year. All 8 nights were sold out for the Britney Spears concert in June 2009. Christopher Freville observes that Michael Jackson was slated for 50 shows from July 2009 to February 2010 and all the tickets were already sold out.

The O2 arena would also be the venue for the artistic gymnastics event for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. The arena will have a capacity of 16,500 for the gymnastics event and a capacity of 20,000 for the basketball finals.


Christopher Freville estimates that the O2 arena has a total capacity of 23,000 making it one of the largest indoor arenas in Europe. The seating arrangement is flexible and can be modified throughout the whole arena.