More than 1m attend live music events in one week

More than a million people attend live music events across London last week.

Sold-out arena gigs and smaller venues brought more than £320m to the capital in ticket sales and secondary spend, according to the Music Venues Trust.

They included the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park and Greenwich Summer Sounds to performances by Maroon 5, the Weeknd, Blur and The 1975.

"Music is the glue that binds London together," said Music Venue Trust's Beverley Whitrick.

The capital has seen a revival of gigs, concerts and festivals post pandemic, with names including Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey, Harry Styles, Bruce Springsteen, Blur, The Weeknd, Ice Spice and Travis Scott performing this summer.

The Music Venues Trust and Mayor's Office estimated that more than 1m people would have seen live music in the capital last week.

More than 80,000 people a night packed out Wembley Stadium to see Blur, Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard.

The Weeknd sold out the London Stadium with 50,000 people a night and The British Summer Time festival saw 60,000 people a day visit Hyde Park to hear Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.

This month also marks the 20th anniversary of the Somerset House Summer Series, which featured sold out performances from Gabriels, Interpol and Alison Goldfrapp last weekend.

And Busted, Bebe Rexha and Blink 182 are set to perform over the next few weeks.

Sadiq Khan called London the "undisputed world leader in live music".

He added: "London has been abuzz with excitement over the last week, and given everything that happened during the pandemic, it's genuinely fantastic that over million people were able to see brilliant live music last week."

He encouraged Londoners to support grassroot venues that help "London's talent to thrive".