AC/ DC, European Stadium Tour Brings Power Up To Germany In 2026

AC/DC are bringing their hard rock power back to European stadiums with a new run built around the album Power Up. According to the band’s official announcement and promoter listings, the tour includes major shows in Germany in summer 2026.

Power Up live, German dates in focus

The core of this new AC/DC tour is a series of European stadium concerts that put Germany firmly on the map for fans of classic rock. Promoter and venue listings confirm at least two major German shows: one at Munich’s Olympiastadion and another at Gelsenkirchen’s Veltins-Arena, both among the country’s largest open-air venues.

Munich’s Olympiastadion, with a football capacity of around 69,000 and slightly more for concerts, is one of Germany’s traditional rock stages, used by bands from The Rolling Stones to Metallica. Gelsenkirchen’s Veltins-Arena in the Ruhr region offers a similar scale, with more than 60,000 people for stadium shows. For AC/DC, this means that the German leg alone can host well over 120,000 ticket holders across two nights, a number that underlines the band’s continued drawing power even decades into their career.

Album Power Up as the live foundation

The current tour is closely tied to AC/DC’s seventeenth studio album Power Up, released on November 13, 2020 via Columbia Records. The record was produced by Brendan O’Brien, who also handled production on the band’s 2008 album Black Ice, giving the sound a continuity with AC/DC’s later-period work.

Power Up was conceived as a tribute to the band’s late founding guitarist Malcolm Young. Many of its riffs originate from ideas Malcolm sketched with his brother Angus Young over previous decades. Songs such as Shot In The Dark, Realize and Through The Mists Of Time have become focal points of the album, with Shot In The Dark serving as lead single and appearing prominently in the set lists of recent live shows.

How the album performed on the charts

Power Up was not only framed as a tribute but also a commercial success. In Germany, the album entered the Offizielle Deutsche Charts at No. 1 in its release week, according to GfK Entertainment, where it held a high position across several weeks. This placed AC/DC ahead of many contemporary pop acts and underscored the band’s status as a major album force in the German market even in the streaming era.

Internationally, the record also performed strongly. In the UK, Power Up debuted at No. 1 on the Official Albums Chart, giving AC/DC their fourth UK chart-topping studio album. In the United States, the album started at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 117,000 equivalent album units, including a large share of pure album sales. Comparing this to the band’s previous studio album Rock Or Bust, which began at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with around 172,000 units in 2014, shows a shift in sales balance but a sustained peak-chart presence.

The musical core of AC/DC on stage

AC/DC’s live identity has long been defined by high-voltage guitar riffs, straightforward blues-based song structures and a mix of Bon Scott-era and Brian Johnson-era material. Classic tracks such as Back In Black, Highway To Hell, Thunderstruck and Whole Lotta Rosie have become pillars of their sets.

On recent tours, the band has integrated Power Up songs into this established core rather than attempting a full album performance. Typical stadium set lists combine newer tracks like Shot In The Dark and Realize with long-standing openers and closers, giving fans both a sense of continuity and an update on the band’s current studio work. The result is a show model that appeals to long-time listeners while still underlining that AC/DC remain an active recording act.

Where the act stands and what’s next

The next confirmed live date for AC/DC in the German-speaking region is a stadium show at Munich’s Olympiastadion in summer 2026, followed by at least one additional German date in Gelsenkirchen’s Veltins-Arena on the same tour, according to the official AC/DC site and promoter listings.

Disclaimer: Information on tour dates, venues and chart positions is based on current official announcements and reputable chart sources at the time of writing. Changes to schedules or further additions to the tour route may occur and will be communicated by AC/DC and local promoters.