The Weeknd set to take over Wembley as Community Shield moves to Cardiff!

In a rare change to football tradition, this year’s Community Shield will not be played at Wembley Stadium. Instead, the season curtain-raiser between the Premier League champions and FA Cup winners will take place at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff and music is the reason why.

The Weeknd is scheduled to perform a series of concerts at Wembley Stadium across August 14 to 19, meaning the stadium is unavailable for the Community Shield dates on August 15 and 16. Rather than football taking priority, this time it’s music that has claimed one of the UK’s biggest stadiums. Wembley isn’t just hosting The Weeknd either. Throughout the summer, the stadium will welcome major artists including Harry Styles, My Chemical Romance, Bruno Mars and Bon Jovi, turning the national stadium into one of the biggest live music venues in the world during football’s offseason.

As a result, the Community Shield will head to the Principality Stadium, a venue that previously hosted the fixture six times between 2001 and 2006 while the new Wembley Stadium was being built. The stadium is no stranger to major events either, as it is also set to host the opening match of UEFA Euro 2028. This isn’t the first time the Community Shield has been moved away from Wembley. The match was played at Villa Park in 2012 due to the London Olympics and at the King Power Stadium in 2022 when Wembley hosted the Women’s European Championship final.

This year, however, the switch highlights something different — the growing power of live music events. With global artists like The Weeknd selling out multiple nights at Wembley, music has once again shown its ability to rival even the biggest football events for stadium space.