REVIEW: ED SHEERAN 'THE LOOP TOUR' AT SYDNEY'S ACCOR STADIUM

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Images: Vasili Papathanasopoulos ©

Last night, Ed Sheeran transformed Accor Stadium into something few artists can achieve: a stadium that felt like a small club, powered by nothing more than a guitar, a loop pedal and sheer musical instinct. 

As the house lights settled, Sheeran was already among his devoted fans - walking through the crowd toward the B-stage to kick off the first of three shows in Sydney. There was no bombast, no dramatic entrance. Just an artist threading his way through thousands of fans to begin the night right in the thick of it all, immediately setting the tone that this would be a show build on connection. 

The defining feature of Sheeran’s live show remains his loop machine, and once again the process was nothing short of mesmerising. Watching him construct songs layer by layer, percussion tapped in, rhythmic lines built in real time, harmonies stacked live - its akin to witnessing architecture in motion. Songs began as something fragile and skeletal before expanding into a full-bodied anthem. What is most remarkable is that nothing feels mechanical. The loop pedal is simply an extension of his musicianship. There is no band to mask any imperfections, and Sheeran’s control was effortless. He shifted from rapid fire rhythmic builds, to delicate accosting passages without losing the crowd for a second. 

Throughout the evening, Sheeran reminded the crowd why he has become one of the world’s biggest touring artists. His vocal performance was raw but controlled, textured but clean. In quiet moments, you could hear the grain in his voice - that slightly husky edge that carries emotion so effectively. In stadium-wide chorus’ he invited the crowd in and sang alongside them instead of overpowering. Early on in the night, he reflected on having now played to more than twenty million people across his touring career - a staggering milestone. Yet there was no sense of ego in the remark, if anything, it underscored the unlikely scale of what he is best known for: one man, one guitar, tends of thousands listening. 

Visually, the production elevated the experience. A bridge extended from the main stage out to the B-stage, linking the two performance spaces. It reinforced the nights central theme of connection, and allowed fans to experience him up close. Pyrotechnics and fireworks filled the stadium and sky, with engaging visuals often beamed across the stages large screens, further creating a vibrant atmosphere. When Sheeran layered loops, the graphics responded. When songs stripped back to acoustic intimacy, the visuals softened. The staging supported the storytelling, rather than distracting from it. 

What made the night remarkable wasn’t pyrotechnics or eye-grabbing moments, it was discipline. Sheeran trusts the songs and the process of building them in front of an audience. He trusts that tens of thousands of people will lean in go watch creation happen live. By the time he closed the show, the sense lingered that everyone had witness something deceptively simple yet extraordinarily difficult to execute. The Loop Tour may fill stadiums, but at its heart it remains a masterclass in musicianship and a reminder than even at a global scale, music brings us together.