Ed Sheeran: Portman Road a natural home for TikTok gig

It was a "natural" decision for "massive Ipswich Town fan" Ed Sheeran to play a gig at the club's Portman Road stadium, according to his manager.

The singer will perform in front of an empty stadium, with a live stream carried on his TikTok channel from 21:00 BST.

His manager, Stuart Camp, said the lack of a live audience could be "strange" at first.

But he added: "It's the same as doing a TV show but we're doing a gig."

The performance takes place on the same day as Sheeran releases his new single, Bad Habits.

It will be free to view as part of TikTok's UEFA Euro 2020 Show. The mobile video app is an official sponsor of the football tournament.

Ipswich Town's Portman Road stadium will host the concert

Mr Camp said: "This is our home. Ed is a massive Ipswich Town fan and TikTok came to us with the idea of doing this show."

He said after originally wondering how and where a concert could take place under Covid restrictions, hosting it at Portman Road was "a natural knock-on".

Ed Sheeran's manager Stuart Camp said he was sure the singer would return to Portman Road to play a concert in front of fans in the future

"It's quite strange trying to project yourself," he said.

"You just have to imagine the countless people out there online."

Sheeran is expected to perform with a band, as he did for Radio 1's Big Weekend recently.

Ed Sheeran, pictured with his wife Cherry, is the new shirt sponsor for Ipswich Town

TikTok's Paul Hourican said the concert's stage had been specially designed to be shot vertically to meet the platform's demands

TikTok UK's head of music operations, Paul Hourican, said the stage for the show had been specially constructed so it could be shot in the vertical format which TikTok operates in.

"It's taken a lot of work," he said.

"When you have the biggest artist in the world performing somewhere he loves to a TikTok audience it adds that extra layer of authenticity."

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Both Mr Hourican and Mr Camp declined to put a figure on the number of people expected to view the event, but Sheeran's TikTok channel has 4.6 million followers.

Ipswich Town's director of sales, Rosie Richardson, called the event "super exciting".

"We've never hosted a live stream event, so this is something quite different," she said.

"Football clubs and music have a synergy. It just works."

Ipswich Town director of sales Rosie Richardson said the event was originally going to be "low-key" but has grown

Sheeran recently signed a one-year deal to sponsor the shirts for Ipswich Town's men's and women's first teams.

The Shape of You star's record-breaking Divide tour concluded in front of 160,000 people over four nights at Chantry Park, Ipswich, in August 2019.