Bowie Stage premiere brings 1978 concert to Berlin

The Bowie Stage premiere will bring David Bowie's unseen concert film to Berlin's Uber Arena on 14 February 2027, as part of the Berlin International Film Festival. The production rebuilds Bowie's Isolar II tour for an arena audience, using film shot at Earls Court in London that sat untouched in the Bowie Archives for almost five decades.

Wonderworld announced the production this week in collaboration with the David Bowie Estate and filmmaker Brett Morgen, according to the official announcement. Morgen directed Moonage Daydream, the estate-authorised documentary about Bowie, and found the original camera negatives while researching that film. The announcement presents the Berlin date as the world premiere, with a wider arena run to follow.

The footage comes from the Isolar II concerts at Earls Court, where Bowie performed material from Low and "Heroes" alongside older songs. Bowie conceived and produced the original Stage project during those concerts, according to the announcement. He later shelved the film because he was unhappy with how it had been shot, reported by Consequence, and the concerts instead formed the basis of the live album Stage. Morgen has spent years restoring, colour grading and reconfiguring the material for large screens, according to the announcement.

The new production does not use a tribute act or a hologram. It presents the restored film across multiple screens, with transparent LED screens intended to make Bowie and his band appear present on stage. Lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe, whose credits include work with the Rolling Stones and Elton John, designed the lighting. Oscar-winning sound mixer Paul Massey, whose credits include Bohemian Rhapsody and Moonage Daydream, mixed the audio for surround sound in the venue.

What audiences will see

The Earls Court performance features Bowie backed by his touring band from that period: Adrian Belew on lead guitar, Carlos Alomar on rhythm guitar, George Murray on bass, Dennis Davis on drums, Roger Powell on keyboards, Sean Mayes on piano and Simon House on electric violin. The set draws on Low and "Heroes" and includes "Ziggy Stardust", "Rebel Rebel", "Suffragette City", "Fame", "The Jean Genie" and "Heroes". A link to the full announcement is available from the official David Bowie site, with further reporting from Consequence.

Rob Hallett, founder of Wonderworld and former president of AEG International, described the material as an "extraordinary treasure" in a statement, and said the team was ensuring the experience stayed faithful to Bowie's legacy while making his work accessible to fans around the world and to a new generation. Hallett joined the project in 2024, according to the announcement, after Morgen and the Bowie Estate had first discussed bringing Stage to arenas in 2018.

Berlin is a deliberate choice for the premiere. Bowie lived in the city in the mid-1970s and recorded "Heroes" there. Festival director Tricia Tuttle described hosting the premiere as "a dream come true", reported by several outlets covering the announcement, and said the Berlinale is a place where cinema, art and new forms of storytelling meet. The Berlin date falls during the opening weekend of the festival.

Tickets and what comes next

Tickets for the Berlin show go on sale through Eventim. A presale starts on 28 October at 9 a.m. GMT, which is 10 a.m. CET, according to the official announcement. General sale follows on 30 October at the same time of day. The announcement does not list ticket prices in the material published so far.

The production is designed for large venues, with auditoriums starting at a capacity measured in thousands rather than a small theatre or cinema screen. That scale is part of the point: the producers want the film to feel like attendance at a full concert, not a screening of archive material. The show combines the restored film with lighting and sound designed for an arena, rather than asking an audience to watch a single flat screen in silence.

For fans who cannot reach Berlin, the wider run matters. The announcement says the production will be shown in arenas worldwide, and more shows will be announced in the coming months, according to Consequence. The Bowie Estate has also announced a programme of events, releases and collaborations to mark what would have been Bowie's eightieth birthday, reported by the official site. Details of those events sit outside the Berlin announcement, but they explain why the estate is returning to archive material now, a decade after Bowie's death.

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The appeal of the Berlin show rests on a simple fact. Fans have heard the live album Stage for decades, but the film behind it has never been seen in this form. The premiere gives that film a public audience for the first time, in the city where much of the music behind it was made, with the band that played it on stage in the original concerts. Further reporting on the production is available from Uncut.