Choirs Withdraw from Andrea Bocelli’s ‘Land of Song’ Festival Over ‘Cheeky’ Participation Fees

Several community choirs in Wales are withdrawing from the Land of Song Festival at the Principality Stadium, complaining about “unheard-of” participation fees. World-famous Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli will headline the 2027 event. Participating choirs must pay a registration fee of £150 and £42 per individual member.

Andrea Bocelli is the headline act for the Land of Song Festival at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in May 2027, but several Welsh community choirs are pulling out. But choir leaders said they were withdrawing because of the “unheard-of” costs, which included a £150 choir subscription and £42 per individual member. Organizers have not made a public statement so far.

The Land of Song Festival is billed as “one of the world’s largest shared singing events”. The two-day event, scheduled for May 8 and 9, 2027, will feature Andrea Bocelli in the Saturday show and a mass choir event on Sunday.

But the festival’s official cost structure has faced huge backlash from the Welsh choral community. The festival’s website says each group taking part has to pay a £150 “choir subscription”. In addition to this base fee, each choir member must pay an additional £ 42 to take part.

For larger community groups, such fees quickly run into thousands of pounds, not counting the cost of coach hire, accommodation for out-of-town members or optional charges for hard copies of sheet music.

Community singers have traditionally sung without paying fees to participate, and choir directors have been frustrated with this on a wide scale.

Huw Watkins, who has sung with the Glynneath Male Voice Choir at the Royal Albert Hall and Wales rugby matches, said his group would have had to pay about £1,000 just for participation fees for 20 members. “We could not believe it – we have never paid anything before to participate,” Watkins said. “Somebody’s making a lot of money out of this,” he added, saying new choir members were disappointed to miss out on what would have been a rare large-scale performance opportunity.

Colin Williams of the Llantrisant Male Choir, which has around 78 members, echoed these sentiments. His choir paid the £150 registration fee but pulled out after being told about the per-member fee. “After paying the registration fee, there was no communication from the organizers as to what we would be singing and the practice needed, then the next thing we saw on social media was that they would be charging £42 per chorister to sing there, which is unheard of,” Williams said.

‘I have been singingfor  44 years in the choir,r and I have never had to pay to sing; normally we get paid to sing,’ said Williams, who has sung with the choir for 44 years. ‘There is a cultural disconnect there, he said. He called the financial demand “massive cheek.”

As of late September 2026, organizers of The Land of Song Festival have not publicly commented on the backlash or fee structure. BBC Wales approached festival organizers for comment, but they declined. BBC Wales also approached the Principality Stadium for comment, but it has not yet responded.

Mass singing at the Principality Stadium has long been a major community event, and Wales has a long tradition of choral singing. This is a major shift in how such cultural events are funded: charging volunteer community members to perform at a commercial festival.

If the fee structure remains the same, the event could price out the traditional working-class, community-based choirs that make up the backbone of Welsh musical heritage. This could dramatically alter the size and composition of the promised 20,000-voice Sunday performance.

The Land of Song Festival is still officially scheduled for May 8-9, 2027. However, with dozens of established choirs pulling out, the event organizers may face pressure to alter their marketing claims or reconsider the participation fee structure to ensure the viability of the mass choir event.

No official announcements have been made about changes to the schedule or prices.