The opening acts for the upcoming European tour are now confirmed.
LABYRINTH (ITA) will support the entire tour, 4TH DIMENSION (ITA) will support the first part of the tour (24.02. – 08.03) and TRIOSPHERE (NOR) the second part (10.03 – 31.03.).

Check all the upcoming tour dates here.

Sonata Arctica are playing at ARTmania Festival in Sibiu, Romania on August 13th. Check the festival’s website for more information.

Watch the last part of the South American tour documentary below.
If you missed the first 7 parts you can find them here.

Dear Fans,

We’re writing this in order to clear up some confusions about where, when and how we’re going to film our next DVD. When the orginal DVD show in Milano was postponed when Elias broke his hand, we put off the preparations for the time being. Some days ago as we were starting to finish the preparation for the show, we realized that we’ve been mislead about some of the costs for doing the DVD shoot. Mainly we’re talking about the pyrotechnics permits, which would have cost roughly 10 times more than anywhere else. This, along with some other unexpected expenses, came as a total surprise to the band. In order to make things work we had to pull the plug on the shoot in Milano and move it to Finland we’re we can afford to do a proper DVD shoot. Our management jumped the gun here and told our webmaster to change the info on the website, without us knowing about it and without an explanation.

So, that’s the situation we’re in right now. We can not even by a longshot afford to do a proper DVD shoot in Milano and will do it in Oulu instead. By doing so we realize that we’re letting down all our fans who were planning to come to the show. For that we apologize sincerely. We will play the show in Milano, with all the planned extra numbers, as well as a couple of extra tricks to make up for this mishap ….only the cameras won’t be rolling this time. Rather than disappointing all our fans around the world who truly deserve a perfect live DVD we have to let down some of you. We are very sorry that things turned out this way.

Yours,

Sonata Arctica

SONATA ARCTICA will be touring Finland again in April 2011 for the second part of the “Days of Grays Finland” tour.

Tickets will be on sale on December 1st!

06.04. Tampere / Pakkahuone
07.04. Helsinki / Tavastia
08.04. Helsinki / Tavastia
09.04. Lahti / Finlandia-Klubi
15.04. Oulu / Club Teatria
16.04. Tornio / Umpitunneli
21.04. Pori / Bar Kino
22.04. Seinäjoki / Rytmikorjaamo
23.04. Turku / Klubi
24.04. Turku / Klubi
27.04. Helsinki / Nosturi
28.04. Jyväskylä / Lutakko
29.04. Kuopio / Puikkari
30.04. Joensuu / Kerubi

SONATA ARCTICA is going to play at Germany’s Bang Your Head festival on July 16th, 2011. For more information check the festival’s website: www.bang-your-head.de

All upcoming tour dates can be found in the tour info section.

Ever wondered what it would be like to be on tour?

All the ups and downs, drinks and burgers from the South American Tour of Sonata Arctica will now be brought to you absolutely free. Starting with Part 1 on Monday the 15th of November, the movie has an undisclosed number of parts with a new part being released every Monday. Join the band as they travel through South America, starting from Finland on October 14th and all the way through the adventures until they get back home on November 1st.

An additional show for the European tour in February/March 2011 has been confirmed. The show will now be the first one of the tour and takes place in Bratislava, Slovakia. See the complete list below.

24.02.2011 (SK) – Majestic Music Club, Bratislava
25.02.2011 (H) – Petöfi Csarnok, Budapest
26.02.2011 (SLO) – Cvetlicarna, Ljubljana
27.02.2011 (I) – Alcatraz, Milan
01.03.2011 (CZ) – Masters of Rock Café, Zlín
02.03.2011 (A) – Szene, Vienna
04.03.2011 (D) – Kaminwerk, Memmingen
05.03.2011 (D) – HsD, Erfurt
06.03.2011 (B) – Hof ter Lo, Antwerp
07.03.2011 (D) – Garage, Saarbrücken
08.03.2011 (CH) – Z7, Pratteln
10.03.2011 (F) – Theatre Barbey, Bordeaux
11.03.2011 (E) – Apolo, Barcelona
12.03.2011 (E) – La Riviera, Madrid
13.03.2011 (E) – Rock Star Live, Bilbao
15.03.2011 (F) – Transbordeur, Lyon
16.03.2011 (F) – Élysée Montmartre, Paris
18.03.2011 (GB) – Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
19.03.2011 (GB) – Corporation, Sheffield
20.03.2011 (GB) – Garage, Glasgow
22.03.2011 (GB) – Academy 2, Manchester
23.03.2011 (GB) – Milennium Music Hall, Cardiff
24.03.2011 (GB) – Sub 89, Reading
25.03.2011 (GB) – Koko, London
26.03.2011 (D) – Essigfabrik, Cologne
28.03.2011 (NL) – Effenaar, Eindhoven
29.03.2011 (NL) – Patronaat, Haarlem
30.03.2011 (D) – Halle Gartlage, Osnabrück
31.03.2011 (D) – Substage, Karlsruhe

In February and March 2011 SONATA ARCTICA will be touring Europe again. There will be a special show among these on February 27th as the band will record their second live DVD at Alcatraz, Milan (Italy).

25.02.2011 (H) – Petöfi Csarnok, Budapest
26.02.2011 (SLO) – Cvetlicarna, Ljubljana
27.02.2011 (I) – Alcatraz, Milan
01.03.2011 (CZ) – Masters of Rock Café, Zlín
02.03.2011 (A) – Szene, Vienna
04.03.2011 (D) – Kaminwerk, Memmingen
05.03.2011 (D) – HsD, Erfurt
06.03.2011 (B) – Hof ter Lo, Antwerp
07.03.2011 (D) – Garage, Saarbrücken
08.03.2011 (CH) – Z7, Pratteln
10.03.2011 (F) – Theatre Barbey, Bordeaux
11.03.2011 (E) – Apolo, Barcelona
12.03.2011 (E) – La Riviera, Madrid
13.03.2011 (E) – Rock Star Live, Bilbao
15.03.2011 (F) – Transbordeur, Lyon
16.03.2011 (F) – Élysée Montmartre, Paris
18.03.2011 (GB) – Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
19.03.2011 (GB) – Corporation, Sheffield
20.03.2011 (GB) – Garage, Glasgow
22.03.2011 (GB) – Academy 2, Manchester
23.03.2011 (GB) – Milennium Music Hall, Cardiff
24.03.2011 (GB) – Sub 89, Reading
25.03.2011 (GB) – Koko, London
26.03.2011 (D) – Essigfabrik, Cologne
28.03.2011 (NL) – Effenaar, Eindhoven
29.03.2011 (NL) – Patronaat, Haarlem
30.03.2011 (D) – Halle Gartlage, Osnabrück
31.03.2011 (D) – Substage, Karlsruhe

See a complete list of all upcoming shows here.

SONATA ARCTICA regret to inform their Italian fans that the announced show in Milan at the Alcatraz on September 30th, 2010 needs to be postponed.

Reason: while doing his daily exercise routine Elias Viljanen (guitar) broke his right hand. Due to this accident he will not be able to play guitar for the next 5 or 6 weeks.

The new date for the show will be now Sunday, February 27th, 2011 also at the Alcatraz. Of course all tickets for the show September 30th remain valid for the new date.

Sonata Arctica comment: 

“It was pretty shocking to hear from Elias about his accident. We are really sorry we need to postpone the show to a later date and want to excuse for any inconveniences this might cause to our fans in Italy and to all fans who had made travel plans from around the world. We really hope to see you all again in February at the Alcatraz”.

Update: There are, however, good news for those that are worried whether the South American tour is at stake.

Elias will be able to play all South American dates: his doctor at the hospital informed him after a second medical examination that his hand will be recovered after 6 weeks, so no problem for him to be on the tour starting October 16th in Mexico.