At ABBA Voyage in London, digital avatars of the band perform with live musicians on stage. Hatsune Miku’s concerts pair a projected virtual singer with a real band, while VTuber concerts usually reach the UK as cinema screenings of shows filmed abroad.
Shows like these are often called hologram concerts. This guide explains how each one really works, where you can see them in the UK and what tickets cost.
Hologram Concerts and VTuber Screenings Across the UK
How a hologram concert works, from an 1862 stage illusion to Coachella
Most shows sold as hologram concerts rely on a much older trick. A true hologram is a still 3D image made with lasers, as NPR explained in 2024. What audiences usually see is Pepper’s ghost, an illusion invented by the British engineer Henry Dircks in 1862, which reflects an image off an angled transparent screen so that a figure appears to stand on the stage.
The best known example is the Tupac Shakur performance at Coachella in 2012. The shows in this guide each use their own method, set out below.
ABBA Voyage, the avatar concert at ABBA Arena in London
ABBA Voyage has run since May 2022 at ABBA Arena, a venue built for the show in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The nearest station is Pudding Mill Lane on the DLR, and the postcode is E15 2RU. More than three million people have seen the show.
ABBA Voyage’s own guide describes “digital avatar versions” of Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Frida, created with the band, performing alongside a live band on stage. BroadwayWorld puts that band at ten musicians.
The concert lasts about 100 minutes with no interval. There are seven shows a week from Wednesday to Sunday, including weekend matinees, and booking now runs to 28 June 2027. Evening shows start at 7:45pm from Wednesday to Saturday and at 6pm on Sunday, with matinees at 3pm on Saturday and 1pm on Sunday.
Seated tickets start at £40.50. Dance Floor tickets for 16 to 25 year olds cost £35, with a new batch released every month. The show is recommended for ages 5 and over, under 3s are not admitted, and under 16s need an adult aged 18 or over. The Dance Floor is not recommended for anyone younger than 12.
Hatsune Miku, the virtual singer at The O2
Hatsune Miku began as singing synthesiser software released by Crypton Future Media in 2007. Producers write songs for her voice, and on stage she is projected as an animated character in front of a live band. Our guide to Japanese idols explains where she sits in Japanese pop.
MIKU EXPO 2026 Europe has one UK date, at The O2 in London on 12 November 2026, the first night of a tour that also plays Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Paris, Madrid and Lisbon. UK Anime Network broke the London date in February 2026, and our MIKU EXPO 2026 London page covers the night itself.
London has hosted MIKU EXPO three times before: at Olympia London on 8 December 2018, the O2 Academy Brixton on 11 January 2020 and OVO Arena Wembley on 26 October 2024.
Doors are at 6:30pm. Standing tickets are for ages 16 and over, and under 15s in the seats need an adult with them, according to Live Nation’s listing.
No UK date has been announced for 2027. Piapro’s event list, run by Crypton, is the first place new MIKU EXPO tours appear.
VTuber concerts in UK cinemas
VTubers are streamers who perform as animated characters, with the real performer’s movements captured and mapped onto the avatar. Our guide to what a VTuber is explains the technology. Their concerts are filmed live, often in Japan or the United States, and later screened in cinemas where fans cheer and wave penlights as if the show were live.
hololive English’s third concert, All for One, came to Genesis Cinema on Mile End Road in east London on 2 May 2026. Each day of the original concert had its own 150 minute screening, with standard tickets at £35 and a VIP option at £100.
At HYPER JAPAN Festival in London that July, hololive screened two shows. Drawn to Dawn, a concert by Takanashi Kiara and Ninomae Ina’nis filmed at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, showed on 25 and 26 July at £25, or £45 for a combo ticket. Day 1 of All for One was free for everyone at the festival on 24 July.
In September the fourth concert, Serendipity, opened a six city European tour at Cineworld Birmingham NEC on 17 September 2026. All of these screenings were produced by Virtual Stage Productions, who explained to us how a concert filmed in Los Angeles reaches a British cinema.
Serendipity was filmed at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on 3 and 4 July 2026, and the screening put both nights into one sitting. The tour’s own rules show how these evenings run: cheering is welcome, cosplay is encouraged, and penlights are allowed if they are under 20cm long.
VTubers also perform live in 3D at VeXpo, the UK’s VTuber convention, which held its concerts at the NEC in September 2026. Birmingham’s wider year of conventions is in our guide to anime conventions in Birmingham.
Virtual reality concerts: Yuja Wang at the Royal Festival Hall
Playing with Fire: Yuja Wang runs at the Royal Festival Hall until 3 January 2027. You wear a mixed reality headset and watch a recorded avatar of the pianist perform her recital, so Yuja Wang does not appear in person.
The experience lasts about 45 minutes. Standard entry is from £22 plus a £4 booking fee. It was produced by VIVE Arts and Atlas V with Lightroom, and directed by Pierre-Alain Giraud.
Concerts inside games: Hoshimachi Suisei in Fortnite
Games have become another stage. On 2 May 2026 hololive’s Hoshimachi Suisei opened STELLAR in Fortnite, an interactive concert built on a Fortnite island, announced by Epic Games and reported by Gamebiz. It started at 8pm in Japan, which was noon in the UK.
Avatar concerts beyond ABBA and hololive
Other artists are looking at the same idea. The Irish Times reported in August 2026 that Dolly Parton and her team had been exploring an avatar show with companies that create such performances. The plans were at an early stage, according to a statement published four days before her death.
Live cinema screenings are growing too. Music Week reported in February 2026 that two BTS concerts from the group’s Arirang world tour would be screened in cinemas around the world in April, distributed by Trafalgar Releasing.
Virtual concerts in the UK: common questions
No. ABBA Voyage says on its own site that it is “not a hologram performance”. The four members appear as digital avatars, created with the band, performing on stage with a live band at ABBA Arena in London.
Mostly in cinemas. hololive English concerts were screened at Genesis Cinema in London, at HYPER JAPAN Festival and at Cineworld Birmingham NEC in 2026. VeXpo at the NEC in Birmingham also stages VTuber concerts each September.
No UK date has been announced for 2027. The O2 in London on 12 November 2026 is the only UK date of MIKU EXPO 2026 Europe, and new tours are listed first on Crypton’s Piapro event page.
