Ten days to go: Rod Stewart comes to Kaunas on 23 April

At the moment, Sir Rod Stewart is still enjoying his well-deserved break from touring. After his acclaimed performances recently in Las Vegas, the singer took some time out to spend with his family.
But in just ten days, the 80-year-old will be back on stage - the next stop on this year's concert tour will take the Maggie May singer's entourage to Lithuania on 23 April. Sir Rod will be performing in Kaunas at the Zalgirio Arena. We take a closer look at the city and the arena.
With a population of more than 311,000, Kaunas is the second largest city in Lithuania after the capital Vilnius. In addition to a diversified economy favoured by the city's traffic situation, Kaunas is home to several universities and many galleries. Textile art in particular, which has its roots in the traditionally important textile industry, is strongly represented in the city, which is also reflected in the large, now internationally recognised Kaunas Textile Art Biennale. The city was the European Capital of Culture in 2022, together with Esch an der Alzette in Luxembourg and Novi Sad in Serbia.
Kaunas is the country's central transport hub. Running from south to north, the so-called ‘Via Baltica’ (European route 67), which runs from Warsaw via Riga and Tallinn to Helsinki, meets the main west-east route, the motorway from Klaipėda to Vilnius, which continues via Minsk to Moscow.
The cultural highlight of every year is the Kaunas Jazz Festival, which has regularly attracted national and international jazz greats in April since 1991 and brings a touch of New Orleans to the city. Among others, the internationally renowned jazz musicians Marc Copland and Charlie Hunter have performed at the ‘Kaunas Jazz’.
The Zalgirio Arena is also considered the cultural centre of the city. The multi-purpose hall, where Sir Rod will wow the audience in just over a week's time, was completed in 2011 after three years of construction and opened shortly before the start of the European Basketball Championships. The Zalgirio Arena hosted all the games of the European Championship finals. In 2018, several games of the Ice Hockey World Championships took place here and in 2023, the European Figure Skating Championships were held there.
In addition to sporting events, the Zalgirio Arena also hosts numerous concerts. Chris Norman and Elton John have already performed there.
And now Sir Rod is also performing. Tickets are still available in all categories for the Brit's one last-time show on 23 April. Ticket prices range from 85 to 198 euros. Around 15,000 visitors are expected; the arena has a maximum capacity of 20,000 for concerts.