The festival marks its 10th anniversary and a new era at Prague’s Letňany Airport, with Sting’s ‘3.0’ power‑trio set to bring down the curtain on Sunday, June 21, 2026.

PRAGUE — Metronome Prague will celebrate its tenth anniversary next summer with a major move and an even bigger finale: Sting has been announced as the festival’s closing headliner for 2026, performing on Sunday, June 21, at Letňany Airport. The booking caps a year of transformation for the city’s premier multi‑genre festival, which will relocate from its longtime home at the Prague Exhibition Grounds to the spacious airfield in Prague 9 and partner with Live Nation Czech Republic to scale up production.

Organizers confirmed the dates for Metronome Prague 2026 as June 19–21 and positioned Sting at the very end of the program — a Sunday‑night set expected to draw a cross‑generational crowd on the festival’s largest stage. The appearance arrives amid Sting’s global ‘Sting 3.0’ tour, the back‑to‑basics power‑trio format that has reinvigorated his live show with tighter arrangements and an emphasis on musicianship. Backed by long‑time guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas, the trio has been road‑testing lean, muscular versions of catalog staples from The Police and his solo years, from “Message in a Bottle” and “Roxanne” to “Englishman in New York,” “Fields of Gold,” and “Desert Rose.”

While the festival’s promoters highlighted Sting as the ‘final headliner,’ the 2026 bill is already shaping up to be broad and ambitious. After unveiling a strategic partnership with Live Nation, Metronome confirmed its relocation to Letňany — the same open‑air site that has hosted some of the Czech capital’s biggest modern concerts — and began rolling out headliner announcements, including Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds as an early marquee name. The move signals Metronome’s intent to compete at a continental scale while retaining the Prague‑centric identity that has distinguished the event since its 2016 debut.

For Prague audiences, Sting’s return is both a reunion and a milestone. He last played the city on October 28, 2022, at the O2 arena during his “My Songs” tour — a full‑house evening that underscored the breadth of a catalog now spanning more than four decades. His history with Metronome is even more specific: he topped the festival bill in 2017 at its original location, making the 2026 appearance nearly a decade since his first Metronome Prague set. Closing the 10th‑anniversary edition offers a sense of symmetry: an artist who helped define the festival’s early international pull returns to sign off on its most ambitious edition yet.

The choice of Letňany Airport as the new site is more than a logistical tweak. The airfield’s scale allows for expanded staging, sightlines, and crowd management that were difficult to achieve at the Exhibition Grounds. It also opens the door to creative site design — multiple zones, wider concourses, and upgraded amenities — that can ease peak‑time congestion and improve the overall experience. In recent years, Letňany has proven its capacity for large, open‑air productions with streamlined transport links via the Metro C line and robust bus corridors, all of which should be stress‑tested again in June.

Sting’s current live format is perfectly suited to a big‑field finale. The ‘3.0’ setup strips the band back to essentials, creating the kind of negative space that makes rhythmic details pop. Dominic Miller’s melodic guitar anchors the arrangements and leaves Sting the freedom to drive the groove on bass while shaping the vocal phrasing; Chris Maas’s crisp, modern drum sound fills out the spectrum without the need for auxiliary players. On recent dates, that economy has translated into sharper dynamics — choruses that hit harder, interludes that stretch just enough, and familiar hooks that feel newly urgent.

Festival‑goers can also expect a set list balanced between Police classics and solo material, often re‑voiced for the trio. In place of studio lacquer, the songs lean on tempo, touch, and call‑and‑response from the crowd — a quality that tends to magnify in open air. For Prague, there is precedent: in 2017 at Metronome and during previous Czech stops, Sting has made a point of blending immediate sing‑alongs with deeper cuts that reward long‑time listeners, a strategy that keeps casual fans engaged while satisfying the faithful.

Metronome’s tenth‑anniversary pivot comes as Prague’s summer calendar grows ever more competitive. The city’s infrastructure for large‑scale events has matured — from expanded hotel capacity to streamlined permitting and stronger private‑public collaboration on transport — and audiences have returned to pre‑pandemic habits of planning trips around festivals. By planting a flag at Letňany and securing a closer with global name recognition, Metronome is positioning itself not only as a showcase for Czech talent but as a destination weekend for regional and international visitors.

Promoters say the 2026 edition will continue familiar programming strands — curated side stages, food and design zones, and late‑night club programming — while upgrading production values across the site. If the 2025 edition was a test of operational resilience, 2026 is being framed as a statement of intent: a bigger canvas, a more efficient layout, and a renewed emphasis on marquee sets that can travel far on social media. Expect attention to creature comforts as well: shaded areas, hydration points, and improved egress after headliners — quality‑of‑life details that often determine whether first‑timers become regulars.

Beyond logistics, the symbolism is hard to miss. A decade in, Metronome is stepping onto a runway — literally — and asking an artist who has evolved through multiple reinventions to close the ceremony. Sting’s reputation as a meticulous bandleader dovetails with Metronome’s own reputation for polish. If weather cooperates, a clear June dusk over an airfield stage could deliver the kind of “I was there” moment festivals trade on.

Tickets for Sting’s closing night are linked to the festival’s general on‑sale schedule, with organizers indicating a Friday, October 17 on‑sale and Ticketmaster as the exclusive retailer. As with any high‑demand headliner, early purchase is prudent — particularly for multi‑day passes that bundle Sunday access. Transport‑wise, riders should factor in increased post‑show demand on the Metro and plan rendezvous points away from the immediate gates; cyclists and ride‑hailing users will find designated areas in previous Letňany deployments and can expect similar planning here.

And while Sting is the Sunday cherry, the cake looks substantial. With Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds already announced and additional acts expected through the winter booking window, the 2026 bill has the makings of a classic three‑act arc: a Friday to set the tone, a Saturday to surge, and a Sunday designed for catharsis. In that frame, Sting’s penultimate choruses — the wordless “whoa‑oh‑ohs” that turn fields into choirs — feel less like nostalgia and more like infrastructure: the simplest way to make tens of thousands of strangers sing as one.

If Metronome’s first decade was about proving a concept — a capital‑city festival with international ambition and local character — the next begins with a clear vote of confidence in scale. The real test will be how that scale feels when the gates open: whether the festival can keep queues short, sound crisp, and movement intuitive. But as a calling card, a Sunday night with Sting — the bass tuned low, the first guitar harmonic carrying on the night air — is difficult to argue with. Prague gets a familiar guest, a new setting, and, if the booking works as intended, a finale worthy of an anniversary banner.

Key Details:

• Dates: June 19–21, 2026 (Metronome Prague 2026)

• Venue: Letňany Airport, Prague 9

• Final headliner: Sting — Sunday, June 21, 2026 (Sting 3.0 tour)

• Early headline announcement: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds among the first confirmed acts

• Organizer partnership: Live Nation Czech Republic

Sources (accessed October 14, 2025):

– Sting.com — ‘Sting 3.0: Two shows added in Prague and Vilnius in June 2026’ (lists 21 June 2026 Metronome Festival, Prague).

– Metronome Prague (official site) — Announcement page confirming Sting as Sunday closer and move to Letňany Airport; tickets via Ticketmaster.

– IQ Magazine — Report on Metronome Prague’s partnership with Live Nation and relocation to Letňany, dates June 19–21, 2026.

– Prague Morning / Prague Daily News — Local coverage confirming Sting as final headliner for the 10th‑anniversary edition at Letňany.

– Setlist.fm — Record of Sting’s most recent Prague performance on October 28, 2022 (O2 arena).