The rapper brought a pyrotechnic fever dream to Etihad Park, but for all the flames and fireworks, his long-awaited Abu Dhabi return never quite hit full ignition.
Launched in October 2023 and now officially the highest-grossing tour by a solo rapper in history, the Circus Maximus World Tour has pulled in over 1.7 million tickets across more than 80 dates worldwide. Travis Scott arrived at Etihad Park last night with considerable baggage and even greater expectations. Scott is no longer the upstart who rattled Wireless Festival on this same stage in 2023. He is a stadium institution, backed by the blockbuster album Utopia, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and set streaming records on Spotify.
Etihad Park had been reshaped into a jagged sci-fi landscape for the occasion. A colossal stage sliced through the golden circle, its rocky outcrops and faux-volcanic ridges giving Scott multiple vantage points as he sprinted from one end to the other. Flames ejected into the sky, plumes of smoke crawled across the pit, and LED screens draped the night in molten colour. It was a production designed for aerial shots and social clips, less concerned with intimacy than impact.
That scale fit neatly into the show’s narrative arc. The set is framed as a journey in pursuit of Utopia, with the early stretch leaning heavily on the 2023 album. When Scott emerged onto the stage, dressed head to toe in white, with sunglasses (the rapper is currently the Chief Visionary of Oakley) and red gloves, he performed as if locked in a sprint rather than a marathon, barking ad-libs over his own backing vocals and pacing the rock formation like a restless ringmaster.
The first genuinely transportive moment arrived with “My Eyes,” one of Utopia’s most vulnerable tracks. The rapper rode an elevated section of the stage that rose high above the crowd, lasers cutting clean lines through the Abu Dhabi haze. For a few minutes, the bombast eases, and the song’s melodic drift is allowed to breathe, hinting at a nuanced performer lurking beneath the pyrotechnics that is never quite unleashed.
Instead, the Circus Maximus Tour lived up to its name through repetition and sheer volume. “FE!N,” already a live staple, is unleashed three times in succession, each drop heavier than the last. The track’s staccato hook and industrial beat are engineered for chaos, and the effect is immediate as sections of the golden circle collapse into whirlpool-like mosh pits. Visually, it is thrilling. Sonically, it is less convincing. The low end often swallows the detail of the verses, leaving Scott’s vocals fighting through a muddy mix that does neither the rapper nor the material any favours.
To his credit, Scott understands the importance of nostalgia for a fan base that has grown up with him. Midway through the set, he rewinds to his Rodeo days, dusting off “90210” to audible approval. During another section, a group of fans, the self-described “ragers,” are invited onto the stage, bouncing in silhouette against the flames that course through Etihad Park.
The run of hits that follows is carefully calibrated. “Highest In The Room” landed with predictable force, its moody hook carried by tens of thousands of voices. “Sicko Mode,” the Drake-assisted juggernaut, was performed from a cliff-like platform, offering the entire field a clear sightline for the now-iconic beat switch. By this point, the show felt closest to delivering on its promise of Scott surfing his own catalogue of anthems while the production team threw everything at the night sky.
“Goosebumps,” arguably his defining single, was saved for the climax, and the crowd response was volcanic. It should’ve been the springboard into a rapturous encore. Instead, it became the final chapter. In Scott’s place comes “Telekinesis,” featuring SZA and Future, piped through the system as a backing track while the stage remained empty. Rumours swirled as quickly as the departing smoke. Future had been spotted at Dubai’s Surf Club the previous night, and fans cling to the idea of a surprise cameo, especially after Kanye West’s appearance during the tour’s Tokyo stop last week. Those hopes evaporate as the house lights creep up. After a brisk one hour and fifteen minutes, Travis Scott has already disappeared into the darkness, never to be seen again.
It leaves a slightly hollow aftertaste. The show is undeniably bigger than his last outing in the capital, but the frustration is familiar. For an artist of his stature, and with a tour of this commercial heft, Abu Dhabi receives a set that feels closer to a festival headline slot than a full-blooded stadium experience. The poor acoustics at Etihad Park do not help, with bass overpowering the intricacies of the material and lyrics too often lost in the mix.
Compared to the recent touring benchmarks set by peers like Drake and Kendrick Lamar, Scott’s Circus Maximus stop in Abu Dhabi trades too heavily on fireworks and fandom, and not enough on musical dynamism. There are flashes of brilliance, particularly when he leans into the stadium stature of tracks like “Sicko Mode” and “Goosebumps,” but it’s more fizzle than flame!
For an artist whose live reputation is built on shows that feel like seismic events, Travis Scott at Etihad Park delivered anticlimactic aftershocks rather than the literal earthquakes created in Rome. The ragers turned up, and the Instagram stories will look spectacular. But for those hoping one of the world’s biggest rap tours would find a new gear in the capital, Circus Maximus in Abu Dhabi fell just short of Utopia.
GO: Visit www.travisscott.com for more information.