Joe Calzaghe joins an illustrious club when he fights at the Millennium Stadium on 8th July to defend his WBO/IBF World Super-Middleweight titles.

DFP – MPU – Promo – Centre

The Welsh boxing hero adds to a summer bill in Cardiff featuring some of the World’s top music acts and greatest annual sporting fixtures in a sizzling season of entertainment launched on Thursday.

Stadium Chief Executive Paul Sergeant, who also celebrated his third year at the helm of Wales’s iconic multi-facility event venue with a celebrity party today, named the Calzaghe fight amongst 15 World class events from the worlds of sport and music set to draw up to a million people to the capital in just one summer.

Liverpool meet West Ham United in the sixth FA Cup final staged in Cardiff in a fortnight’s time, while a week later world rugby’s top club game, the Heineken Cup final rolls into town with French champions Biarritz Olympique hell bent on stopping Munster’s march to a first European title.

The three Coca Cola League Play-Off finals are all in May, as is Cardiff Blues’ Celtic League title showdown with Brian O’Driscoll’s Leinster, while June sees the return of the British Speedway Grand Prix.

Next month also sees Wales’s biggest business conference, B2B, make its bow at the Millennium Stadium, while the first of four likely sell-out concerts kicks-off with Take That on 21 June. Legendary American group The Eagles follow four days later.

July sees Wales’s greatest ever boxer return to Cardiff 13 years after his professional debut as the Millennium Stadium hosts its first major boxing bout. Joe’s debut was at the old Cardiff Arms Park in 1993 when he beat England’s Joe Mason in the first round on the undercard of the World heavyweight title fight bill featuring Lennox Lewis and Frank Bruno.

Then come two of the all-time greats of the world of entertainment, Madonna and the Rolling Stones. Madonna’s Confessions Tour rolls into the Welsh Capital on 30 July and the Rolling Stones arrive on 29 August.

“It is going to be an incredible summer season for us. The 15 major events scheduled over the next four months which will attract up to a million visitors to the Millennium Stadium,” said the Stadium’s Chief Executive Paul Sergeant.

“It will be our biggest ever summer and one which shows off the wide ranging ability we now have at the stadium. These events will follow on from three sell-out Six Nations matches for Welsh rugby and will lead us into the attractive four match Invesco Perpetual Series for our national side in November.

“The turnaround of events requires a huge amount of expertise which we have vastly developed over the last two years and we are slowly but surely beginning to realise the potential of this magnificent, versatile, multi-facility event venue.”

THE SIZZLING SUMMER SEASON AT MILLENNIUM STADIUM

06 May – The Konica Minolta Cup Final – Pontypridd v Neath
13 May – The FA Cup Final – Liverpool v West Ham United
14 May – Celtic League – Cardiff Blues v Leinster
20 May  – The Heineken Cup Final – Biarritz OIympique v Munster
21 May – The Coca Cola Football League Championship Play-Off Final
27 May – The Coca Cola Football League 1 Play-Off Final
28 May – The Coca Cola Football League 2 Play-Off Final
03 June – FIM Fiat Vans British Speedway Grand Prix
13-14 June – B2B Wales – National Business Conference
21 June – Take That: Live in Concert
25 June – The Eagles
08 July – World Championship Boxing featuring Joe Calzaghe
30 July – Madonna – Confessions Tour
13 August – FA Community Shield – Chelsea v Liverpool or West Ham United
29 August – The Rolling Stones

* For ticket information and hospitality availability on the above events please click here.