Kanye West

After a few days of rumors, Kanye West confirmed yesterday that he will be hosting a third Donda listening event, but this time, he’s heading to Soldier Field in his hometown of Chicago. After West shared the news on social media, somebody in his camp offered some more details about the event, revealing that there will be some differences from previous iterations.

West associate Ameer Sudan told Billboard yesterday that the new event is upping its production value, saying, “Expect a more detailed show on a whole other level.”

Furthermore, he said that Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia will also be creative director for the event, as he did for the Atlanta shows. Additionally, West videographer Nico Ballesteros will be filming the event, which will, like previous installments, be livestreamed on Apple Music.

It’s also worth pointing out, on a somewhat related note, this since making the announcement, West has removed all of the posts on his Instagram page.

As for when Donda will actually be released, that remains to be seen. The album was expected to be released after each listening event, but clearly, that hasn’t come to pass. This next event is on August 26, so at this point, one would assume the album currently has a planned August 27 release. Again, though, nothing is set in stone.

Over the past couple days, there have been rumors of a third listening event for Kanye West’s upcoming album Donda, as somebody who claimed to work security for Chicago’s Soldier Field claimed the venue had a “major concert event” scheduled for August 26. It turns out those rumors were actually true: Today, West himself confirmed on Instagram that a Donda event will indeed by happening at the Chicago stadium on the 26th. The show is set to being at 9 p.m. CT, with tickets going on sale on August 20 at noon CT.

This news comes less than 24 hours after West shared an image on Instagram, of what appears to be a dove seen through a teal-tinted window. It’s not clear if the image was meant to tease anything related to Donda.

The idea behind these listening events was that Donda would be made available on streaming services shortly after them, but based on the fact that we’re coming up on the third Donda event, this has yet to be the case. Apple Music currently lists the expected release date for Donda as August 27, the day after the event. At this point, though, given that West has missed so many announced or expected release dates for Donda, any information of that sort should be taken with a grain of salt.

So far, the best way to hear Kanye West’s album Donda is to attend one of his stadium listening parties for it, as the album hasn’t actually been released yet (despite what some billboards indicate). Well, another one of those is reportedly coming up, as rumors indicate, but instead of Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, he’s heading to Chicago.

As NME notes, somebody who claims to work on the security staff at the city’s Soldier Field (where the NFL’s Chicago Bears play their home games) indicated that a “major concert event” is taking place there on August 26. They believe the event in question is a Donda listening event, writing on Twitter, “I work for security at soldier field and we recently had an event added under ‘major concert event’ and I’m very confident that it’s for Kanye’s listening party. If it’s true, then Kanye will be performing in Chicago at soldier field on the 26th.” The tweet includes screenshots of what appears to be an app related to the person’s security work.

Additionally, minutes before that tweet, Fake Shore Drive‘s Andrew Barber also hinted at the Chicago event on Twitter.

Neither West nor anybody from his team have offered any public comment on the rumors, so it remains to be seen if the August 26 event is a real thing.