Ed Sheeran has delivered an impromptu performance at Hobbiton – the outdoor set used during the filming of the Lord of the Rings franchise, which offers guided tours to fans – during his current New Zealand tour.
A video posted by Hobbiton’s operators on TikTok shows Sheeran performing his song ‘I See Fire’ – which appeared on the soundtrack for 2013 film The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – at the tour’s final stop, the Green Dragon Inn. “We had an unexpected guest at The Green Dragon Inn tonight,” the Hobbiton TikTok account captioned the post.
@hobbitontours We had an unexpected guest at The Green Dragon Inn tonight… #iseefire
@hobbitontours Replying to @Alex ABC OVERLAND we’re still recovering from this 🥹
Sheeran’s ‘I See Fire’ was commissioned specifically for The Desolation of Smaug by director Peter Jackson himself, and plays over the film’s closing credits. “The Hobbit song was perfect for me to do, because it’s quite folky and rootsy,” Sheeran said while appearing at the inaugural BBC Music Awards in 2014. “A hairy short man should be singing a song about that!”
The Hobbiton Movie Set is located in the Waikato region of New Zealand, and was used for filming the Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as all three The Hobbit films. Guided tours of its 5.5 hectare site began in 2002, and continue to take place daily.
Following a trio of warm-up concerts in the Opera House in Wellington last month, Ed Sheeran’s New Zealand tour properly began at Wellington’s Sky Stadium on February 2. It will continue this weekend with gigs at Auckland’s Eden Park before Sheeran heads to Australia for shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
Following the New Zealand and Australian legs, Sheeran will take his ‘Mathematics’ tour to North America in May, performing at venues throughout the States until it concludes in Los Angeles in September.