Ed Sheeran breaks Gillette Stadium record with Saturday show

As he sang to the 71,723 fans who filled Gillette Stadium on Saturday, Ed Sheeran was not just putting on another show — he was setting a record.

With the Mathematics Tour performance, the Grammy winner broke a 14-year-old record with the biggest attendance at a single show, according to a news release. It took the title from U2's 360° Tour, a record that had stood since Sept. 20, 2009.

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Gillette is the first NFL stadium that Sheeran ever played at, according to the release, and with his pairs of shows there this weekend, it's the U.S. venue he's visited the most over his career.

In the crowd for the record-setting show on Saturday were a few local musicians who, earlier that day, had gotten a huge surprise from the star.

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Dozens of young musicians at a Boston recital Saturday afternoon got a big surprise when Ed Sheeran showed up, playing with them on stage and later inviting them to his concert at Gillette Stadium.

Sheeran posted video on his Instagram account of an impromptu performance where he sang and danced at the Tobin Community Center in Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood alongside young performers of the Boston Music Project. He ended up giving group members, plus friends and family, about six dozen tickets for the show.

“Right at the end of the concert, what was truly a surprise is he turned over to his tour manager and said ‘can we give tickets to all the performers?’” said Christopher Schroeder, the executive director of the program. "That was pretty awesome.”