Beyoncé fans hoping to get tickets for her “Renaissance” world tour have taken to social media to express their “disappointment” at what some have described as a “fiasco” in advance sales.
Yesterday (1 February) Beyoncé announced her 2023 tour, with the European and UK leg of the current tour starting in May before heading to North America starting in July.
Before tickets for the UK concerts go on sale next Tuesday (February 7) at 10am GMT here – and with some European dates going on sale elsewhere an hour earlier next Friday (February 10) – some pre-announced sales in the UK this morning (February 2), including O2 Priority and Ticketmaster UK.
While some fans were lucky and got tickets, others claimed they were unable to access the pre-sale: “First the O2 Priority app was down. Now I’ve got a wait in O2 Priority queue on @Ticketmaster website behind 200,000 people and still Won’t let me access Beyoncé entries. Waste of time,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
On the other hand, a fan said: “Again fiasco with the tickets. I had reserved tickets and they wouldn’t let me pay. It’s the same in all big concert sales, always sorry but no solution.. “.
Another said in response to O2: “Dude, the app is down 15 minutes before the pre-sale starts.”
Some fan tweets suggested up to 200,000 people were ahead of them in the pre-sale queue.
O2 has said it was aware of the difficulties in buying a ticket: “We apologize to anyone who is having difficulties trying to get Beyoncé tickets through Priority. Tickets are selling out and demand is high We’ll see,” said his official Twitter.
While O2 did not confirm app or website downtime, they acknowledged the need to keep the app stable: “We’re doing everything we can to keep the app running smoothly.”
Another person responded to O2’s tweet saying: “Haven’t you learned from your mistakes with the Peter Kay affair?”
In November, the O2 Priority website crashed following “unprecedented” demand for tickets to see the comedian, and the company apologized, citing the “highest demand for Priority Tickets in 15 years”.
Meanwhile, those trying to buy tickets on the Ticketmaster UK pre-sale seemed to be in trouble: “Wtf I was at the front of the queue and suddenly I was taken off the ground!!!!!” wrote one fan, while another asked: “Is. the page down?”
O2 and Ticketmaster UK have been contacted for comment.
The news comes after Ticketmaster said last year that its website had experienced “historically unprecedented demand” for tickets to the North American leg of Taylor Swift’s 2023 ‘Eras’ tour.
Fans complained on social media about long wait times and website outages when pre-sale tickets for Swift’s 52-date tour went on sale on November 15, 2022. As The Guardian reported at the time, shortly after the tickets to be for sale, some were put up for sale on sites such as StubHub for as much as $22,700 (£19,100) each.
Swift fans in the US have sued Ticketmaster following the controversy over “The Eras Tour” tickets. Ticketmaster’s failed first attempt to sell tickets for that tour had political implications, and US lawmakers demanded an investigation into the company.
Last month, Beyoncé gave her first concert in four years at the opening of a luxury hotel in Dubai, although she did not perform any songs from “Renaissance.”
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