If you can’t afford tickets to Beyoncé’s North American leg of her tour, why not book a trip overseas? Sounds extreme, but Americans are buying international tickets to Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour because local shows are either too expensive or sold out.
USA Today found face-value ticket prices that ranged from $62 and up. Club Renaissance tickets were nearly $1,000, and some floor seats were $300 and bowl seats were around $500. Ticket prices will vary according to city and venue. But tickets have remained elusive for many in the BeyHive.
Jess McCraney of Las Vegas is one Bey fan that did just that. She told Buzzfeed News she opted to buying Beyoncé tickets at the singer’s Stockholm, Sweden, date for $300 because she was waited for hours on Ticketmaster on Feb. 6 to buy tickets for the Vegas shows.
Her last resort was to purchase an out-of-the-country ticket and book a 15-hour flight, which she claims is more affordable.
“I thought, ‘Sure, why not?’” McCraney told BuzzFeed News.
Booking Flights to See Beyoncé
With Buzzfeed reporting that dedicated fans have come up empty for tickets to U.S. shows even after taking off work to try book seats, many others are opting for international shows.
Joann Mauricette of Orlando, is booked for a date in Solna, Sweden, on May 11, her birthday.
“What am I going to do? Go to Sweden for Beyoncé?” Mauricette, who paid $95 for a floor seat, said to Buzzfeed. “That sounds ridiculous.”
Another Beyonce traveler is Ayesha Upshur, who lives in Washington, D.C., who’s going to the Scandinavian shows with a group of her friends.
In comparison, the seats she bought in Sweden are $500 less expensive than their based D.C. counterparts. Upshur’s round-trip plane ticket to Sweden was roughly $600, Buzzfeed estimated.
“We’re all avid travelers and avid Beyoncé fans, and so it was a very natural marriage,” Upshur said. “None of us have missed a tour yet,” she said.
The long wait time is being attributed to Ticketmaster’s verified fan system.
Ticket Madness
NBC News reported that last week that Ticketmaster reported the Renaissance World Tour demands have exceeded the amount of available tickets by more than 800 percent, and that is just presale group alone.
As Finurah previously reported, the highly anticipated tour was part of the “speculative ticketing” scheme, which unofficially hikes up the prices for more than $3,000 per person before tickets went on sale. Scalpers are counting on fans willing to pay a high price to see the Grammy-winning singer, who hasn’t toured since 2016.
A similar situation happened with fans of Taylor Swift who wanted to attend the singer’s Eras tour in November. Fans ended up suing Ticketmaster, and Congress even held a hearing about the concert ticketing system.
The Renaissance Tour begins Stockholm in May, taking up more than 40 stops across Europe and North America.
