Team Unbothered On The Struggle To Secure Beyoncé Tickets

All my life, I’ve had to fight. Is that the infamous line from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (immortalized by Oprah and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright”), OR is it the perfect line to summarize the struggle to secure tickets to Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour? After Taylor Swift fans went to war with Ticketmaster over the disaster that was her tour sale, we knew only Beyoncé’s strongest soldiers would be able to land tickets for Renaissance’s stage debut. The Swift ticket fiasco exposed how broken Ticketmaster’s systems are and that it's inevitable now that bots and greedy resellers have more access to tickets than actual fans. Concert tickets are scooped up and resold for way more than face value seconds after they go on sale. The Swift scandal (which has made its way to the senate judiciary committee) was just a predictor of how difficult, and expensive, it would be to get Beyoncé tickets.

If you’ve been on Twitter, Instagram or TikTok in the past week since the Renaissance presales started, you know that it’s been like the Hunger Games. To even get access to the presale — the presale! —you needed to be a Verified fan and get a unique code. And if you weren’t one of the chosen few and were placed on the waitlist, you were living on a hope and a prayer. People are going to extreme lengths: abandoning their friends, their rent responsibilities, and their parental duties to do whatever is necessary to secure tickets. It’s every card-carrying member of the Beyhive for themselves! Here at Unbothered, we’ve spent a chunk of every recent meeting discussing our intricate plans to see Beyoncé. Some members of the team were ready to go to Poland, others were happy to leave their group chat in the dust, and others decided to leave the battle to the rest of us. (We thank them for their sacrifice). As the struggle continues (the general sale still hasn’t even happened yet), we thought we’d share what it was really like, and how much it cost, to get the hottest tour ticket of the year.

As soon as I heard “These MFs ain’t stopping me” come out of my speakers, I put my irresponsibly-sized Renaissance tour fund in savings where it would remain untouched until I could secure tickets. When Beyoncé finally announced the tour, I made a detailed spreadsheet of 10 potential cities (New Jersey, LA, Miami, Atlanta, London, Paris, Barcelona, Boston, Philly, Vegas), their on-sale dates, and estimated trip costs so I wouldn’t be caught by surprise or miss an opportunity. My friends and I talked about getting tickets together, but I could tell that none shared the resolve – the tenacity – that I knew was necessary to secure a spot at a show. Sure, I would have loved to scream every word to “HEATED” alongside my besties, but I didn’t have the time to worry about their budgets or the cities they were willing to see her in. I was serious, okay? The processing of getting tickets was grueling, but after three nights of waking up at 3AM for European on-sale dates, my hard work finally paid off: I will be seeing Beyoncé in London in CLUB RENAISSANCE. 

Seats secured in: London, England

Ticket price: $400 USD

It’s been seven long, long, looooong years since I last saw Beyoncé in concert for the Formation World Tour — can you believe that Lemonade came out in 2016? — so I already knew that I had to be in attendance for the Renaissance tour whenever Miss Girl finally announced it, missing visuals and all. With the whole Taylor Swift Ticketmaster debacle barely in the rearview mirror, however, I seriously feared for my life pockets. Still, I signed up for the Beyhive presale and hoped for the best.

Out of all the people I know, I was the only person to get the Beyhive presale code, and I really shouldn’t have been so shocked; after all, I am God’s child. But my luck would soon run out when the actual day of the presale finally hit. For all my efforts to get in the zone (getting 12 hours of sleep, blocking off three hours on my work calendar, doing a morning meditation), nothing could’ve prepared me for the absolute madness of Ticketmaster that Monday. I was only 2000th in line — way ahead of most people! — but somehow, almost all of the tickets were sold out. The tickets that I did see and attempted to select literally disappeared before my eyes. At some point, the woman (it’s me, I’m the woman) was too stunned to speak, move, or even see. Time itself ceased to exist! If not for the grace of the good Lord Himself, I don’t know if I would have gotten any of the four tickets I managed to lock down for my group (not in the section we wanted, by the way). That happened on Monday…it’s Friday, and I have yet to recover. The pre-sale broke me.

Ticketmaster, your time is coming; the Senate and tour manager Blue Ivy Carter will be hearing my voice about that dynamic pricing! But until then, I’ll be scouring Beyoncé’s internet for glittery chaps and a matching cowboy hat. 

Seats secured in: Houston, Texas, baby!

Ticket price: Waaaay too much, but we move. *sniffs* ($1732 USD for four tickets)

This will be my seventh Beyonce concert (Mrs. Carter World Tour, Formation World Tour, On The Run 1 + 2, Made In America, Beychella), so missing RWT was never an option. After I got waitlisted for the Inglewood show, and the group chat started talking reckless, saying “I won’t spend more than this and that,” I channeled my inner Bey and decided to go solo. 

In a shocking turn of events, London was sleeping on tickets during their general sale, and I ended up with a Beyhive seat at face value. Beyonce isn’t about what you won’t do — it’s about what you will.

Seats secured in: London, England

Ticket price: 701 pounds/ $845 USD   

When the Renaissance tour was first announced, I checked to see what city Beyoncé would be in during the end of June so I could go to the concert for my birthday. That city ended up being Warsaw, Poland, so it was a no for me. I looked through the dates and realized I’d already be in Europe in early May, just a few days before the tour kicks off in Sweden, so I called up my boyfriend and told him we’d be extending our Eurotrip to see Queen Bey. 

Tickets for Sweden were set to go on sale on February 7 at 4am ET, so the night before, I promptly went to sleep at 9pm in order to be well rested when securing my tickets. My alarm went off at 3:30 in the morning, and I gave myself a pep talk before I got in the queue at 3:50am. I ended up being about the 20,000th person in line, which I wasn't too worried about. Once I finally reached the front of the line, all of the info about the tickets was in Swedish, so I spent a good amount of time translating what each section meant. But by the time I had it all figured out, the VIP tickets I wanted were sold out. I ended up looking on Stubhub and was very, very close to purchasing my tickets there until I refreshed my Ticketmaster screen and was able to snag two seats in the 100 section. "Amazing," I thought! WRONG! I happened to check Ticketmaster a day later to see that there was a new date added to Sweden, AND the tickets I wanted were available for even cheaper than the tickets I purchased. But it's whatever! I'm still going to see Beyoncé on the very first day of her tour!

Seats secured in: Stockholm, Sweden 

Ticket price: $340 USD per ticket!

I don't have the constitution to fight. Honestly, I have a hard time telling someone that they have food in their teeth or if there’s toilet paper stuck to their shoes. But, as I learned this week, some things are bigger than me — Beyoncé tickets are one of those things. I’ve been planning my birthday trip to Scandanivia for the better part of six months, and when I found out that not only does her tour start in Sweden (the land of none of my people) and coincided with my trip, I had to go. I happened to be in Mexico with unstable wifi when tickets went on sale. I woke up a few hours early (they went on sale at 3am) to join the queue only to be kicked out (wifi be damned) 3 minutes before the start of the sale. I panicked. I was 24,000th in line and believed that not only did Beyoncé want me to have them more (I too am a fellow Negro and creole blend) than those who belonged to the land of tall blondes, but I also deserved a spot in the stadium. Armed with Google translate, two bars of service, and the power of manifestation, I waited for my turn in line — even after they told me tickets were sold out and to come back at a later time. I made sure my phone was plugged in, brightness on high, and turned down the AC to 60 degrees to make sure I was uncomfortable enough to not fall asleep. 45 minutes later, I had nosebleed seats, a crook in my neck, and a strong feeling of triumph.

Seats secured in: Stockholm, Sweden 

Ticket price: $158.60 USD for two tickets.

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter is my queen, my lord and savior, and my one true joy in life so, naturally, securing tickets for the Renaissance world tour was a necessity. Renaissance the album was the only collection of songs I listened to for MONTHS. It was my air, my motivation, my reason for getting up in the morning. There was no question about whether I would be seeing Beyoncé – even if I had to sell a kidney, a lung, pick an organ! – only where and when. Last time Bey toured, she didn’t stop in my home city of Toronto, so a couple of my girlfriends and I drove to Buffalo, NY to see her. I was prepared to do that again. But my friend Kayla had a better idea: London, England! Seeing Beyoncé in London would be a dream come true so we called her cousin who lives there (and had access to the presale) to see if she could get them for us. The sale was going live at 10am London time, and I am currently in Los Angeles, so that meant I would have to wake up at an ungodly hour. (I had every intention to do it, too.) Reader: she did not wake up. I slept through my alarm, but Kayla and her cousin tried their best, and after waiting in the queue for an hour, they didn’t get any tickets. So, we tried again the next day. 

Then, it came down to what section we were going to sit in. At one point, Kayla had 4 tickets in her cart for section 003 (we had no idea what they meant in relation to the stage) but they were 952 pounds each!! Listen, I know I said I would sell a kidney, but I don’t even think my organs are worth that much. Plus, we still needed money to get to London! While we were arguing about getting gold or platinum tickets, we finally got back in the line, and there were only 965 people in front of us in the queue. (A small victory!). However, once we got to the front, the presale code Kayla’s cousin sent didn’t work for me, and tickets were 5,299.74 USD! That was for Sec VIPB, Row F (again, we have no idea what this actually means in relation to the stage). Club Renaissance tickets were going for $1,000, and not to be a snob, but I would like my own seat and some room to myself, not to be in a “club” with a bunch of people during a Beyonce concert. So, we lost out again. But Beyoncé doesn’t give up, so neither did we! When the Toronto presale finally happened a few days later, Kayla got the code (I was waitlisted — Beyoncé, what have I done to forsake you?), and we were all by our phones ready to finally secure our seats! We ended up with 4 seats together, section 113 row 8 in Toronto on July 8th. God (aka Beyoncé) is good. Hallelujah, amen. 

Seats secured in: Toronto, Ontario

Ticket price: $520 CAD per ticket, $2,080 for four. 

Me and a group of friends decided to say “fuck the US” and go see Beyonce overseas — London and Paris were our top two choices. We were up at 5am both days of the presale trying to finesse our way to some seats, and I had so much anxiety about the entire process. I set my alarm at 4am and woke up not knowing anything, just logging on not understanding how the presale worked in London. I was coordinating with some of my coworkers who are in London trying to figure it out, but it didn’t work on either of the days, and it was so stressful! The next week we decided, fine, whatever, but when we saw that Amsterdam was open, we decided in a rush that we were going to book tickets in Amsterdam. The tickets were $135 each, so we bought four of them. I felt good about it. THEN, we found out that Beyonce added more London dates, so we decided to still get the London tickets. That was a mad rush because everyone was trying to get them, and it was so hard to get seats together. Those tickets were $500, and now I’m stuck with two sets of tickets — four in Amsterdam and three in London. 

Not gonna lie, this was the worst process of my life.There were so many different dates and times for when tickets were dropping, and it was confusing! 10/10 would not recommend going through this again. My girl Beyoncé has stressed me out to the max, but we’re going to figure it out. I’ll either be seeing her in Amsterdam or London.

Seats secured in: London, England and Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Ticket price: $135 USD each in Amsterdam and $500 each in London