Fans of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have taken to social media to hit out at the “obstructed view” tickets offered at both their respective tours.
Currently, both pop stars are embarking on tour dates around the US – with Swift wrapping up the North American leg of her ‘Eras’ tour, and Beyoncé playing the remaining shows listed for her ‘Renaissance’ world tour.
Already, both tours are set to become some of the highest-grossing of all time. This comes as a report by Forbes earlier this year predicted that ‘Renaissance’ could gross between $275million and $2.4billion from tickets alone by the time it ends in September, with ‘Eras’ expected to bring in $1.9billion.
However, some fans have been left less than impressed with the “listen only” and “obstructed view” tickets on offer for the live shows. These tickets are marked as having partially obstructed views due to their location in the venue and are usually offered at a lower price point than others.
Despite this, some have been quick to argue that they are still being charged too much for those seats, namely as in some cases they are unable to see the stages at all.
As reported by The Independent, some fans have explained that they spent around $50 (£38) on “obstructed view” seats at Swift’s recent shows, only to discover that the seats were located directly behind the main stage and they could only see the singer when she walked out onto the walkway.
“You could only get last minute obstructed view tickets but it’s worth it to see the cleaning cart and to say bye to Taylor,” one wrote, sharing the view she had at one of Swift’s recent shows. Another commented: “I was so close to buying tickets until my sister shot them down because they were literally behind the screen.”
@annanallick There are no bad seats at The Eras Tour! Had more fun here than on the floor at Glendale night 1. #taylorswift #erastour #taylornation #swifttok #minneapoliststheerastour
Another took to Twitter (X), to share their view of Beyoncé’s concert, saying that they were “so disappointed” after getting that view of the stage after paying for floor tickets. They also claimed that they were not told that the view would be obstructed when they bought the tickets.
“Not me getting floor tickets to Beyonce and this monstrous thing is in my way… TF so disappointed. It did not say obstructed view.”
One also highlighted how some of the obstructed tickets were being made available on resale sites, and re-priced at over $700 (£552) each.
Not me getting floor tickets to Beyonce and this monstrous thing is in my way…
TF so disappointed. It did not say obstructed view pic.twitter.com/FuJZWLdwYq
— Sachelle Reed (@SachelleOnAir) July 18, 2023
Taylor swifts playing here in the bay tonight and tomorrow and StubHub has tickets at $700 for an obstructed view lmfao pic.twitter.com/YJOer4X0do
— kat
(@katlin177) July 28, 2023
"Disappointed to encounter the same issue at the Beyonce concert. Their website clearly promises marked tickets for restricted views, but ours weren't!
#TicketingTroubles @TMFanSupport pic.twitter.com/f8nLRUgJwq
— Indyss1 (@indysandhu_indy) July 11, 2023
This isn’t the first time that fans have been left unimpressed when it comes to getting tickets to see the pop stars performing live. Last month, it was reported that Ticketmaster France was forced to halt ticket sales for Swift’s tour dates following issues on the site and extreme demand.
Additionally, last year, Ticketmaster US confirmed its website experienced “historically unprecedented demand” for tickets to the North American leg the ‘Eras’ tour.
Fans complained on social media of lengthy wait times and website outages when pre-sale tickets went on sale and it was reported that shortly after the sale, some were re-listed on sites such as StubHub for as much as $22,700 (£19,100) each.
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