Beyoncé just kicked off her Cowboy Carter tour and Lady Gaga’s The Mayhem Ball is just around the corner. It should be a dream year for pop fans, but instead of excitement, they’re exhibiting the opposite: expensive spectacle burnout.
It all began with the Beyhive back in February. When Cowyboy Carter presale tickets dropped, fans flooded Ticketmaster, only to find themselves in the seventh circle of ticket hell.
Online queues stretched from 30,000 to 80,000 people. The site glitched, kicked users out of line, and when they finally got through, many were met with jaw-dropping prices (up to $600 for nosebleed seats).
“Stressful,” “bulls–t,” and “greedy.”
These were just some of the words being thrown around in the Beyoncé Reddit thread. People were angry.
guess i’m seeing beyonce from the parking lot…wtf was that presale pic.twitter.com/H294yDVwKK
— nini˚⋆｡✮˚ ⋆ saw onew! (@angellhoneyb) February 13, 2025
opened up that ticketmaster beyoncé presale for vibes and left with nothing. not surprised pic.twitter.com/g00RrYtlTx
— anjelica (@anjelicasview) February 13, 2025
the pricing that i witnessed today during beyonce presale was so uncouth i need ticketmaster dead
— josie (@_kikiwiwi) February 14, 2025
The ticketing process was so exhausting and expensive that some fans walked away entirely. Entire rows went empty during presale, and general admission didn’t fare much better. Even when ticket prices dropped down to $57 dollars, there were still empty seats left.
Make no mistake, Beyoncé still sold most of the arenas. But compared to the lightning-fast sellouts of the Renaissance tour just two years ago, it’s a noticeable and surprising drop.
Back in 2023, the live music industry was booming. According to The New York Times, the top 100 global tours pulled in over $9.2 billion—a 65 percent jump from 2019. Headlines from the time reported fans dropping up to $10,000 or more for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance shows.
That’s not to say there weren’t complaints then, too. Fans still slammed the chaos of presales, shady dynamic pricing from Ticketmaster, and the ever-present scalpers. But post-pandemic, people had an appetite for in-person experiences like concerts and they were ravenous enough to push through their frustration.
Not to mention, the Eras and Renaissance tours were a spectacle to behold, with both of them almost spanning the length of three hours and featured elaborate sets, incredible choreography, and dazzling theatrics. So, despite their complaints, fans felt like it was worth the money; some even got into credit card debt for Swift and Beyoncé live.
However, this year is completely different. Even with the promise of impressive theatrics from the Cowboy Carter tour, people just aren’t as interested as they used to be.
i think people have concert fatigue
— girl🛸 (@m0dernidi0t) April 28, 2025
tbh stadium concerts aren’t fun to me anymore. the whole experience is stressful, time-consuming, overstimulating and 9/10 I can only see the artist from the screen… which I can do at home.small/medium venue concerts are a much better experience.
— fâtıma ރ (@tawheedrose) April 26, 2025
It didn’t help that fans who managed to score presale tickets felt burned when prices dropped by hundreds of dollars closer to the show. To make matters worse, Ticketmaster’s upgrade policy—which only allows swaps for tickets of equal or greater value—meant many couldn’t even move to better seats.
This is what happened to me with the Renaissance tour (not these prices lol) and it’s happening all over again with Cowboy Carter https://t.co/qwu561sWDp
— Sophia Benoit (@1followernodad) April 26, 2025
Gaga’s Mayhem Ball may have sold more smoothly than Beyoncé’s (thanks to smaller venues), but it wasn’t immune to backlash. Fans also bristled at the sky high ticket prices.
Ticket master should have put Lady Gaga tickets on sale on April 1st because their system is a joke. pic.twitter.com/JUz71Ha1pU
— James (@jamesanthonyx) March 31, 2025
Like be for real… £1066 to be front row, when in 2014 a backstage, individual pic, signed tour book and 2.5 hour conversation with Gaga was £730… like what in the Taylor Swift are these prices!? https://t.co/kuDuAHl3IW
— A∀RONC∀DABRA (@GagaBrookes) March 31, 2025
And, when fans watched Gaga’s Coachella set live stream, they began to question the point of spending hundreds, sometimes thousands, to get tickets, when they could watch the whole thing for basically free.
“I don’t know if I even want to go now that basically we seen the show in great quality twice,” a Redditor wrote.
Again, even if it’s probably a minority of fans, this is a striking shift in attitude. Just two years ago, fans were willing to go into debt to see Swift and Beyoncé live. Now, some are wondering if it’s even worth leaving the couch.
One YouTuber gave a theory behind this concert cultural shift.
“If it’s not this one-of-a-kind unique experience personal to your show, then people are feeling like they didn’t get their money’s worth… Essentially, concerts are becoming a luxury good, a status symbol.”
And it’s ruining the vibes for everyone.
People seem to care more about documenting the fact that they were at a concert than actually listening to the music.
I’m getting tired going to events where you can’t even see the artists on stage cause everybody has their phones out. I watch performances through peoples phones now 😭
— Black Wiz (@BlackWizSA) April 30, 2025
Another common complaint, most recently from Coachella, is that the crowds are just dead.
why do coachella crowds always look so dead?? if we had their lineups in the UK, this would be a whole different scenario pic.twitter.com/7EIbaWFpa2
— shane (IG: braving) (@braviing) April 24, 2025
“There is a complete disinterest in what was going on [at concerts],” one person wrote in their Medium article, claiming audiences just seem “checked out.”
Look, at the end of the day, there are still thousands of die-hard Beyoncé and Gaga fans who will do whatever it takes to see them live. Neither Beyoncé or Gaga are in their “flop era.” It’s just clear from the sales (particularly Cowboy Carter compared to Renaissance sales) that people have hit a wave of concert fatigue.
And while the era of the stadium spectacle isn’t over, the cracks are beginning to show.
The post Why Beyoncé Fans Are So Enraged About This Concert Tour appeared first on The Daily Beast.
