After much speculation Beyoncé has announced her long-awaited world tour, spanning 43 cities across Europe and the US.
The tour will debut in Sweden on May 10 and continue throughout Belgium, the UK, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Germany and Canada before heading to just about every major city in the US. The tour is expected to last five months.
Ticket prices have yet to be released but the demand is expected to be high considering it will be her first major solo world tour since 2016.
Ticket presales will begin Thursday before general sales are open on Tuesday.
In North America, fans will only be able to register to buy tickets through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan process, which the company says will filter out bots who buy tickets in bulk then resell them for more than the ticket’s original value.
Those who register will be entered into a lottery if the demand exceeds the supply of tickets available.
The new method of purchasing tickets come on the heels of the Ticketmaster debacle when the company began selling tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.
At the time, their system became overwhelmed by the demand, causing thousands of fans to lose out on buying tickets. The US Senate launched an investigation into the matter, stating that Ticketmaster, who merged forces with Live Nation in 2010, had too much control over the live music market and exaggeratedly inflating costs with fees and other service charges.
“We need to do better and we will,” Joe Berchtold, president of Live Nation, told lawmakers at the time.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, who chairs the US Senate committee on consumer rights, said that Ticketmaster has completely disrupted the market by controlling nearly 70% of all ticket sales in the US.
“In truth, there is no other choice. It is a monopoly,” she told MSNBC last year.
“The high fees, site disruptions and cancellations that customers experienced shows how Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means the company does not face any pressure to continually innovate and improve.”
