Voice of London

For those of you who were lucky enough to get tickets for Olivia Rodrigo’s upcoming 2022 tour, I hope you’re ok, because it was no easy task for the people who tried.

The 18-year-old American singer, Olivia Rodrigo, announced the official ticket release for her “Sour” tour on her social media earlier last week, and her fans were quick to flood Twitter with messages of excitement:

Her debut album, “Sour”, which was released in May 2021, has had a huge impact from the moment it was announced to the public.

According to Paper Magazine, “Sour” had the biggest opening week for an album released by a female artist in Spotify’s history.

This sudden success has earned her seven Grammy nominations, making Olivia the second youngest person (right after Billie Eilish) to receive nominations in all four of the awards’ major categories, including best new artist and album of the year.

Her tour will cover most of North America, Canada and Europe from 2 April 2022 to 7 July of the same year, three months in which the singer will perform in at least 40 different cities around the globe.

However, her overwhelming popularity and the decision to perform in small concert venues led to ticket sales, leaving thousands of people without seats and waiting for more.

For the US dates, the fans had the opportunity to register for a “Verified Fan” option offered by the ticketing site. This would provide them with a code to ensure a better chance of securing tickets, which were already expected to be in high demand.

And even with this option in hand, various glitches and technical difficulties occurred on the ticketing site during the day of the sale, and fans who were unable to get hold of tickets did not hesitate to express their frustration on social media:

This option was not offered to fans in Europe, making it equally challenging to get tickets for these dates, with queues of more than 30,000 people for concert venues with a maximum capacity of around 3,500.

Regarding the decision to perform in small venues, in an interview published by the Los Angeles Times, Olivia explained that she did not want to perform her first tour in large-capacity stadiums because she didn’t want to “skip any steps”.

And even if the Sour Tour is now officially sold out, fans are calling for solutions to what has been a very disappointing and “brutal” ticket sale.

Words: Saray Ramiro Fernandez | Subbing: Daniele Kieraite