Coldplay fans in India were left disheartened following a chaotic experience while trying to book tickets for the band’s much-awaited India tour on Sunday. Now, a content creator has posted a video raising questions at ticket booking platform BookMyShow’s ‘flawed’ system. The woman, named Simone Khambatta, posted a video on Instagram, addressing Coldplay and talking about the alleged unfair system of online ticket booking that saw queues stretching out to millions. (Also read: Coldplay dreams trashed? Here’s where else you can watch the band in 2025 if not Mumbai)
Tickets sold before official sale?
In the video, Simone addressed the massive queues for the tickets for Coldplay’s upcoming set of Mumbai concerts, which are part of their Music Of The Spheres World Tour. Tickets for the two concerts went live at noon on Sunday and a third show was added hours later. But as fans flocked to BookMyShow, the sole platform offering tickets, many found lakhs of people ahead of them. However, tickets were selling on third-party sites at the same time. “The strange part is that before the tickets even sold out on BookMyShow, viagogo was selling them at 5x the price. My question is how did they manage to get thousands of tickets to sell at 5x the price,” Simone said.
The content creator said that she was sitting in anticipation of the sale 30 minutes before the window opened and that she and her husband had five devices logged in. But she said that people who logged in after them were able to somehow be ahead of them in the queue. “My friend logged in after me. And at 2pm she was at 4765 in the morning ‘queue’ and I was at 567432. How is this even fair? And how does that even work. This is a flawed system,” she added.
Addressing BookMyShow in the caption to the video, Simone vented, “@bookmyshowin HOW did you let @viagogo get away with this !!! Hoooooow. They are literally making A LOT MORE from ticket sales than you! Third party resellers is one thing, but like this !?!”
Happened to others too?
The video has received over 4 million views on Instagram since it was posted a day ago with many celebrities and fans agreeing with Simone. “It is a scam. What were you expecting? And don’t even get me started about Book My show.. They messed the MotoGP event too,” read one comment. Others, however, joked about how so much was being said and written for ‘just one concert’. Another wrote, “My daughter’s heart is broken on #daughtersday so is mine! We tried EVERYTHING!!!! This is abiding scam! Backstreet Boys and Bryan Adams shows weren’t like this!” A fan commented, “Seriously I am so disappointed. I was one of those people who saw the 21st jan post instantly and waited for my turn in que and by 2.00 pm it says 8,30,745 like wtf.”
Coldplay is set to perform at Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Sports Stadium in three shows – January, 18-19 and 21, as part of the Music Of The Spheres World Tour. The British rock band, which comprises of Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman, and Will Champion, is known for the chartbusters like Fix You, Viva La Vida, and Hymn for the Weekend. The band enjoys a considerable following in India.
