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Beyoncé's 'sold out' Wembley Stadium concert looked half empty too

Rihanna had a similar problem earlier this week

Jack Shepherd
Monday 04 July 2016 04:35 EDT
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Beyoncé performing the Formation tour in Miami, Florida
Beyoncé performing the Formation tour in Miami, Florida (Frank Micelotta/Parkwood Entertainment via Getty)

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Despite Beyoncé's second show at Wembley Stadium being ‘sold out’, fans have been posting pictures online of empty seats at the 90,000-capacity venue.

Various reports have since come trickling in that dozens of places remained unfilled while the Formation singer performed, despite her reaffirming the show had sold out while on stage.

Whether due to tickets not actually selling out or people just not turning up, it remains unclear, however, the most likely reason for the empty seats is probably due to touts.

Earlier this week, a similar report on Rihanna’s ‘sold out’ Wembley concert appeared online, with dozens of spaces remaining noticeably unfilled.

It was soon reported that touts had bought up the majority of the tickets yet failed to sell them on for the extortionate prices demanded, not helped by The Weeknd pulling out of his support slot.

Empty seats at sold out shows due to touts has become very common in recent years, including the Harry Potter West End show, The Cursed Child, with some seats gaining unsold after appearing online for £2,000 plus.

Mumford & Sons tour manager Adam Tudhope said of touts” “We work hard to make the face value of the ticket as accessible to as many of the fans as possible

“So there’s nothing worse for the band playing a ‘sold-out’ show than looking out at empty seats because touts bought the tickets and tried to sell them on secondary sites at massively inflated prices.”

Recently, Ticketmaster’s ex-CEO revealed why it is so hard to get tickets to the biggest gigs, blaming touts and how they’re constantly finding ways to be the first to buy tickets.

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