Coldplay tickets for Asia tour sell out in seconds as fans outraged by price gouging

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Washington Bureau Chief

Thousands of Indian fans of Coldplay were left disappointed as they had to grapple with not just a massive demand for tickets for the band’s highly anticipated Music of the Spheres world tour, but also technical issues on the official ticketing site.

Seconds before the sale was set to go live on 22 September, ticketing site BookMyShow crashed, unable to handle the overwhelming traffic from over 700,000 users. Fans reported waiting in very long digital queues, which reportedly went up to 11 million.

The British rock band was originally set to play two shows in Mumbai’s DY Patil Sports Stadium on 18 and 19 January 2025, but added a third show on 21 January after the enormous demand.

However, shortly after the sale ended, tickets for the show went live on other websites at several times the price, leaving fans aghast at the alleged price gouging. Fans pointed out that tickets which were originally Rs 4,500 (£40.55) were being resold for Rs 3,84,625 (£3,466). Tickets for the Lounge section, which were priced at Rs 35,000 (£315) went up to Rs 300,000 (£2,702), and one reseller even listed Level 1 tickets, originally Rs 4,500 for Rs 770,000 (£6,936), according to the Hindustan Times. Scammers too sprung up all over social media, offering tickets as part of a lucky draw for people who would share their post.

“Standing-on-the-ground tickets, originally priced at ₹6,500(£58), are being sold at over ₹50,000 (£450) in black. The band has a mandate for ticket prices to allow people a fair chance of buying them. But in India, these plans don’t work,” Joshua Fernandes, an IT professional from Bengaluru told Indian news daily Times of India.

In response to the demand, BookMyShow added a limit of four tickets per user, instead of the previous eight, for the third newly added show. The website also released a statement warning fans about resellers and scammers, stating that they were the only official sellers of tickets for the tour.

“It has come to our attention that unauthorised platforms are listing tickets for Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India, both before and after the official sale. These tickets are invalid,” the post read.

“Ticket scalping is illegal in India and punishable by law. Please don’t fall prey to this because you will be buying fake tickets. Avoid scams! BookMyShow is the only official platform for ticket sales.”

Coldplay will also be performing in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and Seoul, in addition to their India shows. This will be Coldplay’s first performance in India after the 2016 show at the Global Citizen Festival in Mumbai. They will be returning to Hong Kong for the first time since 2009 and last performed in Abu Dhabi in 2016 and Seoul in 2017.

The new dates follow the release of Coldplay’s 10th record, Moon Music, scheduled for release on 4 October.