When we see our favorite artist perform at a stadium concert, we’re expecting a divine experience. After all, attending a massive show is the closest thing the average person might experience to a holy pilgrimage: strangers from all different walks of life coming together to share their adoration for one musical deity. We should end the night feeling enlightened, if not completely transformed.
Only that’s rarely how these shows actually go. A more common stadium experience nowadays involves stressing out over presales and going broke to buy a ticket, then struggling to see the stage or hear the musician you came to listen to. Just entering the venue with thousands of other people is its own headache.
This reality has never been more clear, thanks to social media. Only a few dates into Beyoncé’s highly anticipated Cowboy Carter Tour, fans have been flooding the feed with their less-than-ideal experiences attending the show. While most have raved about the quality of the production, consuming the three-hour concert in a stadium seems to come with some notable inconveniences, from lackluster views to chaotic VIP sections.
Fans have blamed Beyoncé, Ticketmaster, and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment for a lack of communication and transparency (but mostly Live Nation and Ticketmaster). In general, it seems like these large-scale concerts don’t really serve fans the way they should. Instead, they require a lot of money and effort for an experience where it’s often difficult to simply enjoy the music.
As Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Post Malone, Billie Eillish, and Ed Sheeran all embark on or resume stadium tours this year, it raises a crucial question about the future of concertgoing: Does anyone actually want to see a concert with 80,000 other people?
Stadium tours are the must-have social experience, whether we like it or not
If you ask Gen Z why they’re spending so much on concerts, they’ll cite a fear of missing out. According to a 2024 study by Merge, Gen Z tends to overspend — and spend impulsively — on live events, despite being a notably cost-conscious cohort. Participants for the study also listed peer influence and social pressure as reasons for splurging.
“Stadium concerts almost feel like Halloween.”
— Tomás Mier, Rolling Stone writer
Stadium tours have become must-see events in recent years. According to Pollstar, stadium concert grosses for the top 100 facilities increased from $1.48 billion in 2019 to $2.68 billion in 2022. The top five high-grossing tours of 2023, including Beyoncé, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Pink, and Taylor Swift were all held at stadiums.
Beyoncé and Swift’s respective stadium tours, beginning in 2023, cemented this boom. The two-year-long Eras Tour became the first to gross over $2 billionwhile Renaissance World Tour raked in nearly $600 million. After four decades of rock bands dominating the venue, the top stadium tours were being led by pop acts in the 2020s. Now, it seems these large-scale concerts have become mandatory experiences, not just for fans, but for artists as well. Live Nation recently reported that shows playing in stadiums this year have increased by 60 percent from 2024.
Now, stadium concerts are the ultimate summer destination, often requiring as much effort and money as an actual getaway. Stadium tours — specifically when helmed by huge pop artists — can entail scrummaging through hectic presales, budgeting for exorbitantly priced tickets, planning themed outfits, and even international travel.
Beyoncé fans at the Renaissance World Tour at the Friends Arena in Stockholm in May 2023. Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images
“Stadium concerts almost feel like Halloween, where you spend weeks deciding what you’re going to wear, who you’re going to go with, and what you’re going to do leading up to the show,” Rolling Stone writer Tomás Mier says.
It’s easy to see how young people would be influenced into attending these shows, given how much online-posting is prioritized in the experience. From the moment concertgoers purchase tickets, they’re sharing their order confirmations on social media. En route to the concert, they’re uploading their themed outfits. When they finally arrive, fans post entire sequences of the show, both spoiling it for future attendees and altering the experience for themselves.
Mier argues, though, that stadiums offer more than just social currency in the form of an Instagram post, asserting that these shows can feel “more communal.” Brian Mirakian, senior principal and co-director at the live-venue design firm Populous, says that the sheer amount of people packed into a stadium can provide a unique emotional impact similar to a festival.
“There’s something about 80,000 fans gathered, cheering, screaming, and singing in unison,” Mirakian says. “There’s almost a spiritual energy that’s really hard to replicate.”
Still, even this heightened level of emotion seemingly has some downsides. Following Swift’s Eras Tour, many attendees reported having “post-concert amnesia,” which researchers believed to be linked to an overwhelming feeling of excitement and, thus, the inability to process what they’ve consumed. While this seems to be a Swiftie-centric problem, it feels telling that even the purest experience one could have in this environment could ultimately be fleeting.
Stadiums tours are great for artists, but not for fans
The benefits of these large-scale tours are more obvious for the performers than the people attending. Mirakian says that stadium tours have proven to be an efficient way for artists to “make up for time lost and revenues that were missed” during the pandemic. More seats means more ticket sales. They can also be cheaper to produce. Doing multiple shows at one venue, for example, cuts down on travel expenses. Of course, this hasn’t stopped artists and ticket vendors from charging ridiculous prices for tickets.
Beyond profits, though, stadium tours have become ways for artists to assert their status in the industry and pop culture. “It’s become this incredible moment for her to establish this sort of dominance,” Mirakian says. “If an artist can sell out multiple nights (at a stadium), it becomes this proof of impact.”
In some instances, it’s exciting for certain, visually skilled artists to create immersive worlds out of these venues.
“I’ve had great experience seeing artists in stadiums,” Mier says. “I’ve seen Beyoncé and Bad Bunny fly around SoFi Stadium, BTS ride mobile stages through the crowd, and Taylor Swift perform with fire and rain.”
Still, even with massive visuals and impressive stunts at play, there’s the stark reality that stadiums simply aren’t designed for the best acoustics.
“There’s all sorts of challenges with open-air venues,” Mirakian says. “Most of all they’re designed for sports, not concerts first.”
This problem revealed itself during The Eras Tour when fans reported their inability to hear Swift’s vocals against the massive crowd’s singing. At a football game, by contrast, fans may want to be overwhelmed by the crowd’s noise. Even when artists’ attempts to provide the best sound possible, it can cause a visible hindrance. For instance, TikTok creators who attended the Cowboy Carter Tour have complained about giant speakers on the grounds of the stadium blocking their view.
Aside from these visual and sonic issues, stadiums can also be physically demanding. Entering and exiting a venue can take long periods of time. Buying a standing ticket comes with a risk of discomfort and, in the case of some Cowboy Carter Tour attendees, complete disarray.
One concertgoer named Jordan said she paid $1,800 for a VIP ticket for Beyoncé’s first Cowboy Carter show at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on April 28 and ultimately “felt scammed” by what should’ve been the premier concert experience.
“We encountered a dangerous crowd-crush situation while security led us down several steep ramps,” she tells Vox. “People were pushing and cutting. There were a few verbal altercations.” She said the staff led ticket-holders for her VIP pit to the wrong section. By the time they were moved to the correct pit, fans who had arrived later than she had had taken first dibs behind the barricades.
The issues started as soon as the tour did. Attendees who purchased floor tickets — costing up to the thousands — shared their complaints on TikTok after opening night. One concertgoer, who stood in a VIP pit, claimed he couldn’t see Beyoncé for long periods of the show because the band blocked his view. Many pointed out that the VIP pits were further from the stage than what they say was advertised on Ticketmaster (an issue the tour company has apparently addressed). Others claim that Ticketmaster didn’t notify them that their tickets had an obstructed view.
“Nothing at that scale can be ideal for everyone involved,” Jordan says. “Ideally, Beyoncé is performing in my backyard. However, I feel there should be a definitive effort to accommodate those who paid for a VIP experience.”
The hoopla surrounding the Cowboy Carter Tour has fans and industry forecasters wondering whether the stadium tour bubble will finally burst. Ticket sales for the tour have been underwhelming, although the singer is still on track to gross hundreds of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, the Justice Department is suing Live Nation for allegedly operating an illegal monopoly of the live-music industry.
For now, though, these tours seem to be working for big artists. Until they don’t, we’ll continue posting selfies from stadium hell.
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