Time froze when Beyoncé dropped the Instagram post announcing her upcoming Renaissance world tour dates. I was expecting the news – the Beyoncé hashtag I follow on Twitter was brewing with speculation, and her fans, the Beyhive, are more coordinated and well-informed than the CIA. However, I still felt unprepared and panicked. Post-pandemic, attempting to grab tickets for shows and events is an event in itself, and getting Beyoncé tickets felt like a virtual Takeshi’s Castle. So I mobilised my friends in the group chat, imploring them to focus – this was no time for slow replies or ghosting, and leaving the convo was only allowed under the most extreme of circumstances.
For many, the pent-up angst of the Covid era has meant that we are all desperately seeking to live life to the fullest. FOMO is stronger than ever, as is our desire to capture every moment on camera and burn every funny thing that happens into our brains so the in-jokes can go on for years. We didn’t secure tickets for the early release but knew more were coming, so we tried our luck with the next release date. We all signed up for the pre-release and held our breaths when 10am arrived, and our individual queue numbers were revealed. There were 52,000 people in front of me on my laptop, 45,000 in front of me on my iPhone and, by some act of divine intervention, 10,000 people in front of me on my Android. Yes, I attempted it on every device in my home. My friends were way behind, so it fell on me to ensure that I secured the tickets, which I did, falling to my knees when the confirmation email arrived.
