The enthusiasm around the Grammy-winning pop band Coldplay in India is infectious at this point, leading to serpentine queues of fans to get a ticket for their Mumbai concerts. The pop band is set to perform three shows in Mumbai in January 2025 as part of their Music of the Spheres World Tour.
Tickets for Coldplay's Mumbai concert were sold out within minutes of going live on the popular ticket aggregator BookMyShow's website and app, prompting the band to add another concert apart from the originally planned shows. Tickets for that concert also sold out pretty quickly.
Because of this, re-selling platforms like Viagogo have listed Coldplay tickets for exorbitant prices. Tickets for the band's Mumbai concerts were being sold for as high as Rs 3 lakh on the re-selling platform.
For instance, tickets for the "lounge" section of the DY Patil were originally listed for Rs 35,000 on BookMyShow but they went up to as high as Rs 3 lakh on Viagogo. Some Level 1 tickets have even been listed at a whopping Rs 7.7 lakh.
Meanwhile, BookMyShow has warned fans against purchasing tickets for the concerts from unauthorised platforms.
BookMyShow said in its statement: "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. Ticket scalping is illegal in India and punishable by law. Please don't fall prey to this because you will be buying fake tickets."
Frustrated fans took to social media and claimed that the IRCTC app and website, used for booking Railway tickets in India, is not that bad after all. "Aaj Coldplay ke tickets lene ki koshish mei kaafi Gen Z aur millennials ne realise kiya ki IRCTC wale itne bure bhi nahi the," stand-up comic Abhijit Ganguly wrote on X.
"Haha, you're right. I have a newfound respect for IRCTC," a user quipped. "IRCTC rocks today also," yet another said. "BookMyShow you were so unprepared, despite knowing what to expect. Now you are being compared to IRCTC," a user said in jest.
Yet another user tagged BookMyShow and Coldplay and wrote: "When you guys can't handle so much rush, why take rights of selling? You guys should be well-equipped. Ek Coldplay ki tickets lene me itna lamba waiting." A user also wrote: "Three of my friends bought 20 tickets each for the Coldplay concert just to resell them at 30x premium. That's Rs 18,00,000 a day. All of them are gujjus."