Coldplay tickets sale incident: Akhilesh Yadav seeks right to entertainment

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav expressed concerns over the black marketing of Coldplay tickets, highlighting the challenges to governance and administration

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Monday raised concerns about the black-market sale of tickets for the upcoming concert of British rock band Coldplay in Mumbai. Questioning law and order, Yadav highlighted that concert tickets selling out almost instantly and then appearing on the black market for exorbitant prices pose a serious challenge for governance.

“...As soon as the booking opens, all the tickets get booked within a short time, and then the news of those tickets being sold in black for lakhs, at 20-50 times the price…,” Yadav said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). He highlighted the issue of middlemen profiting from these illegal sales, which, he said, undermines the artists' rightful earnings.

“The rights of the artists are violated, and on the other hand, the tax that the government gets is also lost,” he said. Everyone should have equal rights to entertainment, the SP chief added, emphasising that when art is limited to purchasing power, it turns into a business.

What happened during the Coldplay concert tickets sale?

Yadav’s remarks came a day after tickets for Coldplay’s Mumbai concert were sold out within minutes of being launched. In response to the overwhelming demand, the band announced a third performance in Mumbai hours after the incident.

Fans were left disappointed as BookMyShow, the designated website for the official purchase of the tickets, crashed as soon as the tickets went up for sale due to the high volume of traffic. A total of 150,000 tickets were available, but 10 million people logged into the website to buy them.

The concert will be held at DY Patil Stadium in January 2025. Initially, Coldplay had announced two shows for January 18 and 19. A third show will now be held on January 21. Ticket prices range from Rs 2,500 to Rs 35,000. However, resale tickets, available on platforms like Viagogo, were listed for up to Rs 10 lakh, the website showed.