More than 11.5 million fans signed up for presale tickets to Harry Styles’s upcoming Madison Square Garden residency for the Together, Together tour.
But when tickets went on sale January 26, amid the excitement, many fans were left frustrated by lengthy virtual queue waits. For those who made it through, the relief proved fleeting when they encountered ticket prices exceeding $1,000.
Many turned to social media to direct their ire at both Ticketmaster and Styles himself.
“$1000 for lower bowl at msg is genuinely the most insulting thing ive ever seen. that’s one months rent,” one person posted on X.
“Its getting to the point where I feel like im being forced to outgrow concerts because of how inaccessible they are,” another fan wrote on X. Yet another added: “The thing that sucks the most about this is that nothing will be done to hold artists accountable for pricing their tickets this way.”
Tickets for the Together, Together tour were reportedly priced between $50 and $1,182.40, including Ticketmaster service fees. Ticketmaster does not determine pricing, nor use surge pricing or dynamic algorithms to adjust ticket prices. On resale platforms like StubHub, a single ticket for the pit area surrounding the stage currently runs over $3,000.
“Queue All The Time. Tickets, Occasionally,” one disappointed fan quipped on X, riffing on Styles’s recently announced album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. “Together together but only if you have a lot of money money,” another joked, playing off the tour title.
Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher even weighed in, posting “HOW MUCH?” after presales opened, and noting his ticket prices are “reasonable looking back at it now.” (Oasis also faced backlash for the band’s reunion tour when some U.K. fans were charged more than £350, or $482, for tickets with an initial face value of £150, or $206, due to dynamic pricing).
Fast Company has reached out to Styles for comment.
This tour marks the first time Styles will be returning to the stage since his Love on Tour run concluded in 2023, having grossed over $600 million, with an average ticket price of $115, according to Pollstar.
The online backlash taps into a wider conversation about soaring resale prices and limited tour dates colliding with a cost-of-living crisis that has left live music feeling increasingly unattainable for modern concertgoers.
Last fall, singer Olivia Dean spoke out against exploitative resale prices at her shows. “You are providing a disgusting service,” Dean wrote on her Instagram story. “The prices at which you’re allowing tickets to be resold is vile and completely against our wishes. Live music should be affordable and accessible, and we need to find a new way of making that possible. BE BETTER.”
Ticketmaster backed the singer by capping future ticket resale prices for Dean’s The Art of Loving Live tour on its platform and refunding fans for any markup they already paid to resellers.
The fact Dean was able to get this result by speaking up only adds to fans’ frustrations when it comes to other big name artists and their unwillingness to stand up for their fans.
The backlash hasn’t seemed to curb Styles’s ticket sales, however. Styles is also donating £1 from every ticket sold from his U.K. stadium shows to small music venues around the country.
For many fans, that’s poor consolation.
As one suggested: “Harry Styles, i want you to stand in the pit and not let anyone walk in unless they hand you $1200 in cash. look every fan in the eye and ask them for $1200.”
