On Feb. 27, SZA performed at D.C  on her first arena tour for her “S.O.S.” album, the tour spanning from February 21 to March 23, performing 19 shows around the United States and Canada. Celebration from the tour’s announcement came not only from  SZA fans, but also Omar Apollo fans when he was introduced as the opening act.

With the recent controversy about Taylor Swift’s ticket scandal looming, Ticketmaster brought the prices up again with SZA’s “S.O.S” tour. Prices have ranged between $100-$300 for average nosebleed seats, with V.I.P. tickets costing from $750-$3,500. These prices were combatted by secondhand sellers selling tickets in mass amounts for cheaper prices per ticket, leaving people having to organize groups to attend, and online websites popping up with tickets for sale that might not have been safe for purchasers. 

This has caused fan retaliation against the Ticketmaster company as a whole.  “After I bought from Ticketmaster, I compared with different websites and saw tickets being sold for much cheaper,” junior Nour Bataineh said. “I probably won’t buy from Ticketmaster ever again.” Not only are the prices already sky high, tickets were also mass purchased by resale websites, leaving purchasers with even higher resale prices. The price for a single ticket on resale websites ranged from $250-400, leaving many frustrated with the deceitful prices that were originally advertised on SZA’s social media. Lots of resale websites are also untrustworthy, as there is no guarantee from these unverified websites selling tickets to desperate buyers. 

Although there was much excitement, fans couldn’t help but feel confused and shocked about the price of tickets, and believed they got bad seats for what they paid for. “I paid $400 for nosebleed tickets,” junior Ashi Akula said. “Absolutely outrageous. I feel like I got scammed with my tickets, I thought they would be better considering how much I paid for them.” While some people who bought nosebleed seats were able to see her from the back, a large majority of them ended up frustrated with the angle they had. 

Despite  the Ticketmaster situation, once actually seated, the performance was very well executed. The concert included many different visuals, ranging from great choreography to a holographic ocean. “The concert was really polished and cleaned,” sophomore Kailyn Fetterman said. 

However, for some concertgoers, the visuals blocked most of the stage and most of their concert experience was just listening to the songs. It’s unfair that after having to pay such a high price, fans were faced with unfair conditions. “I understand that I bought those tickets for that price, but I didn’t expect a huge screen and her floating boat prop to cover the stage and prevent us from seeing SZA for a majority of the concert,” Bataineh said.

Although after going to the concert I, Sarah, believe she did very well and has the potential to do better for future concerts and tours. The visuals attracted the crowd  and the choreography was very impressive. The prices were definitely more expensive than hoped for and the seats were not as they were advertised but that didn’t take away from the overall performance too much.

This was only SZA’s first arena tour, and who’s to say the ones to come won’t be different. Lower prices and better nosebleed ticket experiences aren’t too small of a request. SZA is still an artist rising in popularity and we are sure to hear more from her in the future.