When Harry Styles was a part of One Direction, it only took four years as a band for them to begin filling stadiums on a global scale. Both their 2014 ‘Where We Are’ tour and their 2015 ‘On the Road Again’ tour took them to sporting venues that held upwards of 50,000-100,000 people—sometimes for multiple nights in a row (I’m looking at you, Gillette Stadium).
Fans wondered what kind of venues the boys’ solo tours would hit, and 15,000-30,000 seat arenas seemed like the safe bet. With most One Direction fans still ready and willing to shell out cash for the five solo boys, taking a small step backwards from stadiums to arenas made sense. But today, Harry Styles threw us a curve ball.
The first member of One Direction to go on an official solo tour, Harry shocked the world by announcing he would be playing MINUSCULE venues. I’m not trying to exaggerate here; the venues he’s chosen hold only a few thousand people. In fact, let’s break it down:
9/19/2017 San Francisco, CA The Masonic – 3,300
9/20/2017 Los Angeles, CA The Greek Theatre – 5,870
9/25/2017 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium – 2,362
9/26/2017 Chicago, IL The Chicago Theatre – 3,600
9/28/2017 New York, NY Radio City Music Hall – 6,015
9/30/2017 Boston, MA Wang Theatre – 3,500
10/1/2017 Washington DC DAR Constitution Hall – 3,702
10/4/2017 Toronto, ON Massey Hall – 2,752
10/5/2017 Upper Darby, PA Tower Theater – 3,119
10/8/2017 Atlanta, GA Roxy – 4,000
10/10/2017 Irving, TX The Pavilion at Irving Music Factory – 8,000
10/11/2017 Austin, TX ACL Live at The Moody Theater – 2,750
10/14/2017 Phoenix, AZ Comerica Theatre – 5,000
10/25/2017 Paris, France L’Olympia – 1,996
10/27/2017 Cologne, Germany Palladium – 4,000
10/29/2017 London, UK Eventim Apollo – 5,039
10/30/2017 London, UK Eventim Apollo – 5,039
11/1/2017 Manchester, UK O2 Apollo Manchester – 3,500
11/2/2017 Glasgow, UK SEC Armadillo – 3,000
11/5/2017 Stockholm, Sweden Fryshuset – 3,500
11/7/2017 Berlin, Germany Tempodrome – 3,800
11/8/2017 Amsterdam, Netherlands AFAS Live – 5,500
11/10/2017 Milan, Italy Alcatraz – 3,000
11/23/2017 Singapore The Star Theatre – 5,000
11/26/2017 Sydney, Australia Enmore Theatre – 1,600
11/30/2017 Australia, Melbourne Forum Theatre – 1,500
12/2/2017 Auckland, New Zealand Spark Arena – 12,000
12/7/2017 Tokyo, Japan EX Theater – 900
12/8/2017 Tokyo, Japan EX Theater – 900
(These numbers are provided by “The Internet” and may not be 100% accurate.)
For the entire United States, Harry will only be playing to just under 54,000 people. For reference, Gillette Stadium holds 69,000, and One Direction played there three nights in a row in 2014.
He also skipped the Pacific Northwest and almost all of Canada, but that’s a separate issue.
Whether or not this was an aesthetics choice or Harry’s team truly didn’t believe he could sell out arenas, fans are in a panic.
i didnt stan 1D from 6th grade-10th grade and get bullied for it to not go see harry styles on tour while he's socially acceptably popular
— marty mcfly (@oliviaXactually) April 28, 2017
me in 2056: *stares into the distance*
husband: shit, you thinking about-
me: thOSE HARRY STYLES TICKETS THAT I NEVER GOT IN 2017 YES I AM— aria (@lottieharry) April 28, 2017
actual footage of me trying to get harry styles tickets pic.twitter.com/OPb92IMqnX
— Adam (@abnormallyadam) April 28, 2017
Ticketmaster is taking measures to ensure that true fans only get access to tickets, keeping them out of the hands of scalpers, touts, and bots. In the United States, Ticketmaster is “verifying” fans’ accounts beforehand and sending out access codes on the day of the sale. In the United Kingdom, fans who pre-order Harry’s album will get special access to a pre-sale.
Even so, it’s going to be a fan-on-fan war to get in on those precious few tickets. And that just doesn’t seem right.
