This Sunday afternoon, many fans of the popular British band Coldplay in India had a bittersweet experience when they tried booking tickets for the band's upcoming concert in Mumbai in January. In this frenzy, one woman's struggle stood out who claimed, she did not "even like Coldplay", but had to spend hours on her computer to grab tickets worth Rs 12,000 for her family.
Naomi Barton shared her experience on X, "I don't even like Coldplay but my entire family has harangued me into contributing my devices to The Grand Ticket Buying and now I am 22,000 in the queue and they are 1,50,000 in queue so my whole day is going to be spent looking at this page and carefully not refreshing it," she wrote. "This has turned into an impromptu family gathering. We are all on Google meet watching my screen. Refreshments have been acquired. Discussions are underway as to what we will do in case of only expensive tickets being available. Credit cards are being examined."
"Note that I am not even attending the concert. This is my concert," she declared.
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To pass the time between page refreshes, Barton settled in with a book. Soon, though, she realized all the reasonably priced seats had sold out. Her family sent her extra money to try for standing tickets, while they engaged in "frantically delusional conversations" to justify spending an additional Rs 10,000 over their budget. As Barton's spot in the queue dropped from 1.5 lahks to nearly 8,000, only 16 per cent of the ground-standing tickets remained.
"If they start spending more, we'll essentially be sacrificing Christmas. Is Chris Martin really worth Secret Santa?" she asked. When her brother-in-law suggested it might no longer be worth the investment, he was quickly accused of not being a team player. "I suspect he'll also be on the hook for the pricier tickets," Barton quipped, adding, "We love him dearly."
Soon enough, ticket prices surged to Rs 12,000. "We're debating whether these tickets are legit or a scam. This is the exact amount I pay for rent. I'm starting to lose respect for my cousins," she remarked, noting that her every move was being closely monitored.
After some time, Barton's Coldplay-loving family finally settled on their spending limit. "I'm not paying one lakh to scalpers. If that's the price, I just won't go," one family member declared.
Despite their efforts, the tickets sold out by the time Barton had 1,592 people ahead of her in the queue. Surprisingly, she was the only one feeling positive about it. "I now have a lot of money in my account that I can keep if I decide to never speak to them again."
But the family wasn't ready to give up. They tried again on Tuesday, only to find themselves 1.5 lakh places behind in the queue. Again. "My sibling cried," Barton wrote. "To make Kiki feel better, we're planning a Christmas weekend, renting a big house with a pool, blasting 'Fix You' (apparently that's a Coldplay song!) and screaming along, trying not to spill our cocktails."
