The first time I saw Coldplay perform was in the US back in 2005. I was still in high school, watching with a couple of friends from a grassy hill as the sun was setting and the band played hits like Yellow and Fix You.
Fast forward more than a decade and I found myself seeing them again – this time in Abu Dhabi. It was an electric night, with colourful lasers and fireworks lighting up the night as they counted down to the new year during A Sky Full of Stars.
With memories like these, I knew I wanted to go when I heard Coldplay were returning to the UAE capital. What I didn’t expect, though, was the challenge of getting tickets.
Adventure of a Lifetime: Feeling hopeful
Like many others, I registered for the pre-sale and hoped to get early access to tickets on Wednesday. Apparently, so did everyone else in my office … and Abu Dhabi.
My colleague and I joined the waiting room at the same time, but I made the mistake of refreshing my page, thinking I had accidentally logged out. And it cost me. While my colleague was number 1,300-something in line, I found myself stuck at more than 50,000. Another co-worker landed somewhere around the 190,000 mark.
As expected, my colleague with the lower number quickly snagged tickets, while I watched my spot crawl down the queue, wondering if I’d ever make it into the four digits.
While still waiting in the initial queue, a second show was announced. I tried to hurry over to the other queue, only to still be left waiting at the five-digit mark again. Although I considered continuing to wait it out, I eventually gave up and decided to register for the Live Nation pre-sale instead, hoping for better luck the next day.
Every Teardrop is a Waterfall: Not giving up quite yet
Later in the evening, a third show was announced. Knowing what I knew from my first attempt, I got my partner involved by having him register for the second pre-sale as well, hoping this would yield a better result.
I made sure he knew to check his email closer to noon and that he had activated his Live Nation account. I wasn’t going to have any hiccups and was determined to get through this time. We decided to split the concert dates to improve our chances. He would try January 12 while I would go for January 14.
When we did get in our queues, we were both back in five-digit territory. “Surely there aren’t really this many people looking to get tickets”, I thought. After a few hours, we both gave up.
The Escapist: Giving it another try
The more times I failed, the more I wanted to get tickets. I decided to go for the same game plan when general tickets went on sale on Friday. My partner and I would each try for different dates and get any ticket category we could.
I joined the waiting room a few minutes early. When the screen loaded, I had 43,000-something people ahead of me while my partner only had 3,930. There was hope after all!
I was so excited and started to believe this would be it. I was periodically updated as he got closer, with the number lowering until it was his turn. But he couldn't find any tickets for general admission.
The Dh1,495 tickets were still available and I started to think of all the other things we could spend Dh3,000 on instead. It was also at this moment that I started questioning how much I really liked Coldplay. I told him to keep trying for cheaper tickets.
He eventually got stuck and gave up when screen said there was no more. I was still waiting in my queue when the fourth show was announced and quickly hopped over to the January 9 queue, securing a spot around the 28,000 mark. There was still hope.
The queue went quicker than I thought, which I took as good news. However, by the time I made it through after more than two hours, I faced the same issues as my partner: no tickets were available. No many how many times I tried, I got the same message.
Viva La Vida: Some final thoughts
I’m not sure I have ever been as frustrated as this when trying to secure concert tickets. Still, there’s something about the energy of seeing Coldplay live that keeps pulling me back.
I'm still hoping I may be able to see them in January somehow – even if, right now, the thought of staying home with my cats and a playlist seems just as appealing.
