The teacher who traveled more than 9 thousand kilometers to see Beyoncé

How far would you go to see the artist who has won the most Grammy Awards? Will it be more than 9 thousand 300 kilometers?

For Janny Nascimento, a 29-year-old English teacher in Brazil, missing Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour, the singer’s first solo tour since 2016, was not an option.

So paid 850 euros, or about 900 dollarsfor a pair of tickets to see your favorite artist on June 24 in Frankfurt, Germany.

“This is the dream come true,” Nascimento said from his apartment in Campos dos Goytacazes, four hours northeast of Rio de Janeiro. Although he has never traveled outside of Brazil, “now I’m going to cross two continents to a place I’ve never been, to a country where I don’t even speak the language,” he said.

The tour announcement on Instagram last month sparked a frenzy for tickets. But shortly after the registration process began, Ticketmaster issued a warning that “demand already exceeds the number of available tickets by more than 800 percent” in several cities, prompting some fans to consider another option: cross an ocean for a concert.

Bre Harper, 27, a creative partnerships manager at Spotify who lives in Los Angeles, realized her chances of landing tickets to a North American tour stop were slim.

“I, and the rest of the internet, went into Ticketmaster, where you have to be verified as a fan,” he said, referring to restrictions on sales for US tour dates. “I didn’t feel like getting into the whole Verified Fan thing.”

She learned that she did not have to be verified to buy tickets for the European leg of the tour. He also noted that those tickets were often hundreds of dollars cheaper than comparable US tickets.

The only city where he was able to find tickets available in the “Club Renaissance” standing section was Warsaw, Poland. Harper bought a pair of tickets for $475. “She now has a life, a family,” she said of Beyoncé. “I think this will be her last hurray, and she didn’t want to miss it.”

Tickets for the tour, which is in support of “Renaissance,” Beyoncé’s seventh solo studio album, went on sale to members of the BeyHive fan club on February 6. Ticketmaster’s decision to require registration as a Verified Fan is an attempt to thwart bots and prevent scalpers from buying tickets and reselling them.

Beyoncé’s tour is scheduled to kick off on May 10, touring Europe before heading to North America in July.

Harper, who grew up in a military family, said she had traveled extensively throughout Europe, but never to Poland.

“It doesn’t cause me great fear,” he said. “You only live once, so — let’s go!”

By: SANDRA E. GARCIA