Just three days ahead of its long-awaited North American leg, Beyoncé’s spectacular Renaissance World Tour has experienced its first major hiccup.
On Wednesday, Acrisure Stadium announced on Twitter that the singer’s stop in Pittsburgh on Aug 3. has been canceled, with no rescheduled date in sight. Meanwhile, Beyoncé’s Seattle show on Sept. 13 has been pushed a day to Sept. 14. And her Kansas City show, originally set for Sept. 18, has been postponed until Oct. 1, making it the last U.S. stop on her blockbuster tour. All three venues have chalked the sudden changes up to “production logistics and scheduling issues.”
While Pennsylvania residents on social media are mourning their chance to see the most hotly anticipated live event of the summer, BeyHive Twitter and other pop stans have spent the morning speculating about the vaguely described “issues” affecting the tour. Taylor Swift fans, in particular, have eagerly rolled out some conspiracy theories.
ADVERTISEMENT
If you’re even remotely online, you know that Swift’s ardent fanbase, known as Swifties, are constantly at odds (when are they not?) with other, usually female pop singers. And despite Beyoncé’s well-documented friendship with the “Antihero” singer, Swift zealots are already taking the Renaissance Tour modifications as a win for Swift’s ongoing Eras Tour. Forbes recently predicted that Beyoncé’s tour could outearn Swift’s by half a billion dollars.
Other Swifties are peddling the curious claim that Beyoncé was forced to cancel her Pittsburgh concert due to low ticket sales. Some have responded to the cancellation with screenshots from the show’s now-unavailable Ticketmaster page, showing a large number of available seats. However, none of the circulated photos show the date they were taken—and stans are also famously handy with Photoshop.
Others have floated the theory that Pittsburgh’s stadium wasn’t large enough to accommodate Beyoncé’s elaborate set design and large-scale setpieces. In addition to a main stage that features a giant screen and other moving props, the show features a circular B-stage where the singer performs on a giant, moving truck.
Prior to the recent announcement, Beyoncé fans wondered whether her own stage crew could meet the demands of her intricate, high-level show. While most of the nearly inescapable tour footage on social media presents a smooth production, the Grammy winner experienced a rare but noticeable flub during her concert in Amsterdam last month; a video went viral of her stage crew missing their cue to help her down from a mirrored-tiled horse during “Summer Renaissance.” The usually calm and collected musician looked visibly frazzled in the recording, mouthing “Oh my God” to the stage workers.
Knowing Beyoncé’s code of silence, we probably won’t get any other details from her camp about what’s really behind the tour changes. Regardless, Swifties seem satisfied making up their own conclusions.
