With many anticipating the performance, Chappell Roan’s Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things tour arrived in Kansas City with two sold-out shows on Oct. 3 and 4 at the World War I Museum and Memorial Park.
For the two shows, Roan used a lottery-style distribution system for fans to buy tickets as an anti-bot measure, and those granted a link could purchase a select number of tickets. Among those individuals was sophomore Vivenne Pro.
While Pro was able to pay for the tickets, English teacher Sophia Coen said that she doubted whether paying a premium for the tickets was worth it. When she applied through the Ticketmaster sale, she was not granted the opportunity to purchase one; ultimately, Coen decided it wasn’t worth it.
“You kind of just have to gauge what you’re willing to spend on a concert. And for Chappell, specifically, I’m not really an over-$100 kind of person for it,” Coen said.
With Kansas City being one of three cities Roan is performing in and Roan’s ties to the Midwest, Coen said she expected ticket prices to be higher. Sophomore Geneieve Williams, who had tickets but is no longer able to attend the shows, said that this was a good choice for the pop star to make.
“I understand having shows in New York and Los Angeles because they’re obviously going to be huge crowds. But I actually completely understand why she would choose the Midwest because it just matches her whole theme,” Williams said.
The Kansas City concert was assigned the “Pink Pony Club” theme based on her hit single of the same name. Pro said that having these themes for shows can be helpful, but it also lacks the choice for creativity with the audience.
“[Having themes] helps people decide what to wear. But at the same time, it kind of can just change everyone doing an individual, more creative costume, because then everyone is going to show up with the same genre of outfits, instead of everyone having their own,” Pro said.
Coen said that she questioned whether having only a couple of shows in North America was a good choice for Roan, especially in light of her newfound fame. In the long run, Coen said that she decided that it was a good choice to make, as Roan protects her mental and physical health.
“As an artist, I feel like it makes sense to play in the cities that you connect to, and then also only sign up for as much as you can take on,” Coen said.
