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Harry Styles’ tour team have said that they are reviewing staging at the singer’s world arena tour following complaints that fans were unable to see the pop star during much of his set.
The “Watermelon Sugar” singer kicked off his Together, Together tour in Amsterdam on Saturday (16 May), with the show’s stage featuring a giant square of walkways allowing Styles to move closer to audiences in different parts of the arena.
But following the show, a number of fans – including those who had played for premium tickets – took to social media to complain that the raised bridges in the walkways had prevented them from seeing the main stage.
“I’m sorry but wtf is this??? I’m at the barricade and I can’t even see the main stage anymore????? I want my money back. This is not okay,” one fan wrote on X.
Styles kicked off his tour in Amsterdam on Saturday (Doug Peters/PA Wire)
On Wednesday (20 May), official representatives responded to the backlash, saying: “A small area of the staging in specific floor positions appears to have had a restricted sightline.
“Those areas are being reviewed carefully and adjusted where possible in compliance with all safety restrictions.”
The officials said that the layout was meant to encourage a “free-flowing floor experience” in keeping with the dancefloor theme of Styles’s latest album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally, rather than a fixed viewing angle.
However, many fans of the former One Direction star – who kicks off a 12-show residency in London’s Wembley Arena in June – will join the queue for the concert hours, if not days, early with the sole intention of getting as close to the stage as possible.
Fans camp out for Styles’s shows in Amsterdam (AFP/Getty)
These were the fans who shared the most disappointment on social media, with one claiming that the “massive” stage meant she “sometimes didn’t see Harry for a whole song”.
“Barricade is not worth it. Do not bother queueing. This was the back of GA (general admission) left and we couldn’t see him for 20+ minutes, I can only imagine how much people at the front missed,” wrote another.
”The bridges are massively obstructing, especially when he spends so much time in the middle. Seats will have the best view without a doubt, then the rear two pits.”
It’s unclear when any changes, if they are made, be made to the staging. Styles has eight more shows to play at Amsterdam’s Johan Cruyff Arena before his first show at Wembley on 12 June. He’ll then travel to São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne and Sydney for the remainder of the rout, which wraps in December.