Coldplay
Kicked off the year with an amazing concert!!
The struggle
So it all started in September 2024, when Coldplay announced their tour. They were performing in Navi Mumbai on January 29, 2025.
The hype was through the roof, everyone wanted a ticket.
The sale started on 21st September at 2 PM, and it was a complete mess. The official ticket partner was BookMyShow (BMS), and what unfolded was honestly disappointing.
BMS had set up a queue system, where people had to wait in line to buy tickets.
But their infrastructure wasnโt ready for such a massive rush. CLASSIC!!
When you know your site is going to get a surge,
- Always! Always! pressure test your infrastructure before going live!
- Always! Always! pressure test your infrastructure before going live!
- Always! Always! pressure test your infrastructure before going live!
When I finally managed to get into BMS, I was already at 32,211st in the queue ๐.
My friends were also in the queue, same story there.
I could literally see the tickets getting sold out as I waited.
At that point, it genuinely felt like the concert was slipping away.
New plan: Abu Dhabi ๐ฆ๐ช
Just when we thought it was done, we saw that Coldplay was also performing in Abu Dhabi on January 11th.
That instantly got us excited again.
Ticket day (again)
Ticket sales opened one afternoon. When we joined the queue from four different devices, we were around 20k people in line.
We waited for about 30 minutes, and slowly we reached the front ๐ฅณ.
No crashes.
It was smooth.
So we booked the standing tickets.
And just like that, we had tickets.
Transport โ๏ธ
Once the tickets were secured, we immediately started looking for flights, visas, and planning.
We knew prices could go up at any moment, with so many people flying to Abu Dhabi for the concert. So we decided to book the flight tickets the same week.
We managed to get them at a really good price.
For the visa, we used an app called Atlas. The process was smooth, and we got the visiting visa in one day.
Turning a concert into a trip
Since we were heading to the UAE anyway, we decided to make the most of it.
The plan slowly came together:
- Spend a couple of days in Dubai
- Head to Abu Dhabi for the concert
- Roam around the city
So we planned a 6 day itinerary.
The trip ๐
The flight was from Trivandrum to Abu Dhabi, and we reached on the 9th.
We went to Dubai Super Trees at Bluewaters Island to see a drone show, but due to rain, it was cancelled ๐
The concert ๐
We started early and reached Zayed Sports City around 2 PM. Since we had standing tickets, we needed to get there early to secure a good spot, and people had already been waiting since morning.
The event was managed by DHL, and they did a great job, everything was smooth and well-organized.
The gates opened at 5 PM, and everyone ran to grab the best spot ๐. All the effort paid off, and we landed a perfect place right in the center of the field.
The opening acts were by Shone and Elyanna, starting at 6 PM, and the whole band hit the stage around 7:30 PM. ๐คฉ
Then it was all MAGIC ๐
