Girls Aloud fans call out 'very stressful' pre-sale as rush on tour tickets begins

Girls Aloud fans have complained about a "stressful" morning trying to secure tickets for the band's reunion tour as they slammed a confusing website and high prices.

Last week, Cheryl, Kimberley Walsh, Nadine Coyle and Nicola Roberts delighted fans with the news that they would be reforming for a 2024 tour revisiting their greatest hits and paying tribute to late bandmate Sarah Harding.

But when the ticket pre-sale opened on Wednesday, people shared their frustrations on social media at getting stuck in an online waiting lounge with no idea of their place in the queue.

Tickets are available via Ticketek UK and Ticketmaster, with a pre-sale open to those who had registered from 9am on Wednesday and the general sale opening on Friday - but many complained that the process did not run smoothly.

One person wrote on X: "It’s 2023 and we still don’t have the working technology for gig ticket purchasing???"

Someone else commented: "I would like a queue number please to see if I should continue going insane for no reason x"

Another person shared: "This is very stressful… no idea where we are in the queue."

Fans commented that they had spent a long time stuck in the ticket site's lounge, as one person wrote: "Staring at “Welcome to the Ticketek Lounge” for the past half an hour."

Someone else added: "I’ve been in a queue on Ticketmaster for 45 minutes & nothing’s loading!! What is going on?!?"

One disappointed fan commented: "So after an hour & a half of being stuck on Ticketmaster, getting booted off, & then being stuck in a queue on Ticketek, I’ve admitted defeat!"

People had also complained about the high cost of tickets, which range from £58 to £208.

One person commented: "Do Girls Aloud know that there’s a cost of living crisis going on… what are these ticket prices????!"

Someone else added: "Not Girls Aloud coming back with the most confusing seating plan known to man and crazy ticket prices!! Girls we’ve all got houses, bills and kids now we didn’t need this."

Girls Aloud's tribute to late Sarah Harding

Cheryl said of paying tribute to Harding through the reunion tour: "We all started talking about the possibility of doing something to celebrate Girls Aloud’s 20-year anniversary a few years ago.

"The anniversary seemed like an obvious thing that we would celebrate. But when Sarah fell ill all priorities changed.

"She passed away a year before the anniversary and it just didn’t feel right, it felt too soon. But now, I think there is an energy that does makes it feel right.

"It’s the right time to celebrate Sarah, it’s the right time to celebrate the band and the right time to celebrate the fact we can still do this 21 years later. That’s a big honour in lots of ways."

Read more: Girls Aloud

• Girls Aloud explain reason for going on tour again 11 years after split (Bournemouth Echo, 3 min read)

• Girls Aloud stars open up on last moments with Sarah Harding (The Independent, 3 min read)

• Cheryl says son, 6, with Liam Payne thinks it's 'pretty cool' he has famous parents (People, 3 min read)