Kacey Musgraves has canceled three shows on her upcoming tour without any explanation — and fans are speculating whether it has anything to do with low ticket sales.
The country star, 37, was set to kick off her Middle of Nowhere tour August 20 in Chicago, but ticket holders have now been alerted that the opening show is canceled and that refunds would automatically be issued.
In addition to Chicago, a Boston show scheduled for August 29 was canceled, along with a stop in Brooklyn, New York, slated for September 2.
Each of the venues affected by the cancelations had concerts scheduled for multiple other nights in the city, and tickets are still available for the other dates, according to Musgraves’s website.
Musgraves has not addressed the cancelations, and no reason was offered in the announcement to ticket holders. Her representatives did not immediately return The Independent’s request for comment.
TMZ reported that the three dates that were canceled had been added after the original tour schedule was released, making the decision to pull them just a return to the original plan.
The Grammy winner’s North American tour — with most shows scheduled at arena-sized venues — was announced in April, with planned stops in major cities like Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Toronto. The run, which is now set to start on Musgraves’s birthday, was set to wrap up October 27 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
After news of the cancelations, Musgraves’s fans have been left wondering if the decision was made due to “blue dot fever” — which the Los Angeles Times described as a phenomenon of a tour having poor sales forcing dates to be scrapped, and refers to available seats on Ticketmaster’s seating charts.
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Ticketmaster’s website shows that several of Musgraves’s stops have hundreds of tickets left available.
“I know Kacey has a loyal fanbase, but the reality is it’s not large enough for arenas, ESPECIALLY for multiple nights in one city,” one fan wrote on a Reddit thread discussing the cancelations.
Another wrote: “Obviously, with the climate of ticket sales across all genre and artist being what it is, I have been concerned about the upcoming tour. I bought my tickets during pre-sale, today Ticketmaster is advertising to me there are still available tickets . A pretty bad sign. Furthermore, I’ve been looking at all of the available tickets for every venue and there are a lot of blue dots, EXPENSIVE blue dots $200-$300+, I understand why they have named the issue the ‘blue dot fever.’”
“Blue dot fever isn’t exclusive to Kacey. So many managers giving poor advice to their artists,” another person added.
It’s not just Musgraves — the problem has widely impacted the concert industry, affecting artists like Meghan Trainor, the Pussycat Dolls and Post Malone, who all canceled some or all of their tour stops due, at least in part, to low ticket sales.
