Beyoncé has announced her Renaissance World Tour dates

Shortly before Beyoncé dropped her latest, chart-topping record Renaissance, she said the following: “My intention was to create a safe place, a place without judgment. A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom. It was a beautiful journey of exploration. I hope you find joy in this music. I hope it inspires you to release the wiggle. Ha! And to feel as unique, strong, and sexy as you are.”

And after months of experiencing that mythical place solely through Spotify, it seems Beyoncé is finally ready to take the Renaissance show on the road: her tour for summer 2023 has now been announced. Here’s everything we know so far!

Okay, but is a Beyoncé movie really imminent? And what can we expect from the live show? When do tickets go on sale? How much will they set us back financially? What the hell will that setlist look like? Here’s everything we know.

Is Beyonce touring Renaissance?

Short answer: yes! Beyoncé has toured pretty much every album she’s released thus far, and Renaissance will be no different. Though the tour has now been officially announced on her socials and website, we first found out about it after a charity auction was held at the 2022 Wearable Art Gala, an event organised by Richard and Tina Knowles Lawson (aka Bey’s parents), at which one of the prizes was a luxury ticket package to attend the forthcoming Renaissance tour in summer 2023.

Attendees snapped a photo of the package, which read: “Valued at a total of $20,000, United x WACO offers you a chance to see Beyoncé on her Renaissance tour starting in the summer of 2023 at any of United’s national and international destinations around the world.” United, of course, referring to the American airline. It continued: “This prize is complete with 2 first-class international United Airlines Polaris tickets to select cities with 3-night hotel accommodations at a Marriott property. And, to one of the most sought-after musical performances of all time, 2 concert tickets to Beyoncé’s Renaissance 2023 tour with a guided backstage tour with Miss Tina!” The package is rumoured to have sold for around $45-50,000.

So when is Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour?

Like pretty much all stadium tours, which rely on good weather to run, Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour is due to hit the road in summer 2023. Taking off in Stockholm, the tour will then make its way through Europe before heading to the US in July and culminating in a final show at Caesar’s Superdrome in New Orleans, Louisianna in September.

This will also mean she will avoid clashing with the dates for Taylor Swift’s mammoth Era’s Tour in the US this spring, as well as a potential return to music from Rihanna post-Super Bowl.

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What cities will Beyonce tour Renaissance in?

Of course, like the On The Run II tour with Jay-Z, there is a pretty substantial circuit of US stadiums in various states that Bey plans to hit up, as well as stadiums in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Sunderland, Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Brussels, Stockholm, Barcelona, Cologne, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Warsaw, as well as Toronto, Canada. Some of those cities she will be performing more than one date in too.

Currently, there is no word on whether the tour will extend outside of Europe and North America. The OTR II tour was restricted to just these regions last time, but it would be great to see her hit up Africa, considering the record’s influences, and South America, Asia and Australia too.

What will the Renaissance tour setlist be like?

This is interesting, particularly when you consider the record itself was produced to be pretty much seamless. The album is an hour long, which would make for a short but punchy setlist, and we’d be intrigued to see how she’d pull of a creative coup like that. Right now though, everything’s mere speculation.

How much will tickets be?

We imagine the person who bought two tickets for $50,000 was pushing the upper limits of the price range. Tickets for OTR II ranged from $54 to $2000 for VIP packages. We could probably expect it’ll be similar for the Renaissance tour.

When will tickets go on sale?

This hasn’t been announced yet.

So what’s all this about a movie?

What we’ve seen of the Renaissance visuals has been nothing short of cinematic — the teaser sees Bey in no less than 21 separate looks and settings. When we’ll be able to feast our eyes, however, is anyone’s guess. A press release from her production company, Parkwood Entertainment, said it would be scheduled “for a later date”. And that was in August.

A recent, compelling development in our search for Bey to #dropthevisuals is a now-deleted Instagram story from Odd Future musician Syd featuring a thank-you bouquet of white flowers. In it, a note from Beyoncé is legible: “Thank you for contributing so much to the film.”