Tag Archives: Beyonce

Dreaming of an African Formation

A true Beyonce fan must try to see Beyonce. And if that’s your travel dream, you should make it happen.

A few weeks, ago Beyonce performed at the Super Bowl halftime show. And, just before that, she released her Formation video, about which Awesomely Luvvie wrote .. “this Formation video (directed by Melina Matsoukas) that she dropped on everyone in the middle of a Saturday is the best thing she’s ever done.”

She also announced a Formation Tour with dates in the US and Europe.  The Formation Tour website  lists tickets that are still available  in several cities, some of which can be accessed with reasonable airfares from Nairobi. These include London ($749 round trip fare from Nairobi), Zurich ($669(, Milan ($649), Copenhagen ($699), and Frankfurt ($649). You should have saved up for by now if you’re a true fan.

A Beyonce super fan in Nairobi who plans to attend a Formation concert says it would be ideal if the concert tour came to Africa, probably Johannesburg (which is always a possibility).

I asked her if going to any of these European cities for the concerts intrigued her – Brussels? Copenhagen? Cardiff? Milan? And is she could combine a trip to those cities with fashion, museums, or something else? She said:

  • I want her to come to South Africa (SA). She needs to be watched with a squad and trying to haul many people to anywhere that requires boarding >1 plane is always hectic. The best option would be London, but those tickets get sold out in a matter of minutes. So. we’ll wait for SA.
  • Going to the city itself isn’t a problem. That’s the easy part. I went to watch Kendrick Lamar (and Usher) in New Orleans last year by myself and the thing that I missed was having my friends there. Just watching the action is fine but Beyonce is such a collective experience (see how the internet reacts whenever she does something, with all stans feeling the need to reach out and engage with other stans) that it seems like a disservice to yourself to do that experience without at least a couple of friends. Then the issue becomes logistics – everyone getting leave, visas, organizing flights, accommodation, etc. The further you go the more time you need, which makes it harder to synchronize.  
  • SA is a quick weekend trip + relatively cheap and hassle-free.  You can go after work on Friday and be back in the office by Monday a.m.

Awesomely Luvvie’s Beyonce Mixed GIF

Reasonable airfares from Nairobi are also available to US cities that still have Formation tour tickets available between April to June 2016, including Tampa, Raleigh, Nashville, San Diego, Seattle, Edmonton, Minneapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Detroit.

Back to the formation video, which  is loaded with lots of references for Beyonce fans; to important pieces like the New Orleans, the Creole people, and towns in her life, like Alabama (Nairobi roundtrip tp Montgomemerry $1,589) and Lousiana (Baton Rouge $1,589) and Texas (Houston $1,099). 

Also see why Kenya is unlikely to have a Beyonce concert, any time soon.