Toronto Prepares For Its ‘Beyoncé Weekend’

If it were left up to fans, one of the incoming Toronto mayor’s first acts would be to declare a municipal holiday in honor of Beyoncé’s latest tour stop in the city to kick off her North American shows.

“I feel like Toronto is going to shut down this weekend,” said Timothy Achacoso, a Beyoncé fan who was buying a T-shirt emblazoned with the star’s holographic horse at a pop-up shop in the city’s downtown luxury shopping district.

“Olivia Chow should literally make it Beyoncé weekend,” Mr. Achacoso, a customer service agent, said of Toronto’s newly elected mayor.

With two shows scheduled in Toronto this weekend, Beyoncé begins the North American leg of her first solo tour in seven years in a city still rebounding from the pandemic, which shut down live shows and capped concert attendance well below capacity.

Her blockbuster shows, part of the Renaissance World Tour, are expected to trigger gridlock around the concert venue, the Rogers Center, with throngs of pedestrians pouring onto the city’s downtown streets.

Mr. Achacoso is bracing for an hourslong wait to board public transit and get back home after the show, an estimate based on past concert-going experiences for megastars like Lady Gaga, who played the Rogers Center last summer.

“She’s an icon, she’s a legend, so I feel like I will never stop being a fan of Beyoncé,” he said.

This week, thousands of fans flocked to the pop-up shop that opened Wednesday on the third floor of the department store Holt Renfrew. The store sold T-shirts — including a Toronto exclusive that says “Shut This City Down” — hooded sweatshirts and other concert memorabilia. The shiny silver “Renaissance” cowboy hats were sold out by the shop’s second day of business.

“We were going up the escalator and we’re like, ‘They’re playing Beyoncé,’ we’re ready,” said Maya Coplin, a graphic designer who traveled from New York for the show, and purchased a tour book at the shop.

Ms. Coplin and her Toronto-based friend, Victor Guo, bought their tickets for around 200 Canadian dollars each, or $150, compared to prices closer to $500 for nosebleed seats at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, she said.

It will mean a better view of the choreography that Mr. Guo has been rehearsing at home in preparation for the concert, especially for numbers like “Black Parade,” for which Beyoncé has been known to bring out her daughter, Blue Ivy, to perform.

“I specifically learned that entire routine,” he said.

Choreography classes to learn the dance moves of Beyoncé’s music videos and past tours — or “Beyography” — were once so hotly in demand in Toronto that Nicky Nasrallah taught them to groups of up to 35 people nine times a week for a year, ending around 2018.

Mr. Nasrallah, a drag performer in Toronto who goes by the stage name Selena Vyle, has seen Beyoncé’s Mrs. Carter Show tour in three cities, the Formation tour four times, and will be in the V.I.P. section at Sunday’s show.

“Her concerts are church, like they are a spiritual awakening,” he said, adding that the tour’s homage to queer dance music will be a more playful contrast to the heavier themes related to racism and infidelity in her past shows.

“I know that even before the music starts, I’m going to get this surge of energy charging through my body, because that’s what her concerts bring,” he said. “They lift you up. It’s like you’re not even on your feet anymore.”

This concert, and a September show scheduled in Vancouver, is a chance for Canadian fans to tap into the global hype that will elude them when it comes to another pop star who has been on tour: Taylor Swift.

Earlier this week, the musician announced 14 new shows to the Eras Tour, with Canadian cities notably absent from the roster. It sparked a plea to Ms. Swift on social media by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“I know places in Canada would love to have you,” Mr. Trudeau said, referencing her song “Cruel Summer” in a post on Twitter. “So, don’t make it another cruel summer. We hope to see you soon.” (Ms. Swift has, so far, not responded).

Beyoncé fans like Justin Major, a customer service agent at a software company, will likely be getting in line early at the Rogers Center, formerly known as the SkyDome, Toronto’s baseball field and a concert venue, which depending on the configuration, seats more than 50,000.

“All my friends know this is the only album I’ve been listening to since last year,” said Mr. Major, emphasizing that he replayed “Renaissance” for 10 hours straight on a recent return flight from Egypt.

He was prepared to travel as far as Miami to see Beyoncé, but managed to land stage-front tickets for 600 Canadian dollars, or about $451, to Saturday’s show.

“I knew coming into the concert that if I spend the money, I’m going to get a show, and not just backup singing,” said Mr. Major, 25. “I’m going to get visuals, performance, dances, the whole shebang.”