Arcade Fire Wants Their Fans to Dress Real Nice for Upcoming Tour

The band suggests fans 'wear formal attire or costume' to their concerts

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Update: Arcade Fire has asked fans to “please relax” about its “super not mandatory” dress code in a Facebook post.

Fans of Arcade Fire who managed to score tickets for the band’s upcoming Reflektor tour might’ve have been startled to find they were also given instructions on how they should dress for the shows. On Ticketmaster, ticket-buyers were greeted with a request from the band:”Please wear formal attire or costume.”

Arcade Fire performs outside the Capitol Records building in Hollywood on Oct. 29, 2013.

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images

In the lead up to their highly-anticipated album, Arcade Fire played a series of exclusive shows at smaller club where they asked fans to dress up, including a Sept. 9 show in Montreal, where the band tweeted the fashion requirements in advance:

Apparently, the band has extended the request to those who want to see them on next year’s 28-city arena tour.

While the dress code is not mandatory, the mere suggestion has raised some eyebrows. “Trying to force otherwise ordinary rock shows into the special category strikes me as presumptuous—an attempt to reinforce the band’s status as capital-A Artists,” clucked Slate. While the fans on Stereogum were split about the stunt in a poll, the author seemingly called malarkey on the whole thing, “Demanding that 23,000 Kentuckians dress up like an extra in Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby to see a rock band at the KFC Yum! Center? I dunno.”

For those fans determined to attend the concert while sticking to the rules, The Guardian has put together a helpful guide of costume DOs (papier-mache heads) and DON’Ts (no animal onesies or hats).

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