Phoebe Bridgers has returned to music in a big way. After a three-year hiatus, the Grammy Award-winning singer played her first solo live show in New Mexico last month, before announcing a UK, Europe and North America arena tour earlier this week. But her comeback comes with one major caveat: no phones will be allowed. In a statement released by her management, it was explained that “all phones, smartwatches and related accessories” will be “secured in pouches” for the duration of the shows.

While some fans think a no-phone tour is a brilliant idea, others have criticised the rule as “classist”, potentially ableist and even an infringement on their “human rights”. This is not the first time an artist has been called out for asking fans to put their phones away during a concert. In 2022, Mitski issued a statement during her Laurel Hell tour: “I wanted to speak with you about phones at shows,” she wrote on X. “They’re part of our reality; I have mine on me all the time, and I’m not against taking photos at shows. But sometimes when I see people filming entire songs or whole sets, it makes me feel as though we are not here together.” It was a considered and reasonable request, ending with Mitski reminding fans that they could ultimately do as they pleased: “It’s your night, and I want you to enjoy it as you like… Just putting out there that sometimes, if we’re lucky, we can experience magic at a show. But only if we’re there to catch it.” Even so, it provoked such a heated backlash, including similar accusations of ableism, that Mitski’s team eventually deleted it.

There are arguments to be made in favour of letting fans use their phones, especially when they have paid a lot of money and fought tooth and nail to see their favourite musicians live. But a no-phone policy is not inherently ableist request. As one X user highlighted at Bridgers’ recent show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, disabled attendees were allowed to keep their phones and given wristbands to signify their accessibility needs. The show was also unusually cheap, and for a good cause: fans paid between $1 and $20 to enter a raffle to attend, with all proceeds going to Community Justice Exchange’s Immigration Bond Freedom Fund. That makes the no-phone request easier to stomach. The question becomes trickier, however, when it comes to her upcoming tour, where fans will be paying full price for tickets.

The unaffordability of live music has been an ongoing concern over the last few years, which could partly explain why people feel so passionately about this issue. “Phone-free concerts are classist as fuck, and I’ll die on that hill,” one X user argues. “People who can’t afford concert tickets often rely on friends FaceTiming them or taking videos. Music is about community, and that shouldn’t exclude people who cannot afford a ticket.” Just this past April, a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation, the entertainment giant that owns Ticketmaster, had illegally monopolised parts of the live events market and overcharged fans. While this is a real problem, it is harder to level the charge at Bridgers specifically, whose shows are relatively affordable. And while she cannot make every show as inexpensive as her recent Madison Square Garden date, she does seem to be motivated by a sincere desire to make them more enjoyable for herself and her fans.

Ultimately, the question is not just whether fans should be allowed to film, but who gets to control the conditions under which an artist is watched. In her seminal text On Photography, Susan Sontag writes that “to photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge – and, therefore, like power.” Over the last few years, after achieving mainstream success with boygenius, Bridgers has made it clear that she feels a lack of power in the public eye. In an interview with Them in 2023, she called out toxic fans who she said had “bullied” her during the “lowest point” of her life: “I, at one of the lowest points of my life, saw people who claim to love me fucking dehumanise me and shame me and fucking bully me on the way to my dad’s wake.”

Following her newfound celebrity – intensified by her high-profile relationship with, and subsequent breakup from, Paul Mescal – Bridgers and the other members of boygenius found themselves under constant scrutiny, an experience almost entirely beyond their control. What she has endured over the last few years is the powerlessness that comes with fame. Through these no-phone shows, Bridgers seems to be trying to take back some of that power: to have a semblance of control over the room, and to play the music she loves for the people who claim to love her.

While plenty of people hate the idea of no-phone shows, there is clearly demand from audiences as well as artists. A recent report by Eventbrite found that phone-free experiences are up 567 per cent globally, highlighting just how many people are craving real-life experiences without the pressure of performing for social media or appearing as an unwitting extra in someone else’s content. Of course, wanting to capture special moments is not unique to the digital age, even if the impulse feels stronger now than ever. As Sontag writes, photography provides evidence that we are alive: that we have been somewhere, seen someone, done something. If your friends and followers cannot watch you watching that “Motion Sickness” encore, did it even happen? Does it even matter? The growing popularity of no-phone events suggests that it does. These moments still matter when they leave no trace.

Even if going to a no-phone concert might not be your first choice, there is something to be said for embracing the discomfort. It might be uncomfortable at first to be stripped of your devices, but that discomfort might give way to a more meaningful experience.