The cost of gigs and festivals

[seeformiles]

If it was August 1988, I was there as well.

Ah - top gig! Came over by bus from Belfast (via Dublin & Holyhead) the day before and spent the day scoring all the requisite dope & acid for the evening from peeps I knew in Hackney. Magical night

 

[Dead Cat Bounce]

At the parents and Mum found an envelope with nearly all of my old gig tickets inside.

Obituary and Napalm Death at the Astoria (8th May '92') just £7.50.

Prodigy all nighter at Brixton (25th March '95) - £15.00

 

[mx wcfc]

Reading Festival 1978. My first weekender.

£8.95.

 

[skyscraper101]

Pertinent to this discussion is a video I just encountered on YouTube. Looks like Live Nation and Ticketmaster have perfected the science of ticket price manipulation at least for big arena style gigs.

 

[hash tag]

Somewhere around, I still have the ticket stub form 1978. It was for the Bob Dylan concert at Blackebush Airport. Cost £6.

I was working that day, so was said girlfriend at the time. I remember I drove there and parked almost outside. Because we were a little late, we just walked in without paying. On the other hand, we saw very little

 

[hash tag]

So many ways of stitching you up these days. Forget booking fees, agency fees etc. I gather some places charge more according to demand, then charge more for advanced admission, VIP event, back stage passes etc.
Both the magic flute and roger waters were about £180 per ticket

 

[mx wcfc]

So many ways of stitching you up these days. Forget booking fees, agency fees etc. I gather some places charge more according to demand, then charge more for advanced admission, VIP event, back stage passes etc.
Both the magic flute and roger waters were about £180 per ticket

I went to one festival last year, where you could pay for your own personal toilet.

 

[skyscraper101]

I went to one festival last year, where you could pay for your own personal toilet.

After years of enduring some pretty rank festival toilets, that’s actually one of the things I would be prepared to pay a premium for. Clean, dry, flushing, well lit toilets at a festival. Yea please.

 

[muscovyduck]

I wonder how much of it is that it's just one of those things that's kept up with cost of living while wages and so on have fallen behind

 

[skyscraper101]

This is taking the piss. Thankfully I have no interest in seeing Billie Eilish but feel sorry for anyone who does want to go. I've been on 7 night package holidays for less.

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[hash tag]

But poor Billie has a long way to go to catch up with Taylor Swift in terms of wealth.
I wonder what the VIP packages cost as I've heard rumours of them costing over £1000.
It's just crazy.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

I think generally the "arts" are becoming quite unaffordable. Theatre tickets are really high for example in London.
I really hate the whole "booking fee" at big music venues; that's just an invented charge caused by outsourcing.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I could write an essay on how and why the entire funding model for arts in this country is fucked, but the tl;dr version is that - much like the rest of society - ever increasingly large amounts of money are being siphoned upwards into an ever increasingly small group of individuals and companies.

 

[Silas Loom]

Is the ticket cost increase unique to the UK, or is it happening elsewhere?

 

[hash tag]

Sorry to digress slightly. I went to the wildlife photographer of the year earlier in the week. Booking online immediately before booking, a voluntary donation was automatically added to the price of a ticket which you had to opt out from if you wanted to.
On arrival at the NHM, we had to run the gauntlet of lots of staff all trying to encourage us to make a donation and proudly telly us we could do it by cash or machine.

 

[Silas Loom]

Sorry to digress slightly. I went to the wildlife photographer of the year earlier in the week. Booking online immediately before booking, a voluntary donation was automatically added to the price of a ticket which you had to opt out from if you wanted to.
On arrival at the NHM, we had to run the gauntlet of lots of staff all trying to encourage us to make a donation and proudly telly us we could do it by cash or machine.

I was on the guest list for the last few things I went to before the Great Plague of 2020, and on each occasion I was shaken down for a £20 charity donation, which is what tickets for nights out used to cost.

 

[Riff]

I could write an essay on how and why the entire funding model for arts in this country is fucked, but the tl;dr version is that - much like the rest of society - ever increasingly large amounts of money are being siphoned upwards into an ever increasingly small group of individuals and companies.

Quite. Dynamic pricing (AKA an excuse to screw you even further) absolutely boils my piss! This is not my petition, BTW and happy to take it down if Admin wish but: Sign the Petition

As soon as I see ticketarser are the agent, I'll try my utmost to see if a different agent is selling tickets for the same gig. If ticketarser are the only outlet, I won't buy any tickets because I refuse to line their already very bulging pockets. I will NOT be exploited.

Like others, I stick with smaller venues/bands these days. Generally I pay an average of £20 a pop and often get to meet the bands before or afterwards.

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

I actually thought about this whilst being pestered for some K-pop gig tickets a couple of years ago.
Presuming 5 members of a K-pop band “played”for 90 minutes at the Danish musicians union requested minimum wage, then 200 quid or whatever it was, makes sense. Ultimately the request was denied because no.

 

[hash tag]

Signed. Unfortunately, dynamic pricing is plaguing many things these days, not just gigs. I'm more pissed of by the major ticket sites touring tickets, which I thought was going to be outlawed.
I queued online for hours for ACDC tickets without success. I then looked at tickets being resold, by the major agencies and the tickets had already more than doubled in price.
Spoken, I confess, as someone who has previously bought tickets for cash ( it was a long time ago ) from routs outside the venue. I found out if you kept your nerve you could score them for face value or less.
Conversely, I have sold hard to obtain gig and footie tickets on the day of the event for face value for cash.

 

[skyscraper101]

Is the ticket cost increase unique to the UK, or is it happening elsewhere?

I think there's a lot of variables but I did recently see the band Nothing But Thieves in Barcelona for £30 - the same tour was costing £90 odd quid a ticket to see them at Wembley Arena. Absolutely not worth it at that price.

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

I think some of that may be to do with venues getting culture payments in Spain, as they do in many other European countries.
It’s politicized here. Last night of the proms tickets are always affordable.

 

[skyscraper101]

This is encouraging. Hopefully the Ticketmaster/Live Nation cartel's days are numbered.

Live Nation: US Department of Justice to sue TicketMaster owner

Officials are expected to challenge the company's business practices, the BBC's US partner CBS News reported.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[skyscraper101]

Another pertinent article

Why have concert ticket prices gone crazy? Here's what's behind the spiral

Is it artist greed? Ticketing website fees? UK tax rules? Are concert goers also paying a part? Sky News looks into what's going on...

news.sky.com

I do feel for people who have felt the pinch of the dynamic pricing thing. It sounds like the biggest swizz ever. On top of inflation and production costs, people are getting screwed over seeing big name artists. It certainly doesn't sound like it's the artists who are to blame either. Let's hope the DOJ manage to do some damage to Live Nation.

 

[skyscraper101]

Thought this was interesting. I never knew about it until now.

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[skyscraper101]

This is worth a watch



If you ever had any doubts about how much Ticketmaster have ruined everything, this will surely change your mind.

 

[skyscraper101]

Meanwhile in the U.K.

Bands are skipping many more towns and cities on tour

Bands and singers play half as many gigs on an average tour as they did in the 1990s, figures suggest.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[hash tag]

Meanwhile in the U.K.

Bands are skipping many more towns and cities on tour

Bands and singers play half as many gigs on an average tour as they did in the 1990s, figures suggest.

www.bbc.co.uk

Heard that on the radio earlier and not sure I totally agree with it. Why would a band play 10 2000 seater gigs when they can pack 20,000 in to a single large arena. The cost of roadies, transport hotels etc. it would be so much cheaper for them. Was surprised to learn even crowded house played the 02 a night or two ago. I would have thought smaller venues would have suited them much better.
I saw a gig at the Palladium last week, it was so much better than going to a large arena.

 

[skyscraper101]

Heard that on the radio earlier and not sure I totally agree with it. Why would a band play 10 2000 seater gigs when they can pack 20,000 in to a single large arena. The cost of roadies, transport hotels etc. it would be so much cheaper for them. Was surprised to learn even crowded house played the 02 a night or two ago. I would have thought smaller venues would have suited them much better.
I saw a gig at the Palladium last week, it was so much better than going to a large arena.

I’d like to think, perhaps naively, that established bands don’t just have to just consider the bottom line when choosing between a large venue in a major city or a few smaller venues spread evenly.

Not least because it would provide a better audience experience, but also it might provide more sustained income for the road/stage crew and the venues and local economies around the country.

Again, probably naive owing to the margins many bands have to work within now but if I was mega rich and famous I’d like to think making as much money as possible wasn’t entirely a motivating factor.

 

[what]

I'm sort of glad I'm no longer that arsed about big gigs as I used to be. I'd genuinely rather see a small band locally for a reasonable price than some mega massive band in a stadium for five times the cost.

I made an exception for The Cure recently at Wembley but it really just confirmed my feelings generally about the value of the whole 'live experience' of arena size shows.

This is me now.
And being in London lucky there's a lot of good little places where tickets are normally £20 to £30 and often under £20.
Lexington, Omeara, Lafayette, Water rats, Camden Assembly, Dublin Castle and my new fav West hampstead arts club being a few I like

 

[what]

Oh and forgot to mention i seem to have been to the 100 club a lot the last few years.
Love the intimacy and cheap bar prices but wow the sound needs improving.