upfront Blur
Live or let die: why record ticket prices may be here to stay
With the cost of living crisis comes the ongoing grumbling over why tickets to live events – especially big music acts – are also at an all-time high. Speaking to those in both the music and theatre worlds, Adam England finds out how we got here, and if we can ever go back.
It’s no secret that live music is becoming increasingly expensive. If you want to see an up-and-coming band at a smaller venue you might only be £10 out of pocket – if that – but for a stadium or arena concert you could be looking at paying even into the three figures.
In September, Harry Styles fans expressed disappointment over ticket prices and criticised Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model, which sees the price of tickets changing based on demand. Platinum tickets jumped to an average of £330, while even ‘regular’ tickets could be over £100. In November, Blur announced a Wembley show for 2023, but if you want a standing ticket to see the Britpop icons you’d better be willing to cough up over £100.
In the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, it’s a lot to ask anyone to pay. And there are a lot of younger people in Styles’ fanbase: they may be studying or working part-time and they, or their parents, might find it tricky to afford tickets.
And you’ve not only got the ticket – which will often come with processing fees, maybe postage if it’s a physical ticket, and ticket insurance if you’d rather the peace of mind. Add the cost of petrol and parking or public transport, maybe a hotel if you’re staying over, and if you want a pint at the gig you could be looking at £6 or £7. Paying upwards of £100 in some cases for one night is simply too much for a lot of people.
It’s the same with festivals, too. Tickets for Glastonbury rose from £265 to £335, an increase of over 25%. Granted, Glastonbury is a huge festival with some of the world’s biggest
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names: among the favourites to headline in 2023 are Arctic Monkeys, Elton John, Guns N’ Roses, Eminem, and Rihanna. Is £335 really bad value for three of these artists, plus myriad other big names, across a long weekend?
But while many artists and companies have been criticised, external factors like COVID-19 and Brexit have played a part in prices rising.
“I think COVID has definitely played a part in price increases,” says Matt Blumberg, co- founder of Mack Events, who run popular tribute festival GlastonBARRY, “Not being able to work, run events or earn any income for nearly two years was very difficult for us and many others in the events and entertainment industry. I personally had to resort to other means of work and dipping into my savings to
Harry Styles
support the business through these times and if the lockdown had continued, eventually it wouldn’t have been viable to continue.” Mack Events, he says, was only able to survive with “very careful financial planning”, but that they aren’t out of the woods yet.
As difficult as the pandemic was, the rising price of gigs is an issue that’s been raging before COVID. Everyone knows someone older with a story about how they saw a now- legendary artist for 50p before they blew up, and indeed a 2018 report by the BBC indicated that gig ticket prices had doubled since the 1990s.
Tickets for Oasis’ legendary Knebworth show in 1996 were £22.50 – expensive for the time – and, according to the Bank Of England’s inflation calculator, equivalent to £38.93 in June 2022, when Liam Gallagher returned to Knebworth. A ticket for that cost £65 – and Robbie Williams even made a dig at the “cheap” price. Back in 2018, Arctic Monkeys fans took to social media to complain about some of their more expensive tickets being £80 each, but four years on that figure doesn’t sound too unreasonable – at least, when compared to the cost of seeing artists of a similar size at present.
Brexit is another contributing factor, with ongoing supply chain issues that have been exacerbated by the pandemic. People working in trucking, for example, might be more inclined to stay in continental Europe to avoid extra paperwork and delays – to the detriment of the UK’s live music industry.
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