...to feel like I don't want the hassle of going to concerts any more?

I love going to gigs.
This year I’m seeing Green Day @ £76 per ticket, Foo Fighters @ £82.50 a ticket and Slipknot @£67.50 a ticket.

I saw Green Day in 1998 and I paid £9.50 and bought my ticket on the door.

Sometimes I manage to get tickets from the venue website, I was able to get Corey Taylor tickets that way even though ticketmaster were sold out. Another way to get tickets is via registering for pre sales or pre saving an album.

I live in Manchester so we have loads of music venues but I do prefer the smaller ones to the big stadiums. You can get much closer to the stage and actually see the band rather than watching on a giant screen.

Omg this!!!!
YANBU OP. And don't get me started on music festivals! Originally started by hippies. Not a group concerned about money, more with accessible public gatherings, freedom, etc.

Look at the monstrosity Glastonbury has turned into now. £££ tickets, big names, big crowds. Of course it's good for the economy but (slightly tongue-in-cheek) it's hard for me to believe that there's a cost of living crisis when so many people are willing to pay extortionate ticket prices, and then even more for 'festival' food and drink. Oh, and sleep in tents.

Even 'cheap' festivals are at least £50.

We won't get into the name of the place, but only what 2000 seats...some of which were dreadful. They have done it up since I was last there but no. It is way too small for a city the size of Bristol.
to explain why I'm saying this, the last time I went was to see Jerry Lee Lewis. Support band I couldn't even name but they were dreadful. Jerry was on tour with Chuck Berry and a host of other is stars..he was the only one playing Bristol that night.

I recently bought tickets at Blenheim Palace to see Crowded House, Sheryl Crow etc. I then read reviews of the venue saying you can't take your own food & drink in (it's a late afternoon gates opening) and the prices are ridiculous & the food is rubbish, plus it being a nightmare to get out of the car park after. I decided, much as I love Crowded House, I couldn't be bothered with the hassle & would rather not go. So I resold my tickets via a website connected to where I bought the tickets, for near to face value. They wouldn't let me sell for any more, not that I would want to. I was just glad to get my money back

I retired from concert-going at the age of 65. I might nip out to something smallish if I really like the music or if I am totally in love with the fiddle player. No more festivals (always hated them - they're about the 'event' not the music) or massive venues for me. Nick Cave is playing in Manchester, tickets £70ish. I'll regret not going but it will pass. Covid did it for me, really. I don't want to be with crowds of people.

There's concerts of all sizes, we tend to mostly go to smaller local ones or at pubs. We also do festivals just not the huge ones

My 12 year old daughter's favourite artist is Melanie Martinez. I thought it'd be nice to take her to her first gig, tickets came up for Melanie... £250 per person in the back seats at the new arena in Manchester. Not a chance. We're about an hour's drive away so money for fuel/parking or trains would be factored in, no doubt she'd want the 'merch' whilst there, it all adds up. This artist seems to be aimed at younger audience (but I could be wrong), I just can't fathom out how the unaffordable ticket price (for the target demographic) is justified! We'd be at the back, and as a PP has rightly pointed out, we'd be watching her on a screen so might as well watch it on a screen at home.

I refuse to buy resale tickets at inflated prices ….I log on as soon as a sale goes live and if I don’t get tickets then it wasn’t meant to be…..I’ve got take that tickets for June that were a Christmas present as I wouldn’t spend that myself on a night out…..Im happy to spend on festivals though….think they are value for money

We've taken to going to see tribute bands instead. The music is good, the venues are smaller, more local and more comfortable and they are a fraction of the price of the real thing.

Op I wanted to take my teenage sons to see my favourite band from the 80's.....it would have been £200 just for the tickets 😔😔 its just a big rip off now unfortunately

I've been caught out a few times because tickets pretty much always go on sale at something like 10am on a weekday, and I can't get on to buy until my lunchbreak. I point blank won't buy from the overpriced resellers though, would rather not go. Also won't bother when it's something like a seated ticket at the back of the O2, it's just pointless when you're miles away from the stage.

I do think things like the ticketmaster resell option is overall a really good thing, life happens and there should be legitimate options to buy/sell at face value. I've used that system from both sides and it's been great. It's the stupid inflated prices on resale that are the issue, not resale itself.

I think this is something that needs consumer rights intervention. The best way I can think of is the ballot system used for test cricket at Lords and I think the Oval. You all apply within a time period (it's about a month) and then are advised of the outcome. It seems to be a reasonably legit allocation.

Councils could make it a condition of venue licences.

Some of the smaller venues are absolutely gorgeous too. There are loads in small theatres with fantastic architecture. The City Varieties in Leeds, for example, is beautiful.

Some are sweaty pits, but I'm affectionate about those too.

My first concert was Queen at Bristol Hippodrome in 1977, for £4.50, I think. I've been to hundreds since then. Smaller gigs are absolutely better.
Ticket prices are definitely ridiculous now. I know no-one buys records any more but £3-400 is definitely taking the piss.
Elbow, bless 'em, are charging £50 for their arena dates and if they can do it...

The Bristol Beacon? Fair sized venue. Also The Forum in Bath. Arenas are horrible places to see bands.

My local record shop puts on a couple of hundred gigs a year in a pretty small nightclub. If an artist has an album out and they’re not huge there’s a good chance they will play there to promote it… tickets are £12 or £14. Last band I saw was Gossip recently but they’ve had some absolute classic bands go through there ( all manner of music genre…. Stormzy, Shania Twain, Michael Buble, The Libertines). It means you can take a punt on someone new to you …. I saw Raye a year ago for example and I’d only heard one song. Gabriel’s were also awesome. I think the key is signing up for emails from the artists you like and keeping on top of social media. I checked out an American duet I like called War & Treaty and ended up seeing them in a tiny London venue and paid £20 a ticket so it is possible.

It ain't what it used to be that's for sure

Twickets is great for genuine resales.
What annoys me about concerts now is diehard fans used to be able to get to a gig early and sit near the stage (sometimes behind a small vip area). Concerts I've attended recently now charge more for fenced of standing areas in front of the stage that go a long way back - it's disgusting.

I've been to a few great gigs recently in small/medium sized venues so not ready to give up on live shows just yet. But ticketing aaaargh! Thought twickets was ok but recently bought a ticket off them and when I got to the venue they said it had already been scanned 😡Fortunately one of my friends had a spare otherwise I would have been stuck outside the venue all evening 45 miles from home. Also Ticketmaster 's own transfer system sucks, I tried to transfer some tickets to a friend on the day of a gig I couldn't go to and an hour before the gig they still hadn't gone through. Presumably the delay is so they can check you're not selling on loads of tickets but given I've used the facility all of one time previously I can't imagine I would flagged up as a big time tout.

Twickets is great for buying and selling. I once got a VIP festival ticket with a £50 beer voucher included for £70. Absolute bargain.

At least the person selling it managed to get some money back, which they wouldn't have done otherwise because it was the morning of the festival.

This is what Ed Sheeran does.

I think it's a good idea. Yes it's a pain if you want to transfer tickets or whatever but I think there is a way to do it. Resale of tickets at a ridiculous price is dreadful!

I bought standing tickets for an event via Ticketmaster but then we were able to get seated tickets so I sold them via Ticketmaster Resale for about a tenner more than we paid (the most we were allowed to charge) so that we could recoup booking fees etc. It should be the only way.

The thing I've noticed attending gigs lately is some of the standing venues (02 Leeds, Brixton Academy and even Hammersmith Apollo) are dangerously overselling and I've had a couple of very uncomfortable experiences in rammed venues.

This.

I do go to bigger gigs too but I'm very selective and I am a bit resentful at spending the money and being miles from the stage, ripped off at the bar and queueing for congested trains afterwards. I go to probably 2 things a year in the £50-100 bracket.

But I go and see newer or lesser known bands every few weeks, for typically around £20. A fantastic, intimate vibe, great view, not unusual to get a chance to say hello to the musicians and you're actually supporting them to earn a living rather than just adding to their millions in the bank.

I think mid-size festivals offer the best value for money and experience now, I cannot be arsed with stadium gigs at all.

Some tickets now are nothing less than extortionate. I do go to lots of concerts but some bands I would like to see again, I won't because of the prices. Others we have been keen to see and spent a small fortune only to have the experience ruined by pissed up people acting like idiots and blocking the view, or in the case of the Elton John concert where we had paid lots of money for seats at the front found the venue had stuck someone else in our seats as someone else was in there's! They seemed shocked that yes we did want them moved out of our seats!

Had a bad experience with Viagogo they are to be avoided awful company. I resold some tickets recently via ticketmaster at face value as cant go now and I think that's the only way they should be allowed to be sold.