Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask why people videoing, filming, photographing and texting with their phones on during performances in concerts and theatres is now acceptable?

41 replies

YourAmplePlumPoster · 15/08/2025 19:03

Last night at the Proms there was a performance by Joe Hisaishi, composer of the film music to the Boy and The Heron who performed his piece. The second half was a more complex performance of American Miminalist Steve Reich. During the first half, in spite of the Royal Albert Halls announcement to switch phones off, as soon as he appeared on the podium, numerous people around us were videoing his performance and even texting on their phones. Eventually, I snapped and asked the guy sitting next to me to please turn his phone off. He refused. At the end of the first half, a woman in front of me said: you didn't have to be so mean to him and I might go home now because of you as you've upset me. I'm expecting a pile on saying it's his human rights to have his phone on and the substandard behaviour. Why pay a substantial sum for a ticket and sit on your phone the whole time? I don't get it.

OP posts:
suburburban · 15/08/2025 19:57

YourAmplePlumPoster · 15/08/2025 19:48

I've been to rock concerts where it's normal to film the groups and they encourage it. But a classical concert, play or musical is different. What amazed me was the bloke being aggrieved because I told him to turn his phone off and the woman in front of me saying I was "mean." This is a plague.

Shame the ushers didn’t escort him out

Original poster
YourAmplePlumPoster · 15/08/2025 19:48

I've been to rock concerts where it's normal to film the groups and they encourage it. But a classical concert, play or musical is different. What amazed me was the bloke being aggrieved because I told him to turn his phone off and the woman in front of me saying I was "mean." This is a plague.

OP posts:
PGmicstand · 15/08/2025 19:46

I did record bits of a concert I went to a couple of years ago. I usually don't but....
They're my favourite band
I've never before managed to see them play live
This was their farewell tour
They're all in their late 60s/early 70s and live on the other side of the world to me so I'll never be able to repeat seeing them

Rallentanda · 15/08/2025 19:43

When you go to a gig - say Taylor Swift - it is normal. It has become normal. People want the memory. Not saying this is good or bad but it is normal now.

I guess people extrapolate from a loud and un-nuanced music gig to other forms of entertainment? I don't know. I have to admit I've not come across it at the Royal Albert Hall or at things like theatre performances or comedy shows. I suppose it will happen.

elliejjtiny · 15/08/2025 19:40

Totally unacceptable at a play or a formal concert. I think it's ok at a gig where it's really loud and flashing lights everywhere to take photos and maybe some short videos. Not acceptable at any performance to text or scroll through social media during any performance and phones should always be switched off when asked to by staff.

DustlandFairytaleBeginning · 15/08/2025 19:38

It's not. It's incredibly rude and always has been.

XenoBitch · 15/08/2025 19:37

YANBU
I was watching a comedian, and a pair of ladies in the front row were filming him. They also kept heckling him, and said it was "for the socials". He had enough in the end, said "fuck off" and the ushers came and escorted them out.
A waste of their own money.

Other people's phones all lit up is also incredibly distracting.

RichardOsmansfondueset · 15/08/2025 19:35

I completely agree, mobile phones should be banned during live performances it’s so distracting and annoying when you have paid £££ for a ticket. I don’t understand why they feel the need to video it. So rude

Sadcafe · 15/08/2025 19:34

Definitely not acceptable, saw the King and I a couple of years ago, phone of the woman next to us rang quite loudly in the scene where the king was dying, a lot of very annoyed people

GonnaeNoDaeThatJustGonnaeNo · 15/08/2025 19:27

It’s not acceptable

suburburban · 15/08/2025 19:25

Why can’t people do as they are told by the ushers

He had a cheek keeping it out when he’d been asked not to.

Original poster
YourAmplePlumPoster · 15/08/2025 19:25

Other theatres have a daft policy. It's generally acceptable to take photos at curtain call to put on social media but an Usher at the Barbican Theatre told me I wasn't allowed to take photos at The Fiddler on the Roof curtain call. The whole thing needs an overhaul.

OP posts:
Original poster
YourAmplePlumPoster · 15/08/2025 19:19

I was amazed at the people complaining because I'd asked him to switch his phone off.

OP posts:
Original poster
YourAmplePlumPoster · 15/08/2025 19:18

I think we need the laser point here. I hear things have got so bad in China that they confiscate cellphones at the entrance to theatres.

OP posts:
Lifelover16 · 15/08/2025 19:16

It’s not acceptable.
I went to an opera house abroad, where if ushers noticed someone using a phone during the performance indicated them with a laser pointer. They were shamed into switching off the phone.

Arlanymor · 15/08/2025 19:12

It's not acceptable, they not only spoil their own enjoyment but that of other people. I know quite a few people going to see Bob Dylan when he comes to Swansea next year and it's been made abundantly clear that it's a mobile-free zone and people found to be using their phones in the way you have outlined will be kicked out. As they should.