To feel a bit pissed off at being given concert tickets?

[Zoeylee]

I know it sounds mad, and I hate myself for thinking this. However, my brother and SIL have given me concert tickets for my birthday, (2 tickets actually, so me and DH can go.) It's for someone I do like (and have done for years.)

Problem is, we are very rural. We are literally 45 to 50 minutes drive from a train station, and the city where the concert is, is another HOUR and a QUARTER journey on the train. (Including having to change trains half way.)

So we are talking about starting out a MINIMUM of 3 hours before the concert starts, as it says on the tickets that the doors open at 6.00pm and it's advisable to get there early. The concert starts with a support act at 7pm... To enable ourselves to get the last train back would involve leaving the concert at 9pm. The main act will probably only just be starting then.

Either that or we stay in a travelodge or premier inn. I have already looked at the date, and because it's a Friday, the cheapest room is £85! This would be on top of the train fares that will cost £70 for the two! So with food and extra bits and bobs, we could be looking at £200.

Driving would be a PITA too, as that would take the best part of two and a half to three hours (five to six hour round-trip,) and would be a ballache, with driving in and around a major city, and car parking and suchlike.

WIBU to sell the tickets on and buy something else? Should I pretend we went to the concert and fake a few photos? Or should I be honest? I feel like such a cow, but these 'free tickets' are going to end up costing us a bleeding fortune! And the thought of all the hassle involved in travelling to this concert, and back (even though I like the act,) is giving me a headache. My brother and SIL meant well, but I don't think they thought it through.

We were gifted tickets to Harry Potter Studio Tour - just me and DH (he hates HP but I love it)

It included travel by coach. It had cost around £150 and it was a Christmas present.
DH step mum sorted it, they do a “family” present which is usually that sort of price.
One year paying for a caravan to Haven for the weekend. Which was brilliant and we enjoyed it so much.

But with HP - they offered to have DS overnight UNTIL they found out he wouldn’t sleep in a single bed on his own in a house he’d been to once.. at aged 2.
I also was breastfeeding DD who would have been 9 months when we had to leave here for over 12 hours.
I rang the company and asked if I could bring them but they said all seats were gone.

I sold the tickets back to the company and step-Mum fell out with us for a long time because she couldn’t understand why I couldn’t leave the children.

If you’re not able to go, then tell your brother. Would he go? Say how much you appreciate them and want to go but you just can’t afford it.
Hopefully they’d be more understanding than my DHs step mum!

Good grief. How ungrateful you sound, OP. It is a very generous gift.

Tbh I would be aoffended by anyone who would give me a gift back!! Whatever the gift.

I am definitely not a townie, thigh don't live as much in the middle of nowhere anymore, and living in the sticks just meant I thought a 2+ hr drive is fairly reasonable!

However, given you're not going to enjoy it there's no point going. There's also no point pretending to go or you might just get a similar present next time.

Could you: find an event in a town near-ish-by that you could go to, and say to givers that you can't make concert x because of y so you were wondering if they could use the tickets or alternatively it looks like they would sell for z so we could go to event a.

You’re not being unreasonable, it’s a thoughtless gift if you can’t get there. Last week my sister ran me and said would I like tickets she’d applied for to see Judge Rinder, I would have liked to, but I live in London, not Manchester, and have two small children.

you sound quite angry op

Can you blame her?!

Rose, the OP has said among other things 'I feel like such a cow' and 'it was a nice thought'. Stop fucking goading.

I would go. Make a day or 2 of it. Excuse to treat yourself.

There is no pleasing some people.

Yes it’s a hassle and not what you want to be doing. But I’m on the make a night of it side. You can stay in every other night if you want but try and see the positives in going out for this one night.

I would drive. No need to stay near the venue, they are bound to be expensive - I would stay at the cheapest travelodge that is enroute within 20 miles of the concert or a drive that doesn't take more than an hour on the day and research cheap parking near the venue before you go. For a concert that we went to at Wembley once DH asked a company in a nearby industrial estate that speaks to in his job if they would let him park in their car park. There is no point going by train if it is expensive and you are going to have to leave early.

We have also driven 4 hours to Newcastle, gone to a concert and then driven 4 hours back home. It was a long day but all it cost us was the price of a full tank of fuel and a bag of chips.

Maybe the op should 'out' herself so relatives just give her cash from now on. ...

It won’t be the right cash, though.

Why is it so hard to understand that for the OP the logistics make attending the concert unworkable?

So what if you would pack up a picnic and set off on a 3 hour drive in the middle of the night or spend money on b and bs and rail tickets, she doesn't want to do that and why should she?

Maybe the DB didn't consider the hassle and would be cross with himself if he know how much cost and effort it would be.

OP - I'd explain why it won't be possible although it was a nice thought and suggest to returns the tickets.

How melodramatic and joyless you sound

@ghostyslovesheets journeys are often quicker by train in my experience.

Assuming they're on time and there are no delays.

Seem to have lost my post

But what mintbiscuit quoted

Sorry, I think I missed a bit of your post, do you live VERY RURALLY and don't want to go to a concert?

Don't Fucking go then.

Exactly sandy

It is alot to spend and alot of effort for what usually equates to 45 mins of the person you want to see the rest is travel and travel expenses, queuing, food and drink venues and cost, being harassed by people whilst in the queue trying to buy the tickets and warm up acts etc

Some people don't mind dint care and see it as part if the experience sone would have many issues anxieties or struggles surrounding these various parts.

It's not up to others people to decide for the op how far is reasonable to go just to "be polite"

I DO NOT WANT TO GO.

That is really all you needed to tell us. You don't want to go, so don't go. Give the tickets back to your DB and stop shouting random words at us.

If you used to live in the town that would be a few quid taxi journey to it, do you not still have friends/family in that town you could ask if you can stay at theirs because you have these tickets, or at very least as if you can park at theirs

In fairness, given the OPs replies so far, that option doesn't really seem likely to me

If you lie they might buy you tickets again.
But selling them is rude.

I’d say “thanks so much for the tickets dB but we cant face the travel - would you like them?”
If he says no then sell them.

I love the way that many PPs have responded NOT to the question that was asked and are then pissed off because OP hasn't responded well their (useless) suggestions! It's YOUR fault she's coming across as a miserable arse because you've forced her to have to defend a decision that she is entirely at liberty to make and has already made.

Try reading the OP more carefully - she was asking for help with the best way to go about rejecting the gift without upsetting her DB. Crikey.

Wow. Prickly, too.

Any present that involves you spending money to use it, is a present that should have been discussed before buying!

Rose, the OP has said among other things 'I feel like such a cow' and 'it was a nice thought'. Stop fucking goading.

How dare you. I am doing no such thing.