To buy very expensive concert tickets for DD12?

[ReadyPayerOne]

My DD12 has been obsessed for the last six months with a US band which announced at the weekend that they'll be playing in London next summer. Tickets go on sale in the next few days and will most likely sell out immediately.

It's her birthday in the summer and she's a keen musician and singer herself, so I'm thinking of buying tickets for me and her and taking her best friend (who'll buy her own ticket). They're great live so it will be a good night for me too.

These tickets are going to cost me £200 plus though and my worry is that by next summer she's going to be "Who?"

Should I wait until she's older and knows her tastes a bit better before I fork out such a large some of money for an event so far in the future? Has anyone done similar and it all worked out?

I’ve been taking Dd to concerts since she was about 9 & yes usually bought tickets a long time in advance. Who is it she wants to see? If it gets to the time if the concert & she’s lost interest you can just sell the tickets - if it’s a sell out show you’ll be able to sell them on

Wow fantastic ideaOP..just do it.she'll treasure that memory,it'll be an amazing experience for a budding muso&massive fan-you sound like a lovely thoughtful mum😊 I took my DC around Asia..we were homeschooling&studying the region as theyd chosen it out of interest (in food/culture&the regions religions&natural history)They didnt think in a million years we'd ever go, so i booked cheap flights on jetstar&we did 4countries in6weeks(they were10&11)..we had the time of our lives😎..

I actually didn't think of being able to sell them again - I'm new to this!!

It's Billie Eillish - her Glastonbury performance was incredible so I don't mind going too.

CheeseChipsMayo wow that sounds amazing!!

Sign up to a website called live nation, if you are a member you can get pre same tickets for these shows, which means you can buy on Thursday. I buy a lot of concert tickets, I think these will be difficult to get

I'd go for it if she really likes them.

Dd has been going to big concerts with me since she was about 8. Yes, the tickets are expensive often but we enjoy them and it's lovely to do together. She's now 17y and we still go to concerts together.

Mind you, with some of the big bands I was quite glad to be able to just send her in with her friends - just going to one of them was enough with the noise level of thousands of teen girls screaming!!

Are you sure her best friend will a) buy her own ticket and b) still be her best friend next year? What if your dd doesn’t want to go next year but the best friend does?

I’d buy tickets for the two of you and not make it complicated by adding in third parties.

Agree about the friend, much easier if just the 2 of you & easier to sell 2 tickets than 3 if you need to

Billie Eilish is amazing. Take her ! i doubt she will not like Billie by next year.

I dread to think how much I have spent on tickets for events me and dd have been too but I don’t regret a penny - still talk about them all. I’ve just spent another small fortune on Hella Mega tickets for us both, she loves them, I like what I’ve heard of them so should be good!!!!

I think you should just buy her the tickets as its a really nice surprise I done it last Xmas for my two daughters to go and see little mix in two weeks time even though the tickets cost just over 400 for the three of us I have to say the memories last a life time

Buy her the tickets! Even if she doesn’t go you can sell them but I can’t see why she wouldn’t go! I’m taking my 7year old to little mix next month, it was very expensive but I’m sure it will be worth it!

I agree just buy for the two of you, no guarantee they will still be friends next year! But otherwise do it, concerts are amazing and I went to my first when I was maybe 10/11 with my dad and loved it!

Agree about just you and DD. I'd give them to her for Xmas tho, she will stay interested if she knows she is going to watch.

Thanks for all the advice - I'm getting really excited (and nervous) now!!

I've signed up to Live Nation so I can book a day ahead too.

Her friend was going to buy her own ticket but I think I may just ask my sister instead as posters are right - they may not be such good friends by then!

As DD is under 16 we have to buy seated tickets. Does anyone have experience of the 02and where the best mid-priced seats are?

Also, any tips for the actual booking process - it's going to sell out extremely quickly so I'm going to make sure all my account details are up to date and even have a practice session!

Yanbu if it's Billie Eilish.

If you can comfortably afford them, YANBU. If you can’t, YABU.

Yes beforehand have the official site(s) loaded up and logged in. Go in beforehand and ensure your personal details are typed inaccurately and, if you can, pre enter the credit card details and save them.

Check with presales and don't be disappointed if you can't get them that time. General sales have way more allocation and often better seats anyway.

Beforehand check how the sites work in terms of refresh or wait. Some you are best of clicking refresh every so often before the lens open, some it's automatic and it is actually better not to refresh.

Also same for when the lines open and you are waiting to 'queue' for them - is the site an automatic virtual queue or is it's click refresh type. Google will often be able to tell you which works best for each site.

On the day set up your computer with the site(s) you need on tabs next to one another. I only use the official ones. I get set up at least 15-20 minutes in advance. In my experience some sites go live quicker than others. I've been known to have already bought tickets up to 4-5 minutes before the official time.

I also have Twitter on a tab and searched for a hashtag for the concert. It can be useful if there are more than one official site or a big 'queue' as to see who/where are able to get tickets, and possible which site to focus on.

I forgot to add - even if pre entered gave your card details at hand just in case.

And if you are successful take a screen shot or print your confirmation page telling you that. The confirmation emails can sometimes take ages to arrive.

Good luck. Getting popular tickets can sometimes be nerve wracking and intense!

For the o2 yes you need seats as she’s too young for standing. The higher up tickets (areas starting with 4) are ok if you are in the front 5 rows, we went to see Ariana recently & the only tickets I could get were right at the back & they weren’t great.
You won’t get to pick the seats, you go in a queue & it says you can have seats xxx & xxx you then say yes or no. Don’t say no in the hope of better seats (unless they are really bad) it puts you back in the queue.
Live nation sale is usually through ticket master, o2 also sell via axs.
If you don’t get tickets through the pre sale you need to be online before the general sale starts (if it’s 9am, get on the website at 8.40)
I find axs better than ticket master for waiting room/queue, I’ve never not got tickets with them (ticket master tends to crash a lot)
If you’ve got 2 devices have ticket master open on 1 & axs on the other (axs works better on a phone than ticket master)

Get the tickets for her if you can afford it, she'll remember it forever as her first gig. I took DS to see a favourite band of ours last year and he absolutely loved it.
You can google to find out the view from different sections in the O2.

Looking at the dates she’s doing Sunday & Monday at the o2, it’s very likely they’ll add Saturday as an extra date - this usually gets released really early after sales start so have one in the sites open on a separate tab with the dates page - the extra date is usually the easiest day to get tickets for.

Definitely go for it OP. She will always remember it. I am bringing my seven year old to Jojo Siwa, it's her first big concert and she is so excited about it. Although I think you will have a significantly better time at your concert than I will 😂😂😂

So much good advice here (especially from Aragog) thank you!

I was completely blown away by her at Glastonbury (on TV) so I'm almost as excited as my DD now and I haven't been to a live gig this big for absolutely ages!

She knows I'm going to try to book tickets though - it's not going to be a surprise.

@Aragog how do you know if a site is auto-refresh or not? As far as I know it's only Ticketmaster that's selling tickets.