AIBU TO BE FLOORED BY CONCERT TICKET PRICES??

[Nofilter]

I'm looking for a concert to take my DD (6) and her cousin a similar age to.. something like Justin Beiber or Taylor Swift.. or anyone who has a large enough following for an arena show and age appropriate.

At this age a good show with high end production, lights etc will be so much fun for them.

We both love Billy Eilish - that was £400 a ticket last year. I took my DD to Little Mix last year at a reasonable £66 per ticket...

Beiber is £140 per ticket for the cheapest seats... how do people go to these concerts any more?

I thought £66 was a little steep for LM!

I'm really not paying £420 to go to Beiber with two under 7s!

Guess it's either a west end type (Lion King etc) production or Disney arena show? Any other ideas OPs?

Have a look at something like hits radio Live, they usually do a few dates over the year across the UK, You get 5/6 acts and it's very reasonably priced. They don't usually announce the line up until a few weeks before but its a good night and in the past we've seen the likes of Rita Ora, Liam Payne, Jess Glynn, Years & Years and Take That!

I paid about £80 to see Bob Dylan this year and £80 for Ozzy next year, both seated, I'm old so don't do standing now, didn't think the prices were too bad.

@Dibbydoos

i had a 'Dad' moment there 'HOW MUCH?? you need your bumps felt!!'

I don't think I'd pay that for any one let alone a Korean Boy Band it might be a little improved if understood what they were saying, but probably not.

PANTO! they'll love it! Or the children nutcracker ballet off Kingsway. or a Christmas circus. they're little - they'll love that just as much. and at least those tickets are affordable.

I wanted to see Metallica and Slipknot at Download next year but £1200 for all of us plus camping (hate it), it's too much. Did Monsters of Rock when a teen and that was only 2 nights camping - more than enough to never repeat it!!!

As I said before, I'm a massive music snob. I studied music and play instruments. I love live music. But my music choices are for me. If I was forced to listen to someone else's music which I really didn't like I'd immediately start going internally mad, but equally I would never tell anyone their music choices are shit. If they enjoy it then why does it matter? Music is to be enjoyed. If it is bringing happiness then job done. Even if it is shite... Jokes!

No but

YABU FOR PUTTING THE TITLE OF YOUR THREAD IN CAPITAL LETTERS

Download is way too expensive next year. I think I'll give it a miss.

Have you heard of Arctangent? It's much cheaper and it's a very friendly festival.

Indeed - Muse are absolutely amazing live. For me hands down the best stadium band around today (and I’m old and seen loads of live acts 😂). For my 22-year-old gig-mad DD this will be her 5th time seeing them - she saw them with 80,000 other people in Rome a couple of years back and said it was the best gig ever.

We did Little Mix last year as wanted to take them before they split up. They aren't really into anyone now so no idea who to say. They were upset I didn't take them to Gary Barlow the other day though!
Frozen the Musical is fab. But we paid £70 each for the cheap seats with restricted view!

@LadyOfTheFliessssss - I'm not keen on festivals, I like my creature comforts too much!!

One of those 'so much better that Taylor Swift' bands has 123k listeners a month in the entire world. By all means champion lesser known musicians but there's absolutely no need to be an arse about it.

That's understandable. It's certainly not for everyone! Especially in the UK with the high potential for rain and mud.

Live music is expensive now when compared to 15 or so years ago

its driven by the fundamental change in how the music industry works. It used to be that money was made from selling recorded music (records, cds) and the gigs were extras. An advert.

now, thanks to the tiny tiny amounts spotify etc pay artists, recorded music doesn’t make money. So it has to come from the live acts.

Well Taylor Swift will fill a stadium, rather than an arena, so tickets will be v expensive.

That actually makes no sense whilst the stadium will be more expensive to hire, it fits more in, so works its self out.

Blur are als playing a bunch of European festivals this summer. Nearest one to me is £150. I'd much rather pay that for 3 days of music than £120 just to see Blur, even if that means the Blur set is one hour instead of two hours long.

The economics of it are really interesting, especially the fact that people are prepared to pay so much for gig tickets. I wonder whether it was ever thus (and bands could have been charging more years ago), or whether everyone has a notional music ‘budget’ that they will either spend on physical music or gig tickets, or whether being involved in a shared experience with other people is now considered to be worth more than it was 15 or 20 years ago? It is fascinating.

A relative paid barmy money to watch avatars of ABBA earlier this year. I don’t get it but he said that it was the immersive experience that made it worth the cost. You’d wonder whether anyone else will try the avatar thing. All the money and none of the transport costs!

You're all making me want to see Muse now!!

My moneysaving find of the year was that you can use Tesco Clubcard to buy some theatre tickets. Worth a look.

I also love local theatre and kids theatre. Taking my 10 and 8 year old to see Horrible Histories live Christmas at the Barbican for £150 ish for all 4 of us. Also the Nutcraker in Cambridge for less than £100.

When they want to go and see Harry Stles they can save up for it themselves.

Unless it's Take That in which case I'm buying us all hospitality tickets as I'm too old to queue for a drink and a wee.

That is very reasonable, I remember paying about £60 for their Drones tour how many years ago. I agree Muse's shows are spectacular and the experience is well worth what they charge.

Not only Muse themselves are worth paying for but they have some brilliant support acts on too. I saw Biffy Clyro for the first time supporting Muse way back when Biffy were only just starting to get noticed in England. They were worth the ticket price on their own that night!

Aren't there a few Little Mix tribute acts that do tours round more local theatre type places? Much less for tickets and kids get just as much out of it.

For younger children there's child oriented shows that are a lot cheaper but we took ours more to festivals, little ones that were free or very minimal cost eg in a cow shed for £5. Covers bands can be very good.

Can also recommend camp bestival for the future, obviously more expensive than a single gig but you get 4 nights camping and gigs

On the subject of good but reasonably priced bands, our local pub has bands every Friday and Saturday, no entry charge and kids are allowed as long as they don't run about. Lots are covers but there's some really good original music too

I remember paying around £25 to see The Stones, Madonna & Bowie in the late eighties and early nineties. I know everything’s relative, but I think those prices were affordable for most back then.
I don’t think I can justify the cost of a concert or theatre ticket these days, sadly.

Yes. Please watch local live music if you can. There are some amazing local bands and musicians out there, it’s often free.

I have a slight vested interest as I’m in a local covers band.

£400, are they having a giraffe? We went to see The Cure last night and it was £75 a ticket, but there were some cheaper ones, if you could get hold of them. All the venues were sold out within a matter of hours, so it’s not a popularity thing, it’s a rinse the piss out of the mugs who’ll pay it thing.