I’m a thirty-five-year-old mother of three who has recently rediscovered her life. What I mean by that is…I’ve decided to do things that I personally enjoy. Not just things that my children or husband or others enjoy and expect me to do.
One thing that I feel I didn’t do enough of in my twenties was attend concerts. I loved the band Linkin Park, but never went to one of their concerts in the early 2000s. At the time I was in college while working medial jobs to pay for food and car expenses. I didn’t have any extra cash to go to concerts. My boyfriend at the time, who is now my husband, wasn’t interested in going to concerts. He was a studious fella.
Now, I am thankful to have the opportunity to raise my three children as a stay-at-home mom in Los Angeles. But, after being so conservative most of my life I am ready to get out of the house and party!! When the lead singer of one of my favorite bands, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, passed away recently I felt like I’d experienced a personal loss. It took me about a month to get over my minor depression. I swore that I was going to make more of an effort to see my favorite bands live…before something tragic happened to make that impossible.
I regularly search ticketmaster.com and stubhub.com for tickets to my favorite concerts and am often shocked by the prices. For example, the cheapest tickets to see a Bruno Mars concert at a venue that has a 17,505 person capacity costs $202 plus fees. And everyone knows that these fees can have a life of their own. There are also transportation and parking expenses to consider.
Upon a bit of research I have learned that the client, or artist, sets the base price. Then the service charge/order processing fee is negotiated between the client and ticketmaster.com. Then of course the facility has to make money, so that’s where 100% of the facility fee goes. According to their website, taxes are normally included in the face value of each ticket at ticketmaster.com.
As it requires quite a bit of commitment to arrange for a sitter, prepare everything that the kids will need at home and lose a couple of hours of precious sleep I want to be able to see the show that I am attending. It hardly seems worthwhile to sit towards the very back of a large venue in seats that cost over $100 each only to watch a projection of the concert.
I’m wondering who these people are that buy tickets in more desirable parts of the venue. My husband makes enough to qualify for outrageous income taxes, yet we feel hesitant to spend $250 a ticket to see a show from a seat that is closer to the back of a large venue than the front. Are the artists just arrogant or are most people making and spending lots of money? Is this the new norm?
I often find myself in the position of having to decide whether to skip the concert altogether because it is too expensive and feels like a rip-off or to throw tons of money at the situation and enjoy the night like it’s my last.
Here is a related article:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/7iesdx/pearl_jam_tickets_for_the_two_london_shows_went/
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