With global music sensations performing all around the world, their fans are eager to experience the immense excitement and adrenaline rush of watching their favorite artists live. Ever imagined what it feels like to sing, dance, groove, and let yourself loose as you experience this musical extravaganza?
Well, the concert culture has been skyrocketing! This surge in popularity begs the question: How far has your own fan following taken you? Are you willing to shell out a hefty sum to see your favorite artist perform? Buckle up, because we’re about to delve into the story of the world’s most expensive concert ticket ever sold! It’s not Taylor’s Eras Tour. Read on to find out more.
BeatCurry Team
The demand for concert tickets has reached fever pitch. Fans face an uphill battle, spending hours glued to the Ticketmaster queue, hoping to secure a seat, assuming they were lucky enough to score a coveted presale code. With ticket prices of ‘world’, ‘continent’ and ‘country’ tours of legendary artists becoming nearly unaffordable (or else you land yourself in the nosebleed section), it’s necessary to understand how much roughly a concert of such scale could cost you.
This report by BusinessInsider shows the starting prices of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets happening in Europe and North America this 2024. It’s interesting to observe the starting (base) price of Swift’s EU Tour’s London concert starting at a whopping £958, while even the cheapest concert ticket in Spain starts at $190 and $260 on 2 different dates. Let’s come to North America. The starting ticket price of Taylor’s concert in Indianapolis is a whopping $2520, while the least costliest tickets during the NA tour in Vancouver starts at $1447!
Here’s a further look into it on a global scale. Considering descent viewing experience, fan’s choice of country to attend the concert, seating, time of the year, artist and other factors, the cost of tickets of the following artists’s concert could cost anywhere between, $1800-$11,000 for watching Taylor Swift, €108-€378 for watching Olivia Rodrigo, $179-$1210 for watching Lady Gaga, $75-$1250 for watching Coldplay, $194-$2899 for watching Ed Sheeran and roughly €80-€200 for watching Dua Lipa’s concert.
Taking it one step further, this is the price range of concert tickets of the following iconic music concert:
Prices for the Fearless Tour (2009–2010) ranged from $20 to $650.
Prices for The Red Tour (2013–2014) ranged from $39.50, $79.50 to $109.50
Prices for the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018) ranged from $60 to $1500
Prices for the Eras Tour (2023-2024) ranged from $300/$400 to $7000
Prices for the Mylo Xyloto Tour (2011–2012) ranged from $61 to $167
Prices for the A Head Full of Dreams Tour (2016–2017) ranged from $78 to $298
Prices for the Music of the Spheres World Tour (2021) ranged from $90-$3200
You’d probably be thinking how much more costly could the ‘World’s Most Costliest Ticket Ever Sold’ be? Here’s the story.
$168,000 FOR LED ZEPPELIN’S CONCERT!
This day, the 10th of December 2007 was one of the landmark moments in the history of music concerts, as the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin came together to perform in London, 27 years after the group disbanded in the year 1980, post the death of their drummer, John Bonham. The band had reunited after nearly 27 years at London’s O2 Arena for a benefit concert in memory of Atlantic Records founder, Ahmet Ertegun. John’s son Jason Bonham backed up the band on drum duties that day. Interestingly, the late Ahmet Ertegun was the man who heard the demos of Led Zeppelin, and decided to sign them in 1968!
Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Although the tickets for this concert were priced at roughly around $250, $2000, and in some cases even more than $3500, this 25 year old man from (Glasgow) Scotland, Kenneth Donnell paid a whopping $168,000 for 2 tickets after winning at a charity auction to raise funds for the BBC’s annual Children in Need appeal.
In an interview with NPR, Kenneth Donnell said that he “Actually got to meet the whole band the day before at the rehearsals as well, and Robert Plant is just such a nice guy. He went out of his way to come over and see us, and he spoke to us for a while. It was brilliant.” Adding to that, he said “Of course it was worth it, yeah, definitely,”. The $168,000 got him 2 seats right at the front of the stage!
LED ZEPPELIN’S REUNION CONCERT SET A GUINNESS WORLD RECORD!
With Led Zeppelin reuniting to perform after 27 years, paying tribute to the late Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records, playing for a noble cause, the hype for this concert was unreal. Although the 2 hour-long concert by Led Zeppelin was attended by a staggering 20,000 people, the reunion show attracted more than 20 million ticket requests, setting a world record for the only concert with the highest demand for tickets in the history of music concerts till date!
Tickets for the concert were sold through a ballot system on his website. Money raised went to the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, which supports scholarships in the USA, Turkey, and the UK. The concert, held at the O2 Arena, was a huge success. The website crashed due to overwhelming demand – reportedly 80,000 ticket applications per minute! In late 2012, a film and CD/DVD set titled “Celebration Day” was released, showcasing the entire concert.
All information sourced from various sources purely for factual reporting purpose only.
Image courtesy: Dick Barnatt
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