'People will do whatever it takes to get a ticket': the rising cost - and stress - of securing gig tickets

“You can't even get an ice cream for that now at the Playhouse,” he says.

Last summer, tickets to see the band, now in their 70s, at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium cost up to £145 for the best seats, with even the cheapest tickets coming in at £55.

Mr Crow estimates that in 1982, aged 17, he would have been earning around £35 a week as a trainee civil servant. A weekly minimum wage is now £471 - meaning today’s typical ticket prices of upwards of £100 for a stadium gig would be almost double in comparison to salaries what he paid for his AC/DC gig in the band’s heyday.

“I don't recall counting pennies or having to save for any tickets for gigs, and we went to many,” he says. “They were also easy to get, you just went to the box office and bought them.

“When I saw Bruce Springsteen at the Playhouse, a guy offered me £100 for the two tickets - as a kid from Wester Hailes I'd never seen a sum of money that large.”

According to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator, a ticket costing £4.50 in 1982 should be valued at just £14.44 today - 261.1 per cent higher at an average annual inflation rate of 2.97 per cent.

Mr Crow adds: “It is incredible to see prices soar - gigs have become 'experiences' which people will go deep into debt for just to get a seat. The fear of missing out has become preposterous.”

Last week, Harry Styles fans took to social media to express their anger at the cost - and difficulty - in securing tickets for his new tour, Together Together. While no tour dates for Scotland have been announced, Scottish fans scrabbled to get their hands on a spot in London and even Amsterdam.

During presales - for those who either had an American Express card or an access code - Ticketmaster stated that tickets were priced between £44.10 and £466.25, including fees, with a per order handling fee of £2.95.

However, on secondary ticketing site Stubhub, tickets for the 13 June date at London’s Wembley Arena were selling for up to £2,297 at the time of writing.

“We belong together, but only if my fans are rich enough,” said on Instagram user, referencing the name of Style’s tour.

“Have you by any chance looked at your own ticket prices for a second?” asked another fan. “They’re completely unreasonable in today’s social and political climate. Live music should not be a rich people privilege only.”

Music fan Rose Ross, 26, from Aberdeen, has found the culture of ticket buying has changed dramatically in recent years.

She tried multiple times - through both pre-sales and general sales - to buy a ticket for Chappelle Roan during the Edinburgh Summer Sessions last year, before finally managing to obtain one on her fifth try.

“A few years ago, it felt like you went to Ticketmaster and logged on and you could either buy a ticket or not,” she says. “Now, you often need a pre-sale code to give yourself an extra chance, you’re in a waiting room before the sale opens and even then, you have to find seats and buy them before they are taken from your basket - which can happen.

“That happened to me when I was trying to buy tickets for Lewis Capaldi and Hayley Williams too: I had tickets in my metaphorical hand, but then a message came up saying they were no longer available.”

She adds: “It all adds up to make it a bit more stressful and puts pressure on people, which makes them spend more than they had budgeted. They know it is such a big draw for people that they will do whatever it takes to get a ticket.”

Oasis also sparked anger among fans last year when tickets appeared to surge in price to around £350 each, £200 more than they had been advertised for. Although an investigation by the Competitions and Markets Authority found no evidence of dynamic pricing, the ticket seller was instructed to make changes to the information fans are given while going to the process of buying a ticket.

“I remember seeing the prices and just finding it exploitative,” says Ms Ross.

Organisers of major events say the cost of putting on performances has soared - particularly since the pandemic - forcing them to pass on the costs to the consumer.

Lisa Webb, consumer law expert at watchdog Which?, says customers feel under increasing pressure to snap up tickets at a higher price than they have budgeted for.

She says: “Ticket prices for live events have risen sharply in recent years, as Harry Styles fans are all too aware. Fans increasingly have to save for months in advance and the situation can be made worse when sellers aren't completely upfront about the possible price of a ticket.

“As tickets become more expensive, it’s more important than ever that sudden price fluctuations are avoided if they risk consumers feeling under pressure to pay more than they can afford.

She adds: “Our research shows that consumers buying tickets value transparency, so ticket listings should always be clear at the point of purchase to ensure that fans can make informed decisions without the headache of unpredictable price changes.”

Graham Mackie from Edinburgh, who also attended gigs regularly in his youth in the 1970s and 1980s, says he is put off trying to buy tickets due to both the cost and the online process.

“I wouldn’t queue for hours with thousands of other people,” he said. “I find the process in a number of ways, quite prohibitive.”

He recalls one time when he almost missed seeing The Velvet Underground at the Edinburgh Playhouse, but turned up to the concert in hope of securing a ticket outside.

“Luckily someone had a spare,” he recalls. “I paid him £20. The price on the ticket was £18, but I just handed him a £20 note and that was that.”

It is not just gigs which have seen tickets soar in price.

At the end of last year, London’s Royal Ballet and Opera (RBO) said it would move to a dynamic pricing model, which would see ticket prices subject to change based on audience demand. The change pushed the highest priced tickets for its upcoming production of Wagner's Siegfried up to £425 from £370.

The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) also moved to a dynamic pricing model in 2023, claiming that by charging more for high end tickets, it could afford to offer the cheapest tickets to those who would otherwise be unable to afford it.

Initiatives on offer included £10 tickets available at every EIF performance, as well as 50,000 tickets priced at £30 or less - as well as a range of targeted initiatives designed to remove financial barriers for customers.

A spokesman for the EIF says: “These form a generous concessions plan that is matched by few in the sector. To fund these concessions, and to maintain the scale and quality of the Festival, we use additional income through flexible pricing.

“For many years, it has been standard practice across the cultural sector to adjust ticket prices manually based on predicted demand. Now technology helps us manage that process more effectively, with careful oversight from our team and adherence to strict guidelines.”