Concert and festival ticket prices in Europe on the rise

With inflation already a growing concern across Europe, there has been growing media attention on concert and festival ticket prices becoming too expensive. Though ticket prices have indeed increased in the past four years, that rate only exceeds inflation in some cases.

While prices are currently quite high for event tickets, they are mostly in line with inflation – at least in Europe. That is according to a new study from consulting firm PMP Strategy, in collaboration with the French actors guild Prodiss.

The main exception is for the category of higher priced tickets (think front row seats), which have exceeded the rate of inflation significantly. The study shows that ticket prices in France have overall been lower than in other European countries, despite some French media attention to high prices.

From 2019 to 2023, prices for less expensive tickets for events in France have generally increased at a rate slightly lower than inflation. While ticket prices have increased by 13.4%, the inflation rate has meanwhile been 13.6%.

Only the highest-priced tickets for concerts in large-scale venues such as arenas and stadiums were significantly above the inflation level. The most expensive tickets have increased by 22.7% in the past four years. The report explains that the reason for this is because these expensive tickets are most often for international artists, whose events cost more than domestic artists on the back of more complicated and expansive programming.

In the world of concerts, ticket prices are relatively low in France. Prices for entry to top musical events have often been higher in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States, for example.

As for festivals, only those in the mid-range categories (intermediate and major festivals) have seen increases in ticket prices that far exceeded inflation. Both small and ‘very large’ festivals, on the other hand, showed an increase in price mostly on par with inflation.

Prices are still relatively high across Europe, however. Some of the causes of that increase in price include a rise in fees that began several years ago and lasting tension on the performing arts professions due to vacancies stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic when events were cancelled around the world.

Meanwhile, artists and their entourage around them are said to be bumping up their fees as they are still playing “catch up” on the years foregone due to the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But it is not just in Europe where the public has become increasingly annoyed at event ticket prices: An increase in sneaky fees tacked on to ticket prices has recently caused controversy in the US, where the issue has become serious enough for the Biden administration to step in and pressure executives from major ticket-selling companies to remove the so-called ‘junk fees’.

Several lawsuits against ticket sellers like Ticketmaster were filed by fans in recent years with accusations of fraud, price fixing, and anticompetitive behavior. In fact, prices for concert tickets are so high in the US that some Americans recently opted to fly to Europe to see Beyoncé in concert.