12 Comments
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Clare Frances's avatar

i saw one direction thrice and was front row twice and i've never seen harry, even though i would really like to. i am just not competitive in nature and there being so much pressure around buying something that's supposed to be fun is agonizing to me.

Madison Huizinga's avatar

Completely. The gold rush nature of it just makes me wanna avoid participating altogether. I will say I got some good MSG resell seats in 2023 a few weeks before the show date, but it was very lucky

Clare Frances's avatar

my friend is convinced we’ll “figure it out” closer to…. and i’m like… you know what maybe we will

vicki's avatar

i love how you write about these things with such nuance and an honesty about your own uncertainty about it all (eg: understanding that larger forces are at play here whether they be financial/systemic or communal/temporal). like yes! it's all happening at the same time! it's not just one thing.

Madison Huizinga's avatar

Thank u!! Nothing exists in a vacuum

Noah's avatar

So many issues on display here:

Monopoly control of major ticket sales.

Devaluation of local community and performing arts relative to global ones

Parasocial fandom augmented by the digital era.

No easy solutions! Well antitrust should be easy theoretically...

Caroline Beuley's avatar

I've always been a fan of Taylor Swift, but during the eras tour I felt like I was the only person who didn't go to a show. I just could not justify the ticket prices and I didn't understand how suddenly everyone I knew had a thousand dollars to spare! It's all gotten too insane for me haha! I hope it swings back at some point, but with fandom where it's at, I don't think that's likely.

tejasvni's avatar

this felt like someone cut my stan heart right open and laid bare all the bittersweet feelings around it. thoroughly enjoyed it like i do w every single piece of yours <3

Madison Huizinga's avatar

Ah thank you so much <3!

Isha Jain's avatar

We went through the same thing for an IPL match and 6-8 of us wanted to go as a group. Not a single one of us could buy the ticket with the system. Till ultimately we got them from a reseller. The wait, the frustration and the heartbreak when you have to pay so much for the experience surely puts a damper on it.

Madison Huizinga's avatar

Ugh it’s the worst! The uncertainty is a part that’s not talked about enough either: like it’s wild that we go into the process of buying tickets without fully knowing how much they will cost

Isha Jain's avatar

It's almost expected that you are going to pay double, triple or even four times your budget.