2023 Ticket Price Confirmed

[Dukeicon]

Interesting article from Festival Insights, with a bit about the price on industry costs.

Quote

There’d be few that would argue that Glastonbury Festival isn't a market leader on many levels; audience size, speed of sales, variety, number of stages…there are numerous measures by which they can claim to be in front. This week they took a lead of a different kind in announcing a price increase that, on the face of it, seems huge but, in reality, reflects the increases in costs felt across the festivals sector. We weren’t the only ones thinking that this should set a precedent for all to follow, which is why the AFO’s Steve Heap gets the first word this week:
 
You have to be Brave !! and Business like
I have just returned from a very successful Showman’s Show (thanks to the Lance brothers). There I met with some of the best infrastructure suppliers in the business and they all reported very high costs for rebuilding their stock.
That, in turn and with much higher transport costs will clearly lead to a big jump in the hire costs to you, the festival organisers. You can’t blame them; they are only passing on the increases that they have encountered in the market.
 
I know from chatting to dozens of suppliers, they love the festival industry and will trim their prices as much as they can to meet your budgets. But you will need to be realistic.
 
There is no doubt, the costs for staging a festival in 2023 are going to be very high. By the end of the 2022 season, festival organisers were reporting 20-30% increases in hire costs for equipment, artists and staff. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking it will all level out and pricing will return to post pandemic levels. THEY won’t.
 
You just need to bite the bullet and be brave enough to write a budget that recognises the changing world and the economic climate.
 
If your weekend adult ticket was £150 in 2019 or even 2022, then with the same number sold your price could well breach the £200 barrier. Glastonbury have just announced that their equivalent ticket will be over £300. They go on sale in November with a deposit scheme in place and they will sell out within a few hours. That is because they are selling the Glasto experience, as the artists list will not be revealed for some months yet.
 
Is this a lesson for you?? Can you sell your tickets on the unique atmosphere and experience of your festival. I know of at least two AFO festivals that are doing just that and selling well.
 
So, the message is clear, do not put your tickets on sale at a price you think your customers want to pay, then try writing a budget.  Find out what your cost will be first and write the budget after. Price your ticket accordingly and plan for a small downturn. The infrastructure you need will not increase in price by the usual 5 % it will, at the very least match September inflation of 10% and in some cases go as far as 25%.
 
Be careful, be business like and if it does not stack up financially then you must consider whether you should be in the game at all. Don’t leave it ‘til next September to discover you can’t pay the bills.

 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

On 10/19/2022 at 5:56 PM, Hugh Jass II said:

Are you guys telling me I keistered a 24 pack of Wotsits for nothing?

 

On 10/19/2022 at 6:05 PM, p.pete said:

You've done your name a power of credit at least

 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

6 minutes ago, Dukeicon said:

Interesting article from Festival Insights, with a bit about the price on industry costs.

 

I do think that because they'd already sold the tickets in 2019 for 2022, they would have increased the cost anyway from 285 to 300, say. To me that shows they've at least not raised it too much from that for next year.

[gfa]

11 minutes ago, Dukeicon said:

Interesting article from Festival Insights, with a bit about the price on industry costs.

 

Interesting it says the infrastructure usually goes up 5% - thats well above inflation in normal years and must be something which is pushing up the price of glasto up faster than inflation in normal years (and gigs in general)

[leath02]

7 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

I do think that because they'd already sold the tickets in 2019 for 2022, they would have increased the cost anyway from 285 to 300, say. To me that shows they've at least not raised it too much from that for next year.

Been arguing this point to most people I know

If we take original 2020 ticket price of £265 (yes I know resale was £285) and apply a 5% rise on ticket costs each year to 2023, you'd get - £265 > £278 > £292 > £307

Which is only £28 off where we've ended up. It's just we've seen it in one fellow swoop, rather than incrementally

And that £28 difference can easily be accounted for in the mad inflation we've seen in everyday life

 

[p.pete]

7 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

I do think that because they'd already sold the tickets in 2019 for 2022, they would have increased the cost anyway from 285 to 300, say. To me that shows they've at least not raised it too much from that for next year.

Yes, definitely - they've missed a natural price progression and missed out on an actual year of sales (so they need to catch up) and everything has inflated more between years than they'd normally be dealing with.  Tough pulling it together even with the price hike.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

1 minute ago, leath02 said:

Been arguing this point to most people I know

If we take original 2020 ticket price of £265 (yes I know resale was £285) and apply a 5% rise on ticket costs each year to 2023, you'd get - £265 > £278 > £292 > £307

Which is only £28 off where we've ended up. It's just we've seen it in one fellow swoop, rather than incrementally

And that £28 difference can easily be accounted for in the mad inflation we've seen in everyday life

 

I didn't even realise they'd increased the resale to 285. Never seen that before, I always thought it was the same, but it shows they were potentially already feeling the pinch back then. 

But I agree, 28 extra from where the price could have been anyway isn't too bad. I know for some people it might be the straw that breaks the camel's back, but it's also not the astronomical rise some are touting either. 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

3 minutes ago, p.pete said:

Yes, definitely - they've missed a natural price progression and missed out on an actual year of sales (so they need to catch up) and everything has inflated more between years than they'd normally be dealing with.  Tough pulling it together even with the price hike.

It would be interesting if they go the other way to what a lot of eFesters are hoping with the capacity and even increase it again. No one has mentioned that, but they could potentially, not sure if they're allowed to do that too often with the licence though.

[Skip997]

3 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

It would be interesting if they go the other way to what a lot of eFesters are hoping with the capacity and even increase it again. No one has mentioned that, but they could potentially, not sure if they're allowed to do that too often with the licence though.

Shite! I never even considered that absolute horror show of a possibility.

Apart from making it even more crowded, is there enough camping space, would they need to increase off site glamping?

 

[p.pete]

Quick work taken from my G50 book, hopefully I've copied the numbers across correctly - The column on the right is increase per year, so if theres' a 2-year gap I've divided the % jump by 2.  Looks Like the % increase this year is the biggest since 2009, but not ridiculous - I guess the festival was changing a lot more year to year when the figures jumped up by a lot more...   Would be worth re-working this to pull in the capacity numbers...

1979	£5
1981	£8	30%
1982	£8	0%
1983	£12	50%
1984	£13	8%
1985	£15	15%
1986	£17	13%
1987	£21	24%
1989	£28	17%
1990	£38	36%
1992	£49	14%
1993	£58	18%
1994	£59	2%
1995	£65	10%
1997	£75	8%
1998	£80	7%
1999	£83	4%
2000	£87	5%
2002	£97	6%
2003	£105	8%
2004	£112	7%
2005	£125	12%
2007	£150	10%
2008	£155	3%
2009	£175	13%
2010	£185	6%
2011	£195	5%
2013	£205	3%
2014	£205	0%
2015	£220	7%
2016	£228	4%
2017	£238	4%
2019	£248	2%
2020	£265	7%
2023	£335	9%

[gfa]

1 hour ago, leath02 said:

Been arguing this point to most people I know

If we take original 2020 ticket price of £265 (yes I know resale was £285) and apply a 5% rise on ticket costs each year to 2023, you'd get - £265 > £278 > £292 > £307

Which is only £28 off where we've ended up. It's just we've seen it in one fellow swoop, rather than incrementally

And that £28 difference can easily be accounted for in the mad inflation we've seen in everyday life

 

Interesting that 2022 despite 2 missed festivals and covid was lower than what it 'should' have been potentially at £285

[DareToDibble]

1 hour ago, p.pete said:

Quick work taken from my G50 book, hopefully I've copied the numbers across correctly - The column on the right is increase per year, so if theres' a 2-year gap I've divided the % jump by 2.  Looks Like the % increase this year is the biggest since 2009, but not ridiculous - I guess the festival was changing a lot more year to year when the figures jumped up by a lot more...   Would be worth re-working this to pull in the capacity numbers...

1979	£5
1981	£8	30%
1982	£8	0%
1983	£12	50%
1984	£13	8%
1985	£15	15%
1986	£17	13%
1987	£21	24%
1989	£28	17%
1990	£38	36%
1992	£49	14%
1993	£58	18%
1994	£59	2%
1995	£65	10%
1997	£75	8%
1998	£80	7%
1999	£83	4%
2000	£87	5%
2002	£97	6%
2003	£105	8%
2004	£112	7%
2005	£125	12%
2007	£150	10%
2008	£155	3%
2009	£175	13%
2010	£185	6%
2011	£195	5%
2013	£205	3%
2014	£205	0%
2015	£220	7%
2016	£228	4%
2017	£238	4%
2019	£248	2%
2020	£265	7%
2023	£335	9%

This visualises it well to be fair. 9% jump (although it's actually less than that as we ended up paying £285 for this years festival) isn't that bad when you factor in a natural increase and cost of living flying up etc.

[incident]

It would be interesting to see those figures in terms of what the festival receives, ie after VAT. The lower VAT rates for the 2022 festival certainly makes the increase then look smaller than it really was.

[gfa]

1 hour ago, DareToDibble said:

This visualises it well to be fair. 9% jump (although it's actually less than that as we ended up paying £285 for this years festival) isn't that bad when you factor in a natural increase and cost of living flying up etc.

Arguably the worst is yet to come based off the financial crisis as far as price rises...

[dotdash79]

2 hours ago, incident said:

It would be interesting to see those figures in terms of what the festival receives, ie after VAT. The lower VAT rates for the 2022 festival certainly makes the increase then look smaller than it really was.

Not exact as I've not allowed for the vat free elements that the ticket price covers, but if you take the £285 and apply the 20% VAT rate tot he ticket then that would have taken the ticket price to £304. so it's only a £30 jump.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

5 hours ago, Skip997 said:

Shite! I never even considered that absolute horror show of a possibility.

Apart from making it even more crowded, is there enough camping space, would they need to increase off site glamping?

 

No idea about how they guage camping needs, there's so many different options now. For example, with the PodPads/preerected tents, will people buy those as an extra now because of the extra cost, meaning the regular campsites will be even more rammed?

Obv some are busier than others anyway. Last time I camped at Bushy Ground and there was plenty of space for more tents around us. 

I think if they looked to squeeze in anyone else or raise capacity, there would be backlash over that.

[gfa]

18 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

No idea about how they guage camping needs, there's so many different options now. For example, with the PodPads/preerected tents, will people buy those as an extra now because of the extra cost, meaning the regular campsites will be even more rammed?

Obv some are busier than others anyway. Last time I camped at Bushy Ground and there was plenty of space for more tents around us. 

I think if they looked to squeeze in anyone else or raise capacity, there would be backlash over that.

Its a balance re backlash. Raising ticket prices gets more backlash than additional 5k people or so i think / cutting major areas.

If the pre-erected stuff sells badly they will just change some of these areas to general camping i think, which is far more dense too.

[Dukeicon]

Found in this article, which also quotes what I wrote here.

Interesting that R&L ticket price has gone down slightly of all these festivals.
The Download Festival increase has also been large.

 

Glastonbury festival
Previous cost: £265/285
Now costs: £335

Reading and Leeds
Previous cost: £265.45
Now costs: £259.20

Green Man
Previously cost: £210
Now costs: £235

Download festival
Previously cost: £250
Now costs: £310

End of the Road
Previously cost: £190
Now costs: £235

[gfa]

9 hours ago, Dukeicon said:

Found in this article, which also quotes what I wrote here.

Interesting that R&L ticket price has gone down slightly of all these festivals.
The Download Festival increase has also been large.

 

Glastonbury festival
Previous cost: £265/285
Now costs: £335

Reading and Leeds
Previous cost: £265.45
Now costs: £259.20

Green Man
Previously cost: £210
Now costs: £235

Download festival
Previously cost: £250
Now costs: £310

End of the Road
Previously cost: £190
Now costs: £235

Downloads gone up a lot fuck me, guess when the attendance varies so much and it doesn't sell out you can't risk it as much.

Reading and Leeds has changed their pricing structure recently which might be something to do with it

[JSmurphy]

2 minutes ago, gfa said:

Downloads gone up a lot fuck me, guess when the attendance varies so much and it doesn't sell out you can't risk it as much.

Four days of music next year rather than the usual three too. 

[Hugh Jass II]

9 minutes ago, gfa said:

Downloads gone up a lot fuck me, guess when the attendance varies so much and it doesn't sell out you can't risk it as much.

Reading and Leeds has changed their pricing structure recently which might be something to do with it

R/L have also moved to the “two main stage” bollocks, which probably saves a fair bit of cash in infrastructure and having to book fewer acts.

Might be how they’ve managed to keep the price down.

[Jericode]

Yeah Download doing an extra day is definitely a factor you'd think. Although it wouldn't surprise me.if the price doesn't come back down that much.

[gfa]

50 minutes ago, JSmurphy said:

Four days of music next year rather than the usual three too. 

Ah right didn't know that 🙂 seems quite good now actually

43 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

R/L have also moved to the “two main stage” bollocks, which probably saves a fair bit of cash in infrastructure and having to book fewer acts.

Might be how they’ve managed to keep the price down.

They'd already moved to that for the past 2 years, unless they decided to eat into their profit margin i don't see how they could have gone down £5 vs 10-20% rises seen elsewhere

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

Yeah, how have R/L wangled that one? In the face of high-inflation, they've actually kept costs down?!

[mike46]

I would guess R&L is able to offset the costs with the various sponsorship deals they have