Why are music festivals so expensive?

[mildlyacidic]

This is starting to sound like temporary theme-parks for young adults. Who am I kidding myself, they are.

[drizdoh]

Went to Boomtown this year, the attention to detail was insane. Genuinely like a small city

[nafetS]

seems like I'm one of the 8%, because I choose a festival based on artists and music gerne.

[MightySavagE]

dunno about those people in the video, but I always put music first. With so many festivals to choose from I just select the ones with best lineup.

[airsofter]

You would have to pay me about 8 mill to go to coachella as well

[absi]

I am expert of watching YouTube videos

[buriburizaemon]

Festival Expert. I guess we have an expert for everything 😆

[dontgoaway]

I’ve never understood why people go to music festivals for reasons other than the music. You can get hammered with your friends anywhere at anytime for a fraction of the cost.

[ricardo_gioia]

Good video... but could provide more details on the economics of festivals...

[albaabkh]

Knowing people who actually work, run, and oversee festivals- it's not that the "8 million" goes straight into the pockets of the artists- it's the cost to produce the show...the effects, the crew, dancers, living and work expenses..etc etc. the artist takes a fraction of it- I personally see that the costs are rising bc people want to see a SHOW. they want the big effects and the expectations continue to rise- and that's a huge price driver. Also- nowadays- safety is A HUGE priority so a lot of costs are going into security systems, security crew and accommodations... so it's not just one single source- but the hype of festivals to be curated to a market- making it bigger and better every year- drives the price up

[ankurshah]

Only in the USA! Ultra Europe was like $140.00 for 3 days of music. Ultra Miami was priced over $300.00 for 2 days.

[spdygonzales]

“Experience” just means doing it for the gram

[gg]

Reporter went to boomtown and took a lot of drugs.

[AlphaFoxDelta]

Festival culture is pretty amazing, everyone is there to have an awesome time and they watch out for one another too.

[mnamethonk]

If you pay too much it means you're going to the wrong festivals.

[Stevokear]

A festival like Boomtown allows such a spectacular spectrum of experiences. One person may spend 100% of their time invested in the "story"/"experience" whereas the next person might spend 100% of their time sniffing ketamine and bopping to DnB. Or you could choose to see an incredible selection of live rock/folk/punk/hip-hop etc. Or a big messy mix of it all. Its beautiful.

[steveevans]

Soooo expensive! I go on holiday instead so much better! Not paying £14 for a slice of pizza after paying several hundred quid to get in!

[Thenfe]

Places like boomtown really set the standards for experience festivals. It makes you feel like you moved into a real town with thousands of people having the time of their life with so much happening all the time and the music is just the icing on the cake

[simpleasliam]

I go to festivals for the experience. My girlfriend drags me to Download and local festivals in Wolverhampton and Coventry which are usually cheap or a tribute act festival I'm not into rock or metal music so the experience of drinking in a field and enjoying the atmosphere and especially the food is what draws me in :)

[littlebasskid]

I've been working in the music industry for about 7 years and I work on about 20 music festivals a year. Y'all complain how festivals are expensive but don't really understand how much really goes into running a festival. This video only scratches the surface of the cost. There's so much more that goes on behind the scenes that we as professionals have to do to ensure that you get the best quality experience whether you're there for the music, atmosphere, or to be with your friends. As festivals grow bigger the cost of running them increases, a festival that once held 25, 000 people can't operate the same way once it holds 100, 000 people in it. Also what the video fails to mention is how many people work at a festival and how much festivals have to spend to pay their staff especially those who make it their livelihood like myself. So when you look at the grand scheme of things a $250 ticket which is the average price for a 3 day standard festival ticket ( not including VIP or any upgraded packages ) that grants access to see a whole bunch artists both big and small plus the environment that we spend a huge amount of time and money to create to enhance your experience is really not that expensive for you to attend. I mean if you really wanted festivals to be cheap then we can not give a shit and every festival would end up like Fyre and then y'all would bitch about that so festivals are really not that expensive to go to as this video claims. Also it's also not fair for this video to compare Woodstock to Coachella because both festivals are in a different place in time, money was valued differently in the 60s and 70s, and the music industry was a whole lot different. So The Economist needs to do better research as to why festivals are more expensive instead of giving general facts that everyone knows