Abigail Dunagan, Campus Carrier arts and living editor
In the past year, the price of concert tickets has skyrocketed as a result of problems with various ticket websites. Live Nation is the parent company of Ticketmaster, and was involved in one of the largest controversies regarding ticket sales in November 2022 during the sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. Outside of the issue with the Taylor Swift ticket sales, tickets to all concerts have become increasingly difficult to purchase.
Sophomore Star Pompa has attended several concerts during her time at Berry. She saw Harry Styles in New York, Dominic Fike twice in Atlanta, and in a few weeks she will be going to a Declan Mckenna concert in Chattanooga. Pompa attempted to purchase Taylor Swift tickets during the initial sale, but the Ticketmaster website froze, and she was not able to get the tickets. While she did not attend the Taylor Swift concert, Pompa said that she witnessed other Berry students struggling to get tickets as well.
“The one thing I always come back to is the Taylor Swift tickets, because I saw people on campus with their laptops open,” Pompa said. “It was raining, and one of my friends had her laptop open with an umbrella, running to class so that she wouldn’t lose her spot. She still got the tickets, and she would do it again.”
Despite the challenges that often come with ticket sales, Pompa said that a lot of students are willing to deal with the process to see their favorite artist. Ticketmaster is one of the only websites where concert tickets can be purchased.
“I think that’s how most people feel,” Pompa said. “They are angry about Ticketmaster and the way that they run things, but they are still going to use Ticketmaster because it is one of the only places that you can buy tickets.”
Freshman Lily Goodson said that while she has not had a lot of experience buying tickets, she has noticed that concerts in general tend to be very overpriced. Goodson attended an Alan Jackson concert in her hometown in Newnan, GA. She also went to the Artic Monkeys concert in Alpharetta. Goodson said that outside of the ticket prices, concerts are very expensive to attend.
“Food is one of the main things that I have seen is super overpriced,” Goodson said. “Tickets are also just a lot more expensive than they need to be.”
Sophomore Emma Bellantoni has gone to several popular concerts in the last year, including BTS, TXT, Seventeen, and Harry Styles. Bellantoni said that she typically signs up for pre-sale tickets. This process of buying pre-sale tickets is randomized, and once a buyer is in line for the pre-sale the wait times can be very brief, or it can take several hours. Based on the pre-sale tickets, the buyer will get to go to the concert on a certain day. Bellantoni said that she has had success getting tickets on the pre-sale day, but she has had to wait in line for up to two hours at a time.
According to Bellantoni, some of the problems that she has encountered while purchasing tickets include dealing with ticket scalpers and the Ticketmaster website crashing. Ticket scalpers are people who buy tickets and sell them at inflated prices. Bellantoni said that Ticketmaster could work to improve these things so that concertgoers won’t have a difficult time buying tickets to see their favorite artist.
“I feel like if they know that there is going to be a lot of foot traffic on the website, they should definitely work on it not crashing,” Bellantoni said. “Ticketmaster allows scalpers to buy tickets, and then the scalpers raise the price thousands of dollars, when in reality it is just a re-sale.”
Bellantoni said that while a lot of Berry students attend concerts, the location of Berry makes going to concerts a challenge. A lot of concerts are in Atlanta, and if students do not have their own cars, it can be difficult to find transportation.
“Where we are located is a big thing, because we are pretty in the middle of nowhere when it comes to where concerts are held,” Bellantoni said. “For Berry students to get to a concert, they have to have means of travel, which not all students have.”
Despite the many challenges that come with buying tickets and attending concerts, many people find the difficulties worth the experience of getting to see their favorite artist live. There are many issues with Ticketmaster and other websites, but these problems will not deter dedicated fans.
“I don’t think anything will ever truly stop me from purchasing tickets,” Pompa said. Even though the process can get a bit wonky, I will still buy the tickets. It is something that I want to do, so I am going to have to go through the process regardless.”