Like with every big ticketed concert event, even just getting an opportunity to make it through the queue to secure tickets lately has become an increasingly Herculean task. Affording tickets, on the other hand, has made the process even harder for some ticket buyers.
Harry Styles fans learned the hard way when tickets to his Together, Together Tour went on sale last month. Not only were they next-to-impossible to buy, some fans couldn't believe it when they saw that many tickets were priced north of $1000 USD.
Styles decided not to embark on a world tour, instead choosing to play shows only in Amsterdam, London, São Paulo, Mexico City, Melbourne, Sydney and New York City, for a 30-night residency at Madison Square Garden. Having not toured in three years, and limiting shows to just seven cities saw huge demand and ticket prices surge, which has left some fans scrambling to find the money to afford them.
According to Rolling Stone, some fans have turned to donating plasma as a way of raising money to pay for their Harry Styles tickets.
Daniella Barone told the publication that she has donated blood and will continue to do so until she can afford to pay for her concert tickets and airfare to New York City from Florida, where she goes to college. “I can only eat once a day, but I’ve done it before!” she admits.
Another student at San Diego State University, Ava Engle, also said she has resorted to selling her blood. And despite a fear of getting the jab, the $90 it pays to donate will help her foot the bill, along with a tutoring gig and part-time job she balances with schoolwork.
“I’m terrified of needles, and I was so scared,” she confesses. “Being in the chair, I was having second thoughts. Like, ‘What am I doing?’ I just want to see one of my favourite artists. We shouldn’t have to be doing all of this just to afford tickets for one night.”
Engle questions why it has come to this, where she and other fans have to resort to such lengths just to see their hero perform. While Styles has since announced a one-off concert in Manchester where tickets will cost only £20 ($37 CAD), the rest of his shows will see ticket prices inflate to 25 times that, before resellers even get involved.
“I do everything right. I’m not a bot," Engle says. "So the fact that I’m still [100,000th] in line and then when I get in, I see the ticket prices, and there’s barely anything available, and it’s all over $1,000 or like, $700 and they’re not even amazing seats. It’s so frustrating. It’s like, ‘Harry, what are we doing?’”
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