Not so many years ago, in the ticket queue for a Bruce Springsteen concert at the Camp Nou, the first, poorest or richest but surely staunch fans of the Boss, entered the stadium and gave them a wristband to enter and exit a reserved area -which in fact existed for security issues, crowds…- located in front of the stage. Free, wow, with the price of a track ticket. A way of rewarding someone who was considered a super-faithful follower of the artist, as if investing one or two, or even three, four days of their time waiting, drinking cans of beer and eating fuet by mouthfuls, was the most authentic synonym of fidelity. But that is past.
Years ago, some clever person thought that giving away the privilege of having a drop of sweat from your idol fall on your head was unforgivable. Now that’s the area closest to the stage of a macro concert receives the name (the most common) of Golden Circle. But there are many more, as each show uses its vocabulary and needs to manufacture more and more cool terms due to the increasing segmentation and proliferation of VIP areas. EITHER ‘premium’ tickets that include everything from merchandising to open bar Food and drink before and after the performance. This is the case in some (or all) of the great concerts that will pass through Barcelona in the coming months: Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Coldplay, Madonna…
In the case of the Boss, the most premium ticket (Estadi Olímpic, April 38 and 30), with services such as those mentioned and, for example, a welcome drink, receives a name that seems to be taken from the series ‘The White Lotus’: Hospitality Package (400 euros). “If you have to buy a VIP ticket, you are not a VIP. Florentino Pérez doesn’t buy VIP tickets to go I don’t know where”, points out Salvador Trepat, head of the Point Blank website, dedicated to Springsteen, and now also a disappointed fan of the Boss after the controversies over dynamic prices in the US and the incorporation of these elitist tickets. “Before he didn’t do it, he said that everything had to be worth the same… And he suddenly changed his mind. 400 euros for a concert of his I had never seen him until this tour. But seeing what he has done in America with ‘auctions’, it doesn’t surprise me. There is a lot of disappointment with Bruce, and more when he is supposed to be a standard-bearer of the working class and that he cares about the fans…”, says Trepat.
The head of Point Blank, who remembers that not so long ago the Boss’s track tickets had the same price, points out with disgust the “craving for money” of his great musical idol since always, and wonders: “When you’re an ultra-superbillionaire, why do you do it?”. Trepat affirms that he has changed the opinion that he had of “the person” and that he has never considered buying this type of VIP tickets – “I’m not interested, I’m going to listen to the music and go home”-. “There comes a point of delirium, they no longer know what else to include in the packs. For 400 euros, how many bottles of whiskey do you have to put in? ”, He comments, stunned.
high demand
But these tickets exist, and they sell out. The interest for some of these events is so superior to the offer that, clinging to the law of supply and demand, the promoters continue with the escalation of prices and the increase of these tickets for bulging and interested pockets. Beyond the Boss and Coldplay (also with Premium tickets for their four concerts in the Catalan capital), Barcelona will host two of the greatest divas in the coming months: Beyoncé (Olympic Stadium, June 8) and Madonna (Sant Jordi , November 1 and 2). The Ticketmaster ticket sales portal map is a puzzle, everything is compartmentalized, each box with its price. Madonna offers up to five VIP packages: dand 340 euros at 1020 with the cost of distribution included.
Chris Márquez, from the Divina Madonna fan club, has seen the artist 32 times, the first of them, he remembers, in the year 90 with a track ticket of 5,000 pesetas (30 euros). For Barcelona, he bought a ticket for 680 euros through the pre-sale for fans of the diva (from this tour he has two more tickets to continue the tour of Europe). he gives access to a previous party, you will receive a gift, food, drink… And you will be in a privileged place of the pavilion, the most important part of the purchase, they say.
“When the album is announced I start saving for the tour”
“It’s worth it. I’m not a mythomaniac, I don’t buy brand name clothes or cologne… That consumerism has never gone with me. It only happens to me with Madonna since I became a fan at the age of 14 and I had a very strong fever. I have never spent that money on anything else”, says Márquez, who reiterates that the devil for fans is resale and portals like Viagogo. “I like simplicity, I want quality but I don’t need luxury, and the only thing I do it with is Madonna”, he insists. He points out that he prefers to pay more in a smaller pavilion than to perform in a large stadium with cheaper tickets, since “it’s once every three or four years.” “I have no complaints with Madonna, I’m happy that she charges me, I imagine the cache that she can have… When you go to the opera or football you don’t criticize that“, he complains.
Dani Monllor is a young follower of Beyoncé and manages the Twitter account @BeyonceSpainn, “by fans and for fans” of the author of ‘Renaissance’. His ticket for the Barcelona gig cost 420 euros, and that you will need to add the offset, like Márquez, both from Valencia. He also got it through fan pre-sale. “I’ll take something cheap to sleep the day before and I’ll go the early morning before to stand in line. When the album is announced I start saving for the tour because between trains, sleeping, food…”, he comments. “It’s the thing I spend the most money on, I pay it very gladly. Since the concert ends I think that a next one will come and that I will need money. A concert is the pinnacle of enjoyment for an artist, ”she defends.
Monllor will be in a privileged circle (among some catwalks) in front of the stage, where he will have a bar (for a fee) only for those in that area, plus a bracelet, a gift… “I think they are worth it, you enjoy a totally different experience. But the truth is that there are VIP tickets made exclusively for people with money, ”she denounces.