Not so many years ago, in the queue to enter a Bruce Springsteen concert at the Camp Nou, the first ones, poorer or richer but surely staunch fans of the Boss, entered the stadium and were given a wristband to enter and leave a reserved area – which in fact existed for security issues, crowds… – located in front of the stage. Free, hey, with the price of a track ticket. A way to reward what was considered a super loyal 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 whip in bites was the most authentic synonym of loyalty But that is past.
Years ago it was thought that giving away the privilege of having a drop of sweat from your idol fall on your head was unforgivable. Now this area closest to the stage of a macroconcert is called (the most common) Golden Circle. But there are many more, since every show uses its vocabulary and needs to manufacture more and more cool terms due to the growing segmentation and proliferation of VIP areas. Or ‘premium’ tickets, which include everything from merchandising to a free food and drink bar before and after the performance. It happens like this in some (or all) of the great concerts that coming through Barcelona in the coming months: Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Coldplay, Madonna…
In the case of the Boss, the most ‘premium’ ticket (Olympic Stadium, April 28 and 30), with services such as those mentioned and, for example, a welcome drink, it receives a name that seems taken from the series ‘The White Lotus’: Hospitality Package (400 euros). “If you have to buy a VIP ticket, you’re not a VIP. Florentino Pérez doesn’t buy VIP tickets to go I don’t know where”, points out Salvador Trepat, head of the website Point Blank, dedicated to Springsteen, and now also a disappointed fan of Boss after the controversies over the dynamic prices in the USA and the incorporation of these elitist tickets. “He didn’t do it before, he said everything had to cost the same… And suddenly he changed his mind. Four hundred euros for a concert of his I had never seen until this tour. But seeing what he has done in America with the auctions, I am not surprised. There is a lot of disappointment with Springsteen, and more so when he is supposed to be a standard-bearer of the working class and who cares about the fans…” comments Trepat.
The manager of Point Blank, who remembers that not so long ago tickets to the Boss’ track were the same price, notes with distaste the “hunger for money” of who has always been his great musical idol, and wonders: “When you’re an ultra-super multimillionaire, why do you do it?” Trepat says that the opinion he had about “the person” has changed and that he has never considered buying these kinds of VIP tickets – I’m not interested, I’m going to listen to the music and go home»–. “It reaches 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 swallow?”, he comments, amazed.
High demand
But these tickets exist and sell out. The interest in some of these events is so much higher than the supply that, following the law of supply and demand, the promoters continue with the escalation of prices and the increase of these tickets for voluminous and interested pockets. Apart from the ‘Boss’ and Coldplay (also with ‘premium’ tickets for the four concerts in the Catalan capital), Barcelona will host two of the biggest divas in the coming months: Beyoncé (Olympic Stadium, June 8) and Madonna ( Sant Jordi, November 1 and 2). The map of the Ticketmaster ticketing portal is a puzzle, it’s all compartmentalized, each square with its price. Madonna offers up to five VIP packages: from 340 euros to 1,020 including distribution costs.
Chris Márquez, from the Divina Madonna fan club, has seen the artist 32 times, the first time, he remembers, in 1990 with a court ticket of 5,000 pesetas (30 euros). For Barcelona, he bought one for 680 euros through the pre-sale for fans of the diva (he has two more tickets for this tour to follow her around Europe). It gives him access to a pre-party, he will receive a gift, food, drink… And it will be in a privileged place in the pavilion, the most important part of the purchase, they say.
“When the album is announced I start saving for the tour”
“Is it worth it. I’m not a mythomaniac at all, I don’t buy branded clothes, or cologne… This consumerism has never gone with me. It only happens to me with Madonna since I became a fan when I was 14 and I got a really bad fever. I have never spent this money on anything else.” comments Márquez, who reiterates that the devil for fans is resale and portals like Viagogo. “I like simple things, I want quality but I don’t need luxury, and I only do it with 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 covers me, I can imagine the box she can have… When you go to the opera or the football you don’t criticize that”, he complains.
Dani Monllor is a young follower of Beyonce and manages the Twitter account @BeyonceSpainn, “by fans and for fans” of the author of ‘Renaissance’. His ticket for the Barcelona bowl cost 420 euros, and to that he will have to add travel, just 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 morning before to stand in line. When the album is announced I start saving for the tour because between trains, sleep, food…», he says. “It’s the thing I spend the most money on, I’m happy to pay for it. Since the end of the concert, I think that there will be a next one and that I will need some money. A concert is the pinnacle of enjoyment for an artist”, he defends.
Monllor will be in a privileged circle (between some catwalks) in front of the stage, where he will have a bar (paid) only for those in this 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». complaint.