U.S. Music Lovers Fly to Europe for Cheaper Tickets

Beyoncé’s North American leg of her Renaissance World Tour kicks off in Toronto, Canada on Saturday. Fans have been paying eye-wateringly high prices to see the superstar, with some tickets in Charlotte, North Carolina costing upwards of $800.

With concert ticket prices on the rise in the United States, some fans have decided they would rather pay for a flight and a cheaper European concert ticket than for a more expensive ticket to the same show on homeground. The following chart looks at Daily Mail analysis of ticket sales on Ticketmaster to show just how much more expensive tickets can be in different cities in the U.S. compared to Europe, with Beyoncé’s Charlotte show costing more than three times that of the Stockholm gig.

It’s not only Beyoncé charging supreme prices in the U.S. though: Madonna’s gig in New York City cost $2,666 versus London’s $1,838, while Bruce Springsteen tickets were more than fivefold in Newark at $537, while Copenhagen’s cost $96 this year. This chart uses data for selected concert tickets with comparable seating in the U.S. and Europe.

Once fans have paid for a ticket and arrived in their chosen city for the show, many of them have also had to splurge huge amounts on staying in hotels. In Sweden, Beyoncé’s tour has even been blamed for ‘Beyflation’, as local prices were pushed up. While, in the UK, hotels quoted anywhere from $570 (£450) to $1,270 (£1,000) a night in Cardiff, Wales on the night of the gig.

So, why have concert tickets become so expensive? Firstly, where artists used to make money off of their albums, the uptake of music streaming means that revenue from their tracks is just a fraction of what it was before. This means musicians must now try to make money through other means, such as their live performances, instead. So-called ‘price-gouging’ by companies like Live Nation (the parent company of Ticketmaster), as well as general high demand, the rising costs of putting on a show and inflation are also some of the reasons to blame.