A live music expert suggests that the complaints about the expensive ticket prices for Sam Fender’s upcoming tour are misplaced.
Sam Fender will perform at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena on December 20th, 2024. Ticket prices range from £65.87 and £88.37 for seats, with standing tickets costing £82.75.
Sam Fender also announced a stadium tour with three nights at St James’ Park, Newcastle, in June 2025. These tickets cost £83.70 for standing and between £61.70 and £100.20 for seats.
The prices for both tours have been criticised by fans on social media for how high they are.
However, Laura Rosierse, in charge of public relations and event organisation at LLIVELY Music agency said increases in ticket prices over the past few years are in line with general inflation across the country.
Laura said people must consider petrol, food, and accommodation costs that inevitably come with being an artist. She added, due to inflation the prices of running a venue, equipment, and staff wages have also increased.
“The rising cost of living, as well as running businesses, has been trickling down to the costs of running venues,” she said. All of this “means that the breakeven point of live events has gone up, which is why ticket prices have also increased,” she added.
Demand is also a factor, she said. “The bigger and more popular artists are still doing rather well and [are] able to sell out shows despite higher ticket prices.”
Last month JLS, played at the Newcastle Utilita Arena, with their tickets starting at £39. The Script will be playing in the same venue this month. Their ticket prices range from £44.30 to £74.55, proving that cheaper concert tickets are possible.
Sam Fender was born and raised in North Shields and has always been open about his childhood and working class upbringing.
Sam has been described by Rolling Stone as “the unflinching sound of working class Britain”. Sam has said in a previous interview that “the kids from where I’m from don’t get the money [to become musicians]”.
Some fans find Sam’s statements about the working class ironic after the ticket prices of his recent tours.
Katie Carruthers, owner of a Sam Fender news account on TikTok, said that the organisation behind these tours is “thoughtless”. She added, this close to Christmas, a lot of people won’t have the money in their bank accounts.
Sam Fender’s stadium tour was announced on November 22nd, 2024. Presale tickets released two days later. Katie said she wishes there was more notice for the tour before ticket sales began.
“Concert tickets were cheaper in 2019 because everything was cheaper in 2019,” she said, “[but] a lot of management companies are using that as an excuse”.
Katie added, ticket prices shouldn’t be going up as much as they have. “It is either the artist or the management being a bit greedy”.
However, “It is justified that ticket prices should go up,” she said. Everyone behind the scenes “needs to get paid and paid fairly.”
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I definitely think his latest concert prices are ridiculous! But it’s 100% an industry wide issue now so it’s not surprising that he has also done the same.
Absolutely. I hope in the future concert tickets industry wide are able to revert back to their cheaper, original prices.
Very informative and interesting, I saw Sam in 2023 and my tickets were around £50 so this is a really big increase and I can see why it’s an issue for many people and it seems to be an industry wide phenomenon as well!
This is true! A lot of artists seem to be charging extortionate prices for tickets. The days of cheap gigs seem to be long gone.