The True Cost Of Gig Going (Part 9)

This is an update on our project for the year to record every gig we go to and the associated spending.

September was an odd month. We went to 5 shows, saw 11 artists and not one of them was closer than 50 miles from home. The furthest was over 5,000 miles away, although that was whilst on holiday, so we’re not including the travel or hotel costs as that would have been spent irrespective of the gig or not.

It was also odd as we paid the most we’ve ever paid for a ticket for a single show, but it was for something a little bit special – Kate Bush's Before The Dawn concert– and afterwards felt that the was money well spent.

So here’s September’s detail on spending

Tickets (inc booking fees) £199.50

Travel and transport £45

Drinks £45

Merchandise £25

Hotels / accommodation £59

Total monthly spend : £373.50

That’s an average of £74.70 per gig – our highest monthly total this year

Or an average of £33.95 per artist in September

Our total spend on gig going between January 2014 and September 2014 is £2,858.40

In December we’ll be providing a full summary and drawing some conclusions, but one conclusion already drawn is that we spend a huge amount of money on going to gigs and festivals every year. If we cut this down by half we could afford to buy a huge number of albums or other luxury items such as an ipad or another flash holiday.