The True Cost Of Gig Going (Part 5)

It’s time to file our latest update on our monthly and yearly spend going to see live music.

May has been odd, for we saw a huge number of artists, (57 full performances by 56 different acts) yet spent the lowest amount on tickets per number of bands seen in any month so far (£48.50). The reasons for this are that many of these gigs were at Brighton’s Great Escape Festival for which Breaking More Waves received a free press pass.  As explained in a previous post, generally we like to pay our way and don’t ever blag a place into shows just because we write a music blog. However in instances where we are doing some form of ‘work’ such as writing a review (and we use this term loosely as going to see a show or event and then writing a review isn’t really that hard work, and as we’re not being paid it’s really just a hobby) we do feel it is fair and reasonable to apply for a press pass. This month we were also given a ticket for another gig for free as a present.

So here’s this month’s vital statistics.

May 

• In total we saw 57 artists full performances, including support acts. That’s 141 for the year, of which we’ve seen 135 different ones. (We’ve seen Fickle Friends, Curxes, Bridie Jackson & The Arbour, The Night VI and Laurel more than once this year). This means we’ve probably spent the equivalent of 3.5 working weeks watching live music this year and that doesn’t include the travel time.

• Unlike previous months we have hardly travelled at all, nearly all the gigs we’ve attended being in Portsmouth the city where we live, with the exception of Brighton’s Great Escape. 

• £48.50 was spent on tickets.

• Because of most of the gigs being within walking distance of our home we spent only £15 on travel.

• £82 was spent on drinks at venues - our highest spend of the year so far – probably because of the lack of driving this month entailed.

• £120 spent on overnight accommodation (Great Escape hotel)

• We didn’t spend any money on merchandise at the gigs.

• The total spend this year so far is £1337.90 Travel costs continue to be the most expensive cost (£412) of our total spend, closely followed by accommodation (£410.15). Tickets only account for 268.95 (20%) of the total spend.

Next month will see our half yearly review and the effect of festivals on our spending really starting to kick in.