Concert Hack

some may not know this even though its common ball knowledge here, so i would like to share my experience and some hacks for watching your favorite artist/band in concert. especially well-known artists/bands that are still in specific niche categories, so not really super popular mainstream bands/artists (this might only apply in Indonesia).

last weekend, i went to see one of my favorite bands from childhood, avenged sevenfold. I bought a front festival ticket on the spot (d-zero) for just 1/3 of its actual price through ticket brokers. The price was supposed to be around 3.000.000 IDR including tax (around 160 USD). I got the ticket for 1.000.000 IDR (55 USD). I went to the stadium around 6-7 PM, and avenged sevenfold was going on stage around 9 PM. So we had a couple of hours left to get the concert ticket before the show.

generally speaking, there are often wild ticket brokers selling concert tickets at a higher price than the official price, or selling the tickets at a loss rather than leaving them unsold, depending on the demand. Very popular and mainstream concerts like coldplay might sell out easily, and ticket brokers can sell tickets at a much higher price, maybe more than 3x, and still sell out because of how popular and mainstream coldplay is (even though avenged sevenfold itself is quite a mainstream band too).

even my friend was able to cop a ticket for the weeknd concert on the spot for 1/3 of the official price through ticket brokers selling there, despite how popular the weeknd is.

as far as i know, these ticket brokers are:

• reselling tickets they bought from someone (second hand/reselling from someone)
• selling spare tickets they got from the concert promoter to sell on site

the thing is, when you show up on the day of the concert, especially a few hours before the main band/artist performs, you can cop some great deals, atleast 50-80% from the actual price, unless there is a spike in on-site demand from people playing the same game as us (bidding on tickets on the spot for a much cheaper price).

day-2 of the weeknd was more expensive than day-1 because the weeknd performance was worth attending (i mean there was a sorayama statue, fireworks, some amazing lighting, a whole stacked setlist, etc). so more demand was expected on day-2, and these ticket brokers immediately sold tickets at a much higher price in anticipation of that demand.

so to sum up my experience and what i observed from a few of my friends, here are the hacks:

• take a gamble and show up on the day your fav band/artist performs (a few hours before). the more niche it is and the easier it is to predict whether it will sell out or not, the more likely you are to get a much cheaper price (usually 60% of its actual price)
• or you can do some crawling a week or month before the concert to see if someone is urgently selling a ticket on facebook or thread
• last, the old traditional way, the power of networking, even worse, nepotism, your uncle might work for the promoter and have some spare tickets for you hehe