By Parker Yamasaki, The Colorado Sun | The first concert Jonathan Kahn ever attended at Red Rocks Amphitheatre was Loggins & Messina in July 1976. Nearly 50 years later, Kahn is parked in the lower south lot of the iconic outdoor venue, sitting in the doorway of his Sprinter van with a Snarf’s sandwich, waiting for a storm to blow through before he heads inside to hear Hiatus Kaiyote and Masego.
Kahn said he had been to five Red Rocks shows this year, shaking his head slightly — that number used to be a lot higher.
Kahn isn’t the only one who has slimmed down his annual concert intake. Overall attendance at cultural institutions across the state is down, according to the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts. In a survey of 285 cultural institutions, attendance between 2019 and 2022 decreased by 15% in metro Denver and 22% in Colorado outside of metro Denver.
Some of that dip is due to the fact that some people still don’t — and may never — feel comfortable attending events with large crowds after the pandemic. But more of that dip is attributed to the fact that entertainment is “a want not a need,” said Brian Kitts, Denver Arts and Venues spokesman. People adjust their spending according to what they feel they can afford. And when the cost of living is up in every other aspect of life, the amount that people are willing to spend on tickets to concerts, plays and museums goes down.
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In 2018, the share of a person’s overall expenditures on arts and entertainment was 6.1% in metro Denver, significantly higher than the national average of 5.1%. In 2022, that percentage was 4.9%, lower than the national average of 5%. In dollars, this equates to roughly $500 per person per year less in spending.
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The most dramatic change to ticket prices comes from the introduction of service fees. Prior to the 1980s, when Ticketmaster launched, venues paid the ticketing servicer. But Ticketmaster flipped that model, paying venues in exchange for being hired to handle ticketing and then passed the costs on to customers in the form of service fees.
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Read the full article here, with some awesome graphs:
https://coloradosun.com/2023/11/28/colorado-concerts-tickets-price/
[Thanks to Alex Teitz for contributing this article! http://www.femmusic.com]
November 30, 2023| Music-Related Business| Barb Dye