Not Rolling in it! ‘Squeezed’ fans shun Stones
THE Rolling Stones are struggling to sell tickets to their Hyde Park gigs – nine years after every seat for two concerts for the same event went in five minutes.
All tickets to their British Summer Time (BST) festival performances in London in 2013 were snapped up almost instantly – despite costing at least £95. But two months after going on sale this year, thousands of tickets for June 25 and July 3, starting at the same price of £95.75, are unsold.
It is the same for their Liverpool date at Anfield, with the band’s website showing availability for tickets priced between £79 and £434.95 – only a little more expensive than their performances in 2018.
Fans blame the soaring cost of living. Mike Andrews, 47, from Bow, East London, said: ‘I’ve bought tickets, but friends have decided to give the shows a miss. It is a lot of money, with the soaring price of food, petrol and energy bills. Stones shows always sold out pretty much on the day tickets went on sale. But to be honest, I’m not surprised.’
There were comments about the slow sales on the Stones fan site It’s Only Rock’n’Roll. One fan, called Hairball, wrote: ‘Definitely seems to be a lack of enthusiasm. Everything seems muted.’
Meanwhile, Richie wrote: ‘There’s an extensive poster advertising campaign in Liverpool. Suspect sales aren’t as strong as expected.’
Tickets that went on sale in March are still available for all 14 of their European dates. But the Stones are not the only major British Summer Time act affected. Only Adele and Elton John have sold out, unlike Pearl Jam, Duran Duran and The Eagles.
Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds festivals have sold out, but tickets are available for Bestival, Creamfields and Wireless.
Experts said the higher cost of hosting events had increased ticket prices by up to 26 per cent.
BST Hyde Park declined to comment but a source said it expected to sell all 130,000 tickets ‘very soon’.