Anyone who has tried to get concert tickets in particular in the USA but the practice has spread to daughter organizations as well;
Knows the game has changed since a couple of years.

Instead of all concert tickets buyers being equal, some are, loosely based on a quote which may sound vaguely familiar, more equal than others. 

This more equality a.k.a. privilege, can of course be obtained with money,  and is best known for the practice of “dynamic ticket pricing”.
And I know I’m cutting corners here now (forgive me), but it loosely means that if you are a big fan and really want a ticket, you have a couple of intersecting and interdepending pathways of getting them which usually involve;
-getting access ahead of the official start of the sale
-becoming a member of the fanclub in order to get this early access to purchase the ticket
-entering this coveted time window but then being sucked dry because the price is dependent on the demand. Which is of course huge.

So I probably got a few details wrong, but just remember getting a ticket as a big fan is a guaranteed ticket to capitalist mayhem;
And then maybe, a concert ticket too.

Very few artists have been successful at fighting this, and then from the sideline I understood that a few of the ones who were successful, drew back and gave free rein to capitalist mayhem after all, and so on and so forth.
We’re all doomed, and if you’re a big fan you’re even more doomed than others.

So this is, bar a mistake or two, the much resented practice of dynamic pricing, that is pretty well known, and to which history or purgatory will one  day decide who was on the wrong side of moral and ethical boundaries, and who managed to stay within the lines of the ethically passable.

However!
I stumbled upon an article about the recent Springsteen concerts here in Nijmegen, and realized that a second practice, which has way more years of experience under its belt than dynamic pricing- seems to have gone by unnoticed.

And this is the practice of premium pricing of certain “packages”, which are really nothing more than capitalizing on things that used to be free.
And I’ll get into this in a bit, but the article really struck me, because the reporter seemed to have missed the point entirely of the phenomenon he was describing here at the Goffertpark and I wondered;
Do people not know this?

Has the dynamic pricing discussion actually managed to divert attention away from another, definitely big earner, elephant in the room;
That of super high priced VIP and early entry packages?

And I have concluded; Yes, it has.
And it is exactly this excessive pricing that Bruce Springsteen has successfully managed to fight!
Worldwide!

So, what is this I would say, second over-pricing  vehicle I am talking about?
What does VIP or early access actually mean?

A long long time ago, when the animals could still talk and all concert tickets were created equal, the first 4000 attendants would be gifted a wrist band for the front area.
The Front Area was created for security reasons, so the pressure of the crowd against the rail was divided into two. One in front of the stage, and one against a second rail.
Both fences had an aisle a few meters wide in front of them, which was patrolled by security and first aid personnel handing out water.

At the beginning of the 20th century, access to the front area, which was renamed “Golden Circle”, was no longer handed out based on commitment and showing up early, but it was a separate ticket.
A Golden Circle Ticket was usually 50% higher than a field ticket.

But it didn’t stop there.

Over the years many forms of monetization of this front area have made their appearance, but one is a returning one;
Some sort of package that allows you get into the Golden Circle first.
An “early access” package, or “early entry”.
So when people with a regular Golden Circle ticket still have to wait, and are now in the “chaos phase” where the fences have been removed and they have reshuffled as their group was pushed one layer further forward towards the gates, a few hundred people who have paid three times as much, are already let in!!!
And in an orderly fashion, they do not have to push or fight for their place, in fact they are threatened they will be expelled if they behave in any way pushy. 

The price is about three times the price of a Golden Circle ticket.
It is never named Early Access ticket, but wrapped into a package that includes merchandise or coins for food and drinks (which you do not have time to spend because you are stuck at the rail of course).
It is never said: “For 15 minutes early access we let you pay three times as much.”
But this is of course, exactly what it is.

There are even more excessive and earlier-than-early priced packages, but I will not bother you with that.
You get the idea;
Since about 10 years wanting to get into the Golden Circle EARLY?
Is monetized as well.
It’s no longer the one who shows up early, who gets it, it’s the one who pays the most.

So when I read this article from a local media:
“Springsteen fans organize themselves who gets an early entry”
I was like:
“Wait… what? Are there no Early Entry tickets then?”

I went to the park to find out.
And guess what?

No Bruce Springsteen concert has Early Access tickets!
The fans organize a registration and check-in system, and cooperate with the security of the concert.
And tomorrow night, Saturday 29th of June, the people who have checked in three times a day, for days in a row, are going to get the earliest of entries, and the best spots.

So I thought that was worth sharing.

Bruce Springsteen is like that little town where Asterix and Obelix live, where every story opens with Gaul being under Roman law.
“All of Gaul?” it says.
“All, except one tiny little village, that fiercely fights the Roman rule”

Let us not be disheartened by all the battles we have lost. And of the success capitalism has had, at the expense of concert goers.
Not when we have Springsteen, still fighting the Romans for us.

Not, when we have a last man standing.

.
~Suzanne
🇳🇱 Tikkie
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