I remember going to my first concert at nine years old. I went to Selena Gomez’s Revival Tour in the perfect concert outfit: my favorite Justice skirt, (temporarily) dyed a strip of my hair hot pink and wore a shirt with Selena Gomez’s face on it. I have loved concerts ever since, but aspects of concert culture really frustrate me. 

I hate the process of buying concert tickets. If I’m not in the presale the second it opens up, then there’s no way I’m going to afford tickets. I have been a huge fan of SZA since middle school, and I really wanted to go to her SOS concert in Los Angeles. I went on Ticketmaster to get the tickets, but they cost $250 dollars for corner nosebleeds where I wouldn’t be able to see the stage or the screens projecting SZA. 

Before pre-sale, seats this bad would have been less than $100. For a smaller artist, these seats would have been $20 or $30. In recent years, the price of concert tickets has skyrocketed. Ticketsellers take huge cuts of sales, jacking up prices from their initial wholesale value. Scalping, the process of making concert tickets significantly more expensive during resale than their whole sale price, is something that makes my blood boil. It ruins concerts for me. I can’t justify spending so much money on something that is fairly inexpensive before scalpers/scammers make them more expensive. 

Pre-sales are a godsend, and it is really rewarding when I beat scammers to the tickets. But I wish there were more regulations on scalping. It would make the concert experience so much more enjoyable and inexpensive. 

Outside of buying tickets, I have no critiques on concert culture. I love dressing up in my special outfits and trying to make them fit the theme of the artist’s music (an homage to nine-year-old me). I love doing my makeup and listening to the artist’s music while getting ready. The anticipation of the car ride to the venue, and midnight snacks after the concert. The energy of concerts makes the experience so enjoyable. Although I am not the best at it, I love to dance, and concerts provide a judgment-free place to do that. The shared energy in a concert venue makes the experience so special and one-of-a-kind. Concerts are a place to connect with people, even if you’ll never see them again. While concert culture definitely has room for improvement, I think, overall, it is a positive experience.