Free concert comes at high cost to concert goers and organizers
Jim Zele
Issue date: 9/7/07 Section: Opinion
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"It could have been much worse."
That was my first thought after this year's edition of Ozzfest. In a column last spring, I expressed my concern over the idea of making Ozzfest free this year. Could the promoters have gotten better bands? Would I get over-charged for food and drink? Probably and definitely, but it worked out all right.
The ticket distribution system was the worst part of the experience. Organizers decided to release tickets exclusively online, releasing tickets for one date every half-hour starting at 8 a.m. In the first four days, more than 428,000 tickets were given away, according to an article on Blabbermouth.net.
This caused extremely high traffic to Ozzfest.com and LiveNation.com. On the ticket release date, both sites crashed repeatedly due to high traffic. LiveNation crashed with every new release time. Fans had to wait up to two hours in some cases to print tickets.
Promoters could have avoided this problem by releasing four dates per day over a six-day period instead of all dates at once.
Tickets were released a month before the tour started, so this would not have been a problem.
At this point, I wasn't sure if Ozzfest was worth it this year. As the tour progressed, LiveNation re-released tickets to several dates, allowing fans to print more tickets. I ended up with 10 tickets by the time my Ozzfest date rolled around.
In past years, Ozzfest promoters offered a ticket deal where fans could pay $40 to get free parking, lunch and entry to the show. The lunch and parking is where promoters made up for the free tickets this year.
Upon arriving, my friends and myself were greeted by a sign reading, "PARKING: $25- Under 4 people, $20 4 or more." Off to a good start.
After parking and hiking a half-mile to the venue, we saw the food prices. Pizza was $6.00 per slice. Powerade was $5 per bottle. Water was $3.50 per bottle. And did I mention it was 95 degrees and sunny that day?
Increased prices on food I can understand, but on a day like that, it's dangerous to charge that much for water. If somebody can't afford water, he or she could potentially die from the heat. A person shouldn't have to pass out before he or she gets free water.
High price aside it was a fun day. The bands generally did a good job, and there were very few issues as far as I could tell. Security is generally very tight at Ozzfest, and this year was no different. Fights were quickly stopped and lawn fires were quickly extinguished.
Next year, let's hope for a happy medium. Make tickets cheap and lower the prices on food and water. This will create the perfect balance for metal fans everywhere.
That was my first thought after this year's edition of Ozzfest. In a column last spring, I expressed my concern over the idea of making Ozzfest free this year. Could the promoters have gotten better bands? Would I get over-charged for food and drink? Probably and definitely, but it worked out all right.
The ticket distribution system was the worst part of the experience. Organizers decided to release tickets exclusively online, releasing tickets for one date every half-hour starting at 8 a.m. In the first four days, more than 428,000 tickets were given away, according to an article on Blabbermouth.net.
This caused extremely high traffic to Ozzfest.com and LiveNation.com. On the ticket release date, both sites crashed repeatedly due to high traffic. LiveNation crashed with every new release time. Fans had to wait up to two hours in some cases to print tickets.
Promoters could have avoided this problem by releasing four dates per day over a six-day period instead of all dates at once.
Tickets were released a month before the tour started, so this would not have been a problem.
At this point, I wasn't sure if Ozzfest was worth it this year. As the tour progressed, LiveNation re-released tickets to several dates, allowing fans to print more tickets. I ended up with 10 tickets by the time my Ozzfest date rolled around.
In past years, Ozzfest promoters offered a ticket deal where fans could pay $40 to get free parking, lunch and entry to the show. The lunch and parking is where promoters made up for the free tickets this year.
Upon arriving, my friends and myself were greeted by a sign reading, "PARKING: $25- Under 4 people, $20 4 or more." Off to a good start.
After parking and hiking a half-mile to the venue, we saw the food prices. Pizza was $6.00 per slice. Powerade was $5 per bottle. Water was $3.50 per bottle. And did I mention it was 95 degrees and sunny that day?
Increased prices on food I can understand, but on a day like that, it's dangerous to charge that much for water. If somebody can't afford water, he or she could potentially die from the heat. A person shouldn't have to pass out before he or she gets free water.
High price aside it was a fun day. The bands generally did a good job, and there were very few issues as far as I could tell. Security is generally very tight at Ozzfest, and this year was no different. Fights were quickly stopped and lawn fires were quickly extinguished.
Next year, let's hope for a happy medium. Make tickets cheap and lower the prices on food and water. This will create the perfect balance for metal fans everywhere.
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