2012 sees big drop in gigs at major UK venues

2012 sees big drop in gigs at major UK venues NEWS

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The BBC have reported that there has been a significant drop in the number of gigs at major UK venues. They reported that ticket search engine Tixdaq have noticed performances have almost halved compared to figures from 2011.

BBC's Newsbeat have been looking into why there has been a significant drop in the number of gigs at major venues across the UK.

The areas that have been hit the hardest include Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham.

According to the ticket search engine Tixdaq, the number of gigs has almost halved in 2012 compared to 2011.

Head of International Touring at AEG Live, Rob Hallett said that these figures are due to the facilities and bands are now focusing on other markets which include Asia and Eastern Europe.

He said that UK venues are now too big for the towns. Using Murrayfield as an example, Rob Hallet said the venue holds 55,000 people in a city the size of Edinburgh.

He went on to say:#quote#How many groups can sell 55,000? As a band or as a punter you don't want to be there with 20,000. It's miserable.#/quote#

He went on to say that it was the same at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, it's a 'great stadium, but it's too big a stadium in too small a town', he added.

According to Tixdaq, Birmingham, one of the worst towns hit by falling performances, saw a drop of nearly 50% in 2012. There were 1118 performances in 2012 compared to 2155 in 2011.

London had 25,834 performances in 2011, this year saw that figure drop dramatically to 20,072.

Dublin who's population consists of around 1,054,769 had 674 performances in the city in 2012 compared to 1,676 in 2011.

The economic downturn and the double dip recession the country has seen over the past three years has been one factor in the lack of ticket sales. The distances of the venues will also determine how far fans are willing to travel to see their favorite band.

Ticket prices are also a major factor. Bands such as Mumford and Sons and The Killers believe that ticket prices should be kept as low as possible. Brandon Flowers front-man for The Killers said that tickets should be affordable to encourage the next generation of musicians.

Mumford and Sons like to give people options to see them play, saying that a lot of people don't like big venues, so they play theatres in smaller towns and bigger venues, which they call the 'Tour of Two Halves' giving people a choice.

They also hold tickets back so 'there will be more tickets coming at face value later on', discouraging ticket touts.

The band also said that Radiohead are good at discouraging tickets touts, and they have been learning a lot from them.

Mumford and Sons said they like to take control of the ticket prices, as well as the venues. They use the smaller venues to make the experience more exclusive for real fans.

Concert goers have complained that they have to travel for up to two hours, which not only costs money, but fans have to leave the gig early to catch the last train home.

Younger fans are reliant on parents to ferry them back and forth, therefore putting parents under more pressure, not only in time but financially to.

Remember music lovers, BritEvents.com are a price comparison site and shop around for the best deal not only from the best primary ticket companies but also the best secondary ticket companies such as Viagogo, often with tickets below face value.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/20662710