Dont forget the greasy festival food. almost 8 quid for some crappy noodles and 4 quid for less that a handfull of greasy chips? it takes the piss

While I agree that beer, food & tickets are over-priced, NOTHING will ever kill metal.

ok maybe it won’t kill the metal but it will price fans out, no one should ever have to pay more than 40-50 pound for a ticket to a show, and few bands can justify that price maybe ones with a good stage show (rammstein) can, as for the beer not really you dont have to drink it, just go pub beforehand, my complaint is the variety £4 for a shitty heineken, where did all the good beer go and god forbid london venues get sponserd by carling again.

I think beer prices in venues are too expensive, but they have a captive audience so they are always going to milk it. I notice at a lots of gigs in London the local pubs are packed and people miss the support band as the prices are too steep in the venue.
If I remember correctly it was Metal Hammer that were advertising ’sweet drinks deals’ at the Metallica pre-show party at the O2 and pints turned out to be nearly £5 so maybe MH need to set the standard!

“ahhhh i’ll have a nice cool pint. thank you barkeep how much is that?……FOUR FUCKING POUNDS YOU AVIN A GIRAFFE????!!1!”
fin.

I tend not to drink much at gigs as I like to fully concentrate on the bands! I’ve never payed more than £60 for a gig ticket, but I did fork out £200 to see Metallica in Dublin a few years ago (Including flight, accomodation etc).

I’ve payed like 4 quid for a pint

but to be honest, if im pumped to see my favourite metal band and ive got some dosh in my pocket im like, LETS GET PISSED AND WATCH LAMB OF GOD!!!!

but yeah it is a drain on my resources going to gigs nowadays

Generally when my friends and I go to a gig we’ll head to the local boozers first and have a few pints, then only have one or two in the venue. However, this isn’t entirley based on the price, we generally just find it tricky to carry beers around a packed venue!

Festivals are crazily expensive though! Arena beer and food is extortionate! £4 a pint is just insulting!

The most I’ve payed for a ticket was £55 (I think) for Metallica at Wembley, which I’d pay again. However, to pay £100 the show would have to be something really special, which I guess means different things to different people.

I don’t think it’s ‘killing metal’ though, most people just put up and shut up.

Hmmm Metal Hammer talking about beer prices killing metal? What about Hammerfest this weekend? Pints of beer were like £3.30 and I was VIP. That’s not cheap man. Good job my friend Carl-sberg was on hand at the chalet to help me out.

As incredible as it was, machine head at the manchester apollo has left me resorting to my piggy bank. Not only was it over £30 a ticket – it was £3.70 a can of strongbow! You can get 4/5 cans in the local store. So although metal won’t die, students like me will miss smaller bands trying to make it big for the sake of a predrink (because obv. drink makes everything better!)

any band gig should be 15 quid beer at gigs should be 2 quid a pint and 3 quid doubles n coke/lemonade download takes the piss tho 2 quid for a bottle of water and 165 quid for a ticket when hellfest has same bands for 70 quid

Bob you may have only been to a big festival, at wacken and bloodstock the prices are pretty fair £4 at most, even get amazing pizza at wacken for 3 euros

It is pretty disgraceful that at a festival after you’ve paid a lot of money for your ticket and getting there, you’re still not allowed to bring food or drink into the arena and pay the ridiculous prices from the shite stalls.

Not really that i comment on standard UK prices, i stay in Norway and it’s 6 quid plus for less than a pint usually… so i found Hammerfest II cheap!!! But i think internationally (and i’ve travelled for many gigs) that alcohol prices are a bit steep. I do understand though, having worked in the club/venue industry for years, that the venue makes the bulk of their money from the bars so if you owned a venue… would you not try to make as much as you could?

I do think however, a festival should have lower prices due to sponserhip from breweries due to the initial high cost of a ticket in the first place.

Forgot to add… it cost me and my girlfriend around £1000 to travel to Hammerfest II from Norway for the event. That included the VIP package/accomodation and all travel… not the food and beer consumed. Only because we don’t get line-ups like this in Norway, only huge festivals or smaller gigs really outside of Oslo. Saying that though, we thoroughly enjoyed it and it was worth it all!

I really dont understand how Aerosmith can justify over 100pound when download day tickets will only be around 65-75. Beer is too expensive but it aint gonna change

The prices are crazy, surely they don’t need more money when 100,000 people or so have paid £160 for a ticket for a festival.

I never drink at gigs anyway, because i only turned 18 in feburary haha. But yeah, got a load of local gigs coming up, then Slayer, Kiss, Free RATM gig, Download, Sonisphere. So i will be drinking no doubt.

It can cost a fortune to drink at a gig so i dont do it….i once paid 4 quid for a pint when seeing Dry Kill Logic….festivals are too expensive to drink in the tents. Ticket prices dont bother me. I love watching my bands i dont mind paying the mnoney to see the likes or Iron maiden or Megadeth

i think that it is terrible at venues for the price of beer but me and my mates get tanked in a boozer local to the venue then dont buy anything inside im not paying around £3.60 for a bottle of carlsberg at the CIA what a rip off!!!
lets do a protest and not buy beer at all at gigs???
£100 for gig ticket = NO WAY!

drinks are getting stupidly expensive….its 4 quid a pint at O2 brixton academy which is stupid but they can charge what they want cos once ur in u cant leave and if u want a beer you will pay the prices

Why do you need to have alcohol at a gig anyway? Surely the idea is to be there to see the band and remember their fab performance, not to pass out halfway through in a pool of your own vomit.

Brixton Academy – £4 for a CAN !!! To be fair, when you’re paying £3.30 in your local for a pint, it’s not much of a hike. Surrey/London prices just suck full stop.

i know what you mean.. I went to Twickenham to see Maiden, and was gonna stop before i got into the arena, but got caught up in the crowd on the way there so decided to get something inside.. Talk about expensive.. Half bottles of cider were around a fiver and decided to skip the food.. Wimpey meal, not even maccy d’s with small burger and chips with small coke 8 quid.. How bad is that.. But no even though 100 is too expensive it won’t kill metal.. I paid around 200 for Soni with travel and that was just on the basis Maiden are playing.. I guess what im trying to say is that if you love the band enough you will pay it.. Now when it is a complete rip off is if it is someone shit like lady gaga charging 160 for ticket that is wrong.. I wouldn’t even see her if she was free.. Waste of a bottle and my piss..

At venues I refuse to pay anything over £3 for a lager, I might pay that if its a good ale/stout but all basic lagers should be £2. For a premium lager like coors,kronenbourg, etc… should be £2.20-50

As for gig prices I tend judge on the line up and if it’s good for the price. But british fests are extortion compared to european fests, at food/drink prices and ticket prices to the line ups we get.

Some venues charge far too much for a pint. I can deal with upto £3.50 for pint as I pay about £2.80-£3 in local pubs in Lincoln. So festivals I don’t care about price of beer, you people whinging about prices of drinks and food at festivals, do you have any idea what the stalls pay to have a pitch for 4/5 days? its a hell of a lot so they have to make there money back and profit.

Festivals have never allowed your own beer into the arena since I’ve been attending in 2001. So I can’t see them ever doing it.

O2 Arena took the biscuit though, £4.30! are you having a giraffe! Theres no way I’ll ever pay £100 for just a standard gig, don’t care who it is! The most I’ve ever paid for a gig (not including festivals) is £65 I think for AC/DC at wembley stadium.

I went to see Metallica at The Ministry Of Sound Reload Launch party/gig in the mid 90’s, i asked for a pint at the bar, the barman then put 2xbottles of Bud into a plastic pint glass and said that will be £8 please,although this was around 14 years ago i will never forget my £8 pint.

the bigger the venue the dearer the drinks.
ive been to the o2 to see NIN,AC/DC,Green day..£4 for a lager or £4.50 for a cider and that was the only choice.
wembley is just as bad.. at least dick turpin wore a mask

Aerosmith at o2 June 10 would cost over £200.00 2 for tickets only.. then travel and more.. what happened to coach trips? I remember hopping on a coach having paid £60.00 and seeing Metallica, Megadeth. almighty at Milton Keynes in 1993 (I think)…oh the days of affordable days in the sun with my fave bands.

Back in the day I paid £4 to see Violent Delight. I felt ripped off.

I think the beer at Sonisphere last year was £3.75 a pint, and half of it was fucking tap water!

Also, is the title ‘World Food’ SUPPOSED to be ironic? Is a box of egg noodles swimming in oil and a dried up chicken leg really meant to keep us going for 3 days?!

Seriously thinking about an ominously regrettable bank loan this year…corporate fucks.

No. The cost of beer and the metal scene are independent of each other. Considering a pint of piss-weak lager cost me £2 at the Hammersmith Odeon during the ‘Damaged Justice’ tour (i.e. 1988), theprice of concert beer has not increased in line with say, public transport fares, house prices, booking fees and many other things. Deal with it.

gigs are juest getting more and more corporate. im pretty young (just turned 21) and have been going to gigs since 2003, but even in 7 years ive noticed a massive increase in average ticket prices, merch and drinks. i still love going to gigs but ive cut down alot for 3 gigs a month to about oen every month and a half. 45 quid to see inflames and KSE after booking fees and postage? i felt pretty mugged by that! these days i’d rather go to the football, beer and tickets are cheaper

Mark’s right, most things about Wacken are really quite good value, especially the food.

Still, wish the ticket price hadn’t doubled between ‘07 and ‘09 D:

£3.45 a pint at the 02 acedemy glasgow….thank fuk machine head were playin that night that softened the blow

I saw NIN last year in london and paid nearly £5 for a half litre of watered down cider….which i spilled! But they know we`ll not want a sober night out at a gig so they`ll keep charging outlandish prices. As for killing metal? I don`t think so. Plenty of pubs and smaller clubs up and down the country will have some good bands on if you look hard enough. Support the little guy. His beer is cheaper!

At the Bell Center in Montreal where most of the big shows are its 10$ Canadian for a beer insane.

The old Marquee club on Charing Cross Road has a lasting place in my memory, not for some of the great bands I saw there but for the cost of what can only be desribed as the WORST pint ever served in the entire history of mankind. I swear to you all, this was the most vile, loathsome pot of piss I’ve ever clapped eyes on. And I’ve drank in some right shitholes in my life.

I think the real matter is not so much the price of the beer (or food, soft drinks or facilites) at gigs and festivals, it’s the quality that is offered. I would pay £4 a pint if that’s what the set price was (and I’d piss and moan all the while I was buying the bloody thing, but you get my point…) but it’s just a bit insulting when what my 4 quid gets me is a warm, horrible, watered down pint of spit. When you pay an arm and a leg for a night out and what you get in return is lousy food, bad sound, grotty toilets, meathead bouncers, long queue’s and terrible views then you can see why people get angry.

It’s basiclly the same as the is money killing football debate, and the answer is no because we’ll keep paying and moaning about it the whole time because we’re worried about missing out.

only way to change it to stop going and then there’ll soon learn but it’ll never happen because most people are sheep.

Killing metal? No its more a chink in its indestructible armour. Beer and grub shouldnt be twice the cost of corner shop snacks. Its kind of unfair when you want to buy some gear but wind up spending your cash on mostly food and drink. Sort it out.

Camden Underworld has the most rip off prices in London and Tuborg seems to have taken over most other London venues. My piss is stronger than Tuborg and probably tastes better!

Venues are missing a trick as if they made beer prices cheaper, people would get in earlier and purchase more beer.

Paying for a can at four times the amount of a local shop charges for a 4 pack is outrageous, especially when it gets tipped in a plastic and doesn’t even make the 3/4 pint mark.

Gig tickets are definitely fair price. The most I’ve ever payed was £80 a ticket for Iron Maiden at Twickenham, but the ticket value was £50 which was fair enough – it was the costs on top that pushed it up an extra £30. Sometimes tickets can be bargain prices – £29.50 for Slipknot w/Machine Head and Children of Bodom, thats about £9.83 per band.

ON the subject of beer, if I’m honest, whatever event you go to, be it music, sport or other will always have ridiculously overpriced refreshments. It;s just the way it is. No chance of it killing metal.

Without a doubt British festivals are a fucking RIP OFF!!! I’ve been to HELLFEST & GRASPOP for the last few years and their ticket prices INCLUDE camping AND parking and are still cheaper than any UK festival. The problem with the UK is that there is too much greed and us punters, like suckers that we are have been so used to being ripped off that nothing shocks us any more. Everyone has to make money…but there should be a standard set out and kept to so that we feel like we are getting value for money. It’s easy really, if we think that stuff is reasonably priced we’ll spend more (e.g Beer) if you charge me 20 quid to park my car that’s 20 quid I’ll not spend on shitty beer or death burgers. Solution:- Metal Hammer start you campaign for fair price festivals and beer at venues and you can start with Andy Copping at Download to standardise fair pricing for food and drink at this years Download or we’ll all take a shit in his big gay hat!

I often feel ripped off by bar prices but hey, thats the way of the world, not just metal music, so what can ya do? As far as beer prices go, Manchester Academy is sweet, much like the venue itself… Seen plenty of metal bands there and not felt ripped off.

Went to watch mark lanegan at 02 acadamy liverpool,cost £7,10p for 2 beers wont be going again rlp off.Al

Went the sonisphere barcelona last year everything ls half the price,festivals in the uk are a rip off.

I have paid £84 for my Aerosmith ticket (seating in the upper tier at O2! Won’t be able to see anything). I have also just booked tickets to see Metallica in Belfast (including flights & accom…It’s cost me and my boyfriend nearly £300!)

Thats why god invented the hip flask full of whiskey! Thanks Lemy!

most metal festivals are sponsored by shitty beer like tuborg and becks.. should be something nice like warsteiner or carling..

Nailmann – “something nice like warsteiner or carling” imagine the riots if they sold warstarter and as for Carling.

Ticket prices are a rip as is drink but were an audience taht sadly is willing to pay, i remember metallica at wembley stadium it was an all day thing so spent alot on £5 pints i seem to remember in the end we started drinking Pimms as was more cost effective, now a pint of Pimms is real rock and roll

Yeah, prices are pretty harsh.
£4 a pint seems to be standard at gigs these days, which is shocking when you’re at Glasgow uni and the union over at Strathy has £1 a pint offers all tuesday and wednesday. Can quite happily got out and get utterly smashed, including a kebab on the way home for under £20 quid. Then you go to a gig and nearly have a heart attack.

It’s not killing metal though…gig tickets are gonna do that without any help.

Suppose, to be fair, i’m travelling from Glasgow to London to go see Blind Guardian later this year, and it shouldn’t cost any more than £150 all told.

Yeah, that sound you hear is my student loan crying.

Gigs are well cheap. You get 3 or 4 awesome bands for less than 20 or 30 squid amazing. And festivals!!! This weekends Hammerfest was well worth the money as was last year and Bloodstock. The metal will never be killed off by the price of booze cos the metal is the biggest draw and the booze enhances the experience so long as you don’t have too much.
I once payed 75 squid for a Foo Fighter’s gig and cried for a month cos I could have seen about 12 top class metal bands for that money!

Nah, just making us poorer!

Having said that id spend more if i was getting my moneys worth and not pre lashing as much. At 3-4 quid a pint ill have a couple, so spend like 10 quid, at closer to £2 a pint id probably blow through above £30, they are mistaken in thinking the market is cornered because I can always drink before or bring my own.