VIP Concert Packages

To go and see your favourite band performing on their latest arena tour it has never been particularly cheap but somewhere along the lines I seem to have missed when it became the norm to charge £50 for tickets to the show and then charge fans even more for the privilege of sitting in the front rows or to meet the artist before the show?

VIP tickets have particularly grown in popularity over the years. Now you're hard pushed to find a concert that doesn't offer you some sort of VIP package. I know when I was younger the only opportunity I had to meet a band before the show was to win a meet and greet in a competition. Competitions now seem quite few and far between and the main way you can meet a band is to fork out extortionate amounts of money for a VIP package. I love meeting my favourite band as much at the next person but at the end of the day is it really worth forking out so much money to meet another human? For example, Demi Lovato is currently charging $6000 on a meet and greet package which doesn't even include a ticket to the show. It gets even more ridiculous when you realise a lot of these meet and greet packages are group photographs meaning that you may get complete strangers in your photo. If you've spent so much extra money surely the artist could spare a couple of extra seconds for just a photo of you and them?

Concert tickets are also starting to become part of VIP packages. I appreciate the fact that perhaps they're trying to stop touts buying and reselling front row seats by charging more than the resale price but I'm sure they're better ways to do it. It's sad that now to get close to the front at a concert you have to pay much more than the standard ticket price to enable you the privilege of a front row seat. Are the fans that can only afford a standard ticket any less of fan than one who can afford a VIP package? Probably not. In my eyes it doesn't seem fair.

I am particularly fortunate as when I was younger I was lucky enough to have had front row seats appear when buying tickets (not part of a VIP package) and managed to win multiple meet and greets with my favourite band. I am also at the age now where I have disposable income and can afford some of the VIP packages and I have to admit I have bought them. However, where does it stop? I feel as though VIP packages are out pricing fans. Why should a fan that has rich parents be able to get better concert tickets or able to meet the band over a family that have scraped together all year for tickets? Personally I think something needs to be done about them before it spirals even more out of control.