Bryan Adams too costly for fans?

Only 13,000 tickets sold as young people say show prohibitively expensive; after making arrangements for 30,000 fans, organisers now say they will be happy if 20,000 turn up

Bryan Adams too costly for fans?

Only 13,000 tickets sold as young people say show prohibitively expensive; after making arrangements for 30,000 fans, organisers now say they will be happy if 20,000 turn up

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The Bryan Adams rock show tomorrow has been dubbed the city's biggest concert, but the organisers have been able to sell less than 50 per cent of the total number of tickets.

On Sunday, concert venue Amanora said it was looking at a crowd of 30,000, but yesterday the expected figure had come down to 20,000 as ticket sales did not pick up substantially.

Amanora Managing Director Anirudha Deshpande said they had sold around 13,000 tickets and given away 2,000 passes.

On Sunday, he had been confident that demand for tickets would shoot up in the last few days leading up to the Bryan Adams concert.

"We have kept space for a 30,000 crowd and so far sold around 10,000 tickets," he had said on Sunday. "I am sure in the last few days we will able to sell more."

Yesterday, he denied quoting the 30,000 figure.

"We were never looking at 30,000. In fact, it was 25,000, and we are expecting 20,000," he said. "I am sure we will cross the mark in the next two days."

Pinching the pocket
Students and working professionals said the high ticket prices were a deterrent for them.

But Amanora countered this by saying that it was the tickets priced at Rs 6,000 and 10,000 that had sold the most.

"Interestingly, we haven't sold so much of the low-cost tickets, but sold more of the high-cost ones," Deshpande said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a musician involved with the concert said that looking at the prices it was hard to draw in the young crowd, which is the biggest market for such concerts.

"Students usually get pocket money that is in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000, how can they pay that much money for the tickets?" said the musician. "This is being pointed out by many young musicians I know."

It is not just the students but even the working professional who feel the high prices of the tickets are playing spoilsport.

Akash Murthy, a technical support professional, said he could not afford the show.

"Well, I want to go but the ticket rates are quite unaffordable," he said. "Earlier I was quite excited but the ticket rates have dampened my spirits."

Swapnaj Gadbail, a senior executive, said he had an inkling that the ticket rates would be high.

"It is acting as a deterrent for me, so I guess I will give the event a miss," Gadbail said.

Pooja Dattu, who works with BNY Mellon, said she would not be going to the show even though she would have liked to.

"I feel that the tickets should have been a bit cheaper. True, we are working professionals, but the amount they are asking for constitutes quite a bit of my salary," she said.

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