Within the past couple years, the coming of Live Nation at the Hayden Homes Amphitheater has greatly raised ticket prices, angering locals. After Live Nation partnered up with the amphitheater, concertgoers started seeing bigger artists and higher prices in everything, from tickets to forced rental chairs to ten dollar plus drinks.
“A lot of this is Live Nation, we joined with them to bring bigger names and that’s why prices are up for everything in the venue,” an anonymous Hayden Homes employee told The Pinnacle.
“Paying upwards of 80 dollars every time I want to go see a concert, whether they’re a big name or small, is pretty outrageous,” said Axel Hagg, a junior at Summit who attends many local concerts. The Live Nation website says most ticket prices sold at their venues are set by artists who also take 100% profits of ticket sales. However, with the arrival of Live Nation at Hayden Homes smaller artists’ ticket prices have also been up, often more than 60 dollars each.
With concert prices so high, many performances aren’t even worth looking to go to anymore. Even with small artists, prices consistently being higher makes shows in Bend unappealing to begin with. It feels as if the coming of Live Nation has made the concert scene in Bend cater to tourists and the wealthy, rather than locals.
B. • Sep 30, 2023 at 1:01 pm
If you pay for a seat at Hyden Homes (not the lawn area), it is less expensive to drive to Portland, spend the night in a moderate hotel, have a moderate dinner and see the concert there, then seeing the show in Bend.
I’ve been two three concerts this year at Hyden Homes, each time I’ve paid the premium for a seat. When I’ve gone with friends the difference in what I’ve paid for a ticket, and what my friends have paid has varied as much as over $300 per ticket. If you wait, take the chance that a good seat may not be available, you pay less. I also know people who where given free tickets, when I had to pay over $200 a ticket. Then there are the times where upgraded seats where offered at a substantial discount, depending on availability. This was done, according to Hyden Homes, “so that the artist has an enjoyable time”.
The coming of Live Nation has been some what of a curse. Yes, a few bigger names have come to Bend, but prior to Live Nation we has a number of “A-List” artist in Bend. Now any concert, “A-List” or not, the tickets pricing is insanely expensive. I’ve literally gone from seeing 7 to 10 shows a year, to seeing 3. Hyden Homes – you do the math.