This year’s Canadian Music Week has just wrapped up, and NXNE is around the corner, so it’s a good time to look at how various festivals approach passes and tickets.
Over the years, both fests have grown to the point where higher-profile shows predictably hit capacity early. This is good for the musicians but makes it hard for pass-holders to plan their evening.
For many years, CMW and NXNE have been collaborating with outside promoters to allow limited numbers of pass-holders into some big-ticket shows. This helps pad the festivals’ artist- lineups with bigger names, but it also means that fans hoping to use their wristbands to get into those shows have to get in line when the sun comes up.
To deal with these issues and complaints from fans, festivals are constantly trying to fine-tune how they approach passes, tickets and long lineups.
CMW offered two types of passes this year, as well as selling advance tickets to shows to guarantee entrance. A 10-day wristband ($75) got you into the club shows as well as the comedy and film events. A VIP wristband ($150) got you line bypass and access to the conference’s celebrity interviews and the SiriusXM Indie Awards. If you were organized enough to buy your pass way back in the fall, you saved 50 per cent.
Compared to previous years, CMW hasn’t padded its schedule with as many limited-wristband co-promotions, but they have shifted toward a different strategy. For a lot of the -higher-profile shows, the only way to get in with your pass is to enter a concert lottery open only to wristband-holders. This allows fans to know 24-36 hours in advance whether they’ll get into a high-profile event, but making the selection random also means super-fans have to buy an advance ticket if they want to be sure they get in.
What has all this looked like in practice? Over the past 10 days we’ve seen far less chaos at the doors of events than in the past, and far fewer giant lineups outside sold-out shows. However, the changes have made wristbands and random club-hopping less a part of the festival-going experience, removing some of the fun of discovery in the process. At many big shows there hasn’t even been much point in wearing your wristband, since you needed to make some kind of prior arrangement to be sure to get in.
North By Northeast is also providing two tiers of passes this year, but it’s embraced a different approach to the whole dilemma. Your most basic option is the Clubland wristband for a single day ($30) or for the entire festival ($49). This gets you into the regular club shows (see list of venues here) but doesn’t include any line-bypass powers or this year’s special Northby Advanced series.
What are the Northby Advanced shows, you ask? They’re the higher-profile gigs at Mod Club, the Danforth Music Hall, the Opera House, the Phoenix and the Berkeley Church – a wide range of artists from teen-pop Willow Smith to doom metal Pentagram. There are only two ways to get into those venues: buy an advance ticket or a Platinum badge.
Getting a coveted Platinum badge isn’t quite as simple as whipping out your credit card. First, you need to pick three Northby Advanced shows that you’re sure you want to attend and buy tickets ($20-$35 each). After that, you can upgrade to a full Platinum badge for only $60 more.
This guarantees access to the three shows you have advance tickets for, and to all the other Northby Advanced series if you get to the venue early enough. Did we mention that these passes get you to the front of the line, too?
As always, you can just pay cover at the door for any event, unless it hits capacity. And, yes, most of the more exciting shows will get busy early, so plan accordingly.
Compared to Toronto’s two biggest music festivals, Pop Montreal is taking a completely different approach this year. While its Super Pass costs $175, it not only gets you into any show (capacity permitting), it also gives you line bypass and even free drinks every day.
The Day Pass ($45) gives you the same thing, but for one day. For those who don’t even want to commit to that, single show tickets and upgrades to a POP Hopper pass cost $15, but that gives you no line bypass, no free drinks and is only for the night that you bought it for.
All the Canadian festivals look good compared to Austin’s SXSW, the inspiration for NXNE. There, you have to buy an $800 badge, which combines access to the conference and the music festival. All those infamous free shows you hear about happening during the fest are unofficial and usually corporate-sponsored, courting concertgoers who can’t afford to attend the official festival.
The challenge for music festivals is balancing audience demands for famous talent with passes that offer both good value and access to the shows fans want to hit. If too many shows only let in a small fraction of pass-holders, fans feel like they’re being cheated. What do NOW readers think of these different attempts to find happy compromises?
benjaminb@nowtoronto.com | @benjaminboles
