Ever wondered why a ticket to festivals like Field Day, Stereosonic, Future Music Festival and Parklife can be upwards of $150 and thought that this figure was a little steep?

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Bernard Zuel paints a picture that shows the complete cost breakdown to make a more understandable justification to why tickets generally cost so much.

Taking out the usual factors of the usually extravagant fees for headline acts (demand > supply) the average costs per festival ticket isn’t all that extreme and equates to everyone taking a cut.

Average Festival Cost Breakdown

• $2.25 or 1.5 per cent, is taken by the Australian Performing Right Association, as payment for all songs played. This is distributed to songwriters and their publishers.
• $3.00 –  covers insurance, including injury, cancellation and other risks.
• $4.00 –  goes to ‘‘inside charges’’ the ticketing agencies charge the promoter, in something of an equivalent to the booking fee they charge ticket buyers. These charges vary between venues.
• $13.75  – would cover expenses for advertising and marketing at the venue, in media and other outlets. This would not include advertising by a record company, or personal sponsors or marketing arrangements in place for individual artists.
• $15.00 – goes to the federal government for GST.
• $16.00 – of each ticket is allocated to the production. This includes wiring and staging costs, PA hire, and additional show elements, such as Pink’s trapeze.
• $22.00 –  is the promoter’s margin, a figure that can be a good result if the concert is sold out at say, 8000 to 10,000 seats, but if a second or third show is less than fully sold the overall result can be a loss.
• $24.00 –  is for venue hire, which includes room access, ushers, catering, riggers and other staff.
• $50.00 –  goes to all the ‘‘talent’’ at the festival, including the headline act, support acts, crew wages, transport and pre-tour expenses and management fees.

Source SMH