{"id":405193,"date":"2026-01-11T00:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T00:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/405193\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T00:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T00:54:18","slug":"music-festival-ticket-price-hikes-have-leading-fashion-and-streetwear-retailer-culture-kings-concerned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/405193\/","title":{"rendered":"Music festival ticket price hikes have leading fashion and streetwear retailer Culture Kings concerned"},"content":{"rendered":"

The boss of one of Australia\u2019s biggest streetwear retailers has raised the alarm about the rapidly rising costs of music festivals, saying they\u2019re increasingly something only the well-heeled can enjoy.<\/p>\n

Experts say rising inflation and changes to who owns what in the music world have ultimately meant fans are the ones out of pocket.<\/p>\n

Executives at Culture Kings commissioned a study<\/a> that found the price of tickets at 11 major music events across the country consistently climbed above inflation levels each year over the past two decades.<\/p>\n

Including famed events like Blues Fest, the twice-cancelled Groovin the Moo, and Spilt Milk, the research identified median ticket prices had increased by 6.7 per cent a year since 2004, while inflation in that period had only grown by 2.7 per cent.<\/p>\n

The average festival ticket price in 2004 was a mere $120, with live music fans now forced to part with $334 to see their favourite stars take the stage.<\/p>\n

The report projects that figure to hit a whopping $427 by 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to make festivals an exclusive experience to the upper end of society,\u201d Culture Kings ANZ President Justin Hillberg told The Sunday Times.<\/p>\n

\"FansCamera IconFans wait outside a Culture Kings retail store opening. Credit: Culture Kings<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure it continues to be inclusive for all of our customers to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far this summer, Perth has hosted Spilt Milk in December headlined by rap superstar Kendrick Lamar, pop star Addison Rae at Wildlands in early January, and is set to welcome Chappell Roan to Laneway Festival in February.<\/p>\n

And while it may cost more to see headline acts as part of a festival line up than if they were to tour solo, it\u2019s arguably in an artist\u2019s best interests to join the collective.<\/p>\n

\u201cFestival promoters can get away with charging more for a festival, because you\u2019re getting more bang for your buck in terms of the amount of artists you\u2019re able to see. And if they can balance that against capacity and demand and the cost of putting it on, then that often can be much better for both the artists and the promoters,\u201d Sam Whiting, a Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University, said.<\/p>\n

Venues also take a larger cut of revenue than that of a green or open-air site.<\/p>\n

But Dr Whiting suggested there were complex factors at play influencing the price, and it had become increasingly expensive for organisers to operate, or new ones to enter the market.<\/p>\n

\"AddisonCamera IconAddison Rae performs at Wildlands festival at Arena Joondalup on Saturday. Credit: Kellie Balaam\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that people treat concert tickets has really changed, as a product, so they\u2019re much more reluctant to buy early release tickets \u2014 so there\u2019s much more uncertainty in terms of the cash flow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With fewer major Australian festival organisers operating than two decades ago, international promoters such as Live Nation \u2014 which owns Ticketmaster \u2014 have assumed control of the entire experience without needing to invest into the local music scene.<\/p>\n

Where promoters of yesteryear would invest in a brand for the long-haul and could risk a hit to their profit on occasion, \u201cLive Nation just sort of look at it as a purely a risk management perspective\u201d, Dr Whiting said.<\/p>\n

He added artists now view live performances as 80-90 per cent of their revenue stream and look to maximise it, which has forced ticketholders to further bear the burden of inflated prices.<\/p>\n

\"CultureCamera IconCulture Kings ANZ President Justin Hillberg. Credit: Culture Kings<\/p>\n

Festival organisers have also seen changes to safety regulations, and as well as hikes on insurance premiums such as those that protect venues and festivals against extreme weather, he said.<\/p>\n

Music festivals are a prime platform for Culture Kings\u2019 streetwear, music and sports apparel accessories, but Mr Hillberg doesn\u2019t expect the rising cost of admission to lead to lower demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that our customers love to get together with like-minded people within their own communities, they get a lot of enjoyment out of that. So we\u2019re more just trying to protect that scene and keep that scene alive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Whiting suggested cutting tickets costs could be as straightforward as legitimising re-sale ticket platforms, such as Tixel, and governments cutting red tape for large-scale events.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think producers and ticketing companies need to do more to assuage the fears of audiences and make it more of a like a guaranteed thing, and reduce that uncertainty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also, I think governments do need to provide those long-standing festivals that are institutions with a little bit more certainty. And that might be through funding, but it also could be through tax incentives (or) less red tape.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The boss of one of Australia\u2019s biggest streetwear retailers has raised the alarm about the rapidly rising costs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,1625,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-405193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-lifestyle","12":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}