You are here: Home > Smart Spending Tips > Cheapest concert and theatre tickets Print this page

Cheapest concert and theatre tickets

Admit the whole family for less

How to get the cheapest tickets
Top ticket tips
Watch out

There is nothing quite like seeing your favourite band up close and personal or experiencing the amazing atmosphere of live theatre. But what if you find out the person next to you paid half the price you did for their ticket? And are we all paying over the odds for this privilege? It is common knowledge that ticket touts make a fortune buying up tickets for events and re-selling them for double the price. On top of this ticketing websites often charge huge booking fees and seem to sell out incredibly quickly. So is there a way to avoid paying a fortune for the tickets you want?

Obviously there's no fool-proof way to guarantee you'll get the very cheapest tickets, but if you follow these five simple steps, you should be well on your way to bagging yourself a bargain!

How to get the cheapest tickets

Step 1: Getting started

It always helps to be well informed, so make sure you know about any forthcoming events you think you might be interested in. You can do this by checking out the official websites of favourite artists or shows, which should give advanced warning of any upcoming ticket sales.

Step 2: Find out the face value of the tickets

The best way to do this is also to use the official website, where the tickets should be displayed at their original value (before any booking or commission fees are added). Another option is to use the Ticketmaster website. Although it's not advisable to actually buy the tickets from here, they do usually list the original price.

Step 3: Compare Prices

Now you know the face value of your tickets you need to know what cheaper tickets are out there, and the prices they're being sold at. The best way to do this is to visit a comparison website. TixDaq is an excellent one for both music and theatre tickets. It lists the top 20 best-selling concerts on its homepage, and provides a search option. Once you select a specific artist, it allows you to choose the date and venue, and then lists various ticket prices along with a link to the websites selling them.

Step 4: Shop Around

Armed with information from the comparison website you can shop around and try to find the best deal. Have a look at some sites dedicated to the buying and selling of second-hand tickets; try Seatwave, Viagogo, and Scarletmist. People can advertise their unwanted tickets here at the price of their choice (Scarletmist also guarantees all tickets are sold for face value or less). They're easy to use; just browse by date, genre or artist to find the event you're looking for and they will display all the options available. Another great place to find a bargain is Lastminute; its very straightforward to use, and does exactly what it says on the tin! For theatre tickets try Key2London, The London Theatre Box Office, Discount Theatre, and Theatre Tickets Direct. Once again they're all pretty simple, just search the production you want, choose a date and check the availability. It's also worth keeping an eye out for special offers listed on some of these websites; you can get tickets in these offers for up to half-price and deals which include a meal out, so there are some serious bargains to be had!

Step 5: Check out the 'marketplace'

Before committing yourself to anything, it's definitely worth checking out some marketplace websites. Try looking on Gumtree, Craigslist or the Facebook marketplace. These are basically like the classifieds pages of a paper and have ads for absolutely everything! They follow a simple and straightforward format; everything for sale is subdivided into sections so all you have to do is select the relevant category and just scroll through the ads. Remember as well that you can post an ad on any of these sites for wanted tickets. Whilst there are no guarantees that anyone will be selling tickets for the event you want; if someone is, chances are you'll get them for a complete steal! Don't forget as well that it's always worth a look on eBay.

Here's our own comparison of some music and theatre tickets around at the time of writing:

Our Music Ticket Price Comparison
	^{Face Value*}	^Viagogo	^Seatwave	^Gumtree	^TixDaq
Kylie Minogue X Tour	£49	£40	£30	£55	£25
Michael Buble at the O2 Arena	£45	£45	£65	£40	£35

Our Theatre Ticket Price Comparison
	^{Face Value*}	^Key2London	^{Discount Theatre}	^{Theatre Tickets Direct}	^TixDaq	^Lastminute
'Wicked' at the Apollo Victoria	£15-£60	£40.74	£75	£47	£33	£16.50
'Fat Pig' at the Trafalgar Studios	£34-£42.50	£56.65	£56.50	---	£66	£30

*Not inclusive of any booking fee, commission or postage and packing.

Seemingly, Lastminute is the best for theatre tickets and TixDaq is great at finding the cheapest music concert tickets. This does go to show however that there aren't any clear favourites and it doe pay to shop around.

Top ticket tips

Remember that tickets are priced differently according to exactly where they're placed in the venue, so you need to way up the odds of price against how close you are to the stage, or how good your view is. Most ticketing sites should provide a plan of the seating arrangements but if you're still unsure it might be worthwhile calling the venue direct to find out which of the cheaper seats still provide a pretty good position.
If you're a student, apply for press tickets for music concerts. You can usually get in with your student newspaper, magazine or radio station. It will probably only get you into smaller venues, and you might only get the one ticket, but there's always the possibility that you'll get the chance to go backstage and meet the band.
If you're not a student, you could try this method by reviewing the show for a local newspaper or a website. Failing that you could always consider becoming a groupie...
Another great way to get information on live music is to take advantage of your mobile provider. Orange customers can sign up for their free gigs and tours service which lets you choose the artists you're interested in and will let you know about their gigs before they are due to go on sale. Whilst they do provide you with an option to reserve tickets 48 hours before general sale, there's no obligation to do so. Similarly O2 customers can get priority tickets for any music concerts taking place at the O2 arena.
For theatre tickets; if you're not fussy about dates and times, you could try popping into the venue, calling the box office or visiting the 'tkts' ticket booth on the day to find out if there are any available tickets or returns being sold. They'll most likely be for the performance that day or possibly the next, but returned tickets are always sold for less than face value, sometimes up to half price, so you could save a packet!

Things to watch out for

Most of the ticketing websites mentioned unfortunately do charge some form of booking fee and potentially charge for postage of tickets. Make sure you find out the total cost of the ticket once all these additional charges are added on, or you might end up paying more than you had expected.
Bear in mind that if you buy from secondary sources or individuals you won't have the same rights to return the ticket or get your money refunded as you would if you had bought it from the original source or a website such as Seatwave. Always check their terms and conditions so you know exactly what you're entitled to if anything does go wrong.
In this vein, Which? recommend paying for your tickets by credit card as your provider is jointly responsible for any breach of contract, so you're covered if an event is cancelled.
If you're buying from a marketplace website just use some common sense! As they say on the Gumtree website, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Check out their buying and selling top tips for advice on how to stay safe.