US Concert/gig attendance is up by 24% for the first half of this year. Fans bought 13.1m concert tickets to the top 50 concert tours from Jan to Jun, compared with 10.6 m during the same period last year. Gross receipts were up 26% to $678m, up from $538m in 2001.
Gary Bongiovanni of live music industry magazine Pollstar said: "We're back up to kind of where we were in 2000. We had progressively been selling fewer tickets as the prices escalated."
It is believed that the drop in ticket sales after 2000 was due to the increasing price of tickets. While increases have slowed down this year (the average ticket is up $1 in price, they were up $3 last year) the actual recovery of the industry is more likely down to the fact that many of this year's big tours were by acts who draw a more 'mature' audience – ie audience who are able to fork out £35 for a ticket. The top-grossing tours was the Elton John and Billy Joel co-headliners which was $113 a ticket.
The top 10 concert tours from January to June, and their grosses:
1. Elton John-Billy Joel, $52.7m
2. The Rolling Stones, $37.4m
3. The Dixie Chicks, $35.1m
4. Celine Dion, $33.2m
5. Cher, $31.7m
6. Tim McGraw, $30.6m
7. Fleetwood Mac, $28.3m
8. Eagles, $27.2m
9. Bon Jovi, 26.9m
10. Kenny Chessney, $24.4m
Where's Justin?