Millions of concert tickets snapped up as a tour deluge hits Australia
More than 60 international and Aussie artist tours have been announced with tickets on sale, and they’re being snapped up quickly.
Music Tours
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Australian promoters are locked in fierce competition for the concert dollar as more than 60 tours have been put on sale in the past month.
The hottest ticket was for American country superstar Luke Combs whose six huge stadium shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane sold out in minutes on September 25.
Frontier Touring chief operating officer Susan Heymann, who has been at the forefront of fostering the country music box office boom in Australia, said Combs had “crushed it” with his ticket sales, who will kick off the 2025 season with one of the biggest tours of the year.
And next year’s CMC Rocks country music festival also sold out quickly.
“In the last few weeks we are definitely seeing a bit of a saturation point with tour announces but it’s too early to see if that is impacting sales,” she said.
“That may depend on pay cycles and when people are able to buy but it feels really healthy out there.”
Heymann said one of the big growth sectors of the markets was the female pop tours.
A raft of marquee artists with loyal fanbases in Australia including Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue and Katy Perry are vying for box office supremacy.
Dua Lipa has posted the sold-out sign at the box office for seven of her eight arena concerts in Sydney and Melbourne next March with limited tickets available for the fifth gig at Rod Laver Arena.
Minogue’s Tension tour is tracking well with two out of 10 shows sold out since general tickets went on sale on Wednesday.
After her star performance at the AFL Grand Final last weekend, there was huge demand for Katy Perry’s return with her Lifetimes tour next June when the box office opened on Friday, with 11 out of 13 shows sold out within three hours. She sold more than 125,000 tickets during the pre-sales and general sale.
“I am deeply thankful to all my fans in Australia for their incredible support and enthusiasm. It means the world to me to share this tour and a lifetime (so far) of all your favourite songs and more. Get ready for that specky!” Perry said, joking about learning the Aussie slang for spectacular during her AFL visit.
Heymann said newly minted stars such as Gracie Abrams have been upgraded to bigger venues compared to their first visits here, reflecting their dominance of the pop charts and streaming playlists.
Fans are already primed for British pop disrupter Charli XCX to reveal the dates for her Australian Brat Summer. The exciting performer is rumoured to be headlining the Laneway Festival next year and may add headlining side shows to satisfy demand from younger fans shut-out of the festival because of age restrictions.
“It’s definitely the era of the pop girl; it’s clearly a big moment for those artists and we’re yet to see Charli XCX, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter announce their return to Australia,” Heymann said.
“Country fans are also still hungry for more shows.”
While the deluge of tours by international artists has been embraced by fans and a relief to promoters who face tighter profit margins because of the state of the Australian dollar, it’s a different story for Aussie artists hitting the road.
Heritage artists are in strong demand, with Cold Chisel’s The Big Five-O anniversary tour of big tents, outdoor venues and arenas selling a whopping 180,000 tickets.
Hoodoo Gurus have also posted the sold out sign on many of the shows on their Back to the Stoneage shows which kicks off next month.
But Amy Shark captured how tough it is in the saturated market in late September when she posted an impassioned plea to her fans to snap up the remaining tickets for her Sadness tour which kicks off in Melbourne on October 18.
“It’s actually been really fun touring in the same month as Olivia Rodrigo and Travis Scott, Kid Laroi and now Jesse Reyez. It’s good, it’s really good,” she deadpanned.
“A few shows sold out, it kinda went quick, and now they’ve just … flatlined. BEEEP.
“I know I should be grateful, ‘cos there’s thousands and thousands of tickets sold, but I like sellouts. I really, really like sellouts. Go get tickets now!”
Select Music CEO Stephen Wade, whose agency books tours for dozens of popular local artists including Amy Shark, Thelma Plum, Ball Park Music and Lime Cordiale, said while sales may have slowed for some bigger acts, young emerging artists are killing it in smaller venues.
He said young music fans between 18 and 25 years and Gen X gig goers were driving strong box office demand for the artists they love.
But acts whose fanbases are aged between 30 and 45 were up against cost of living and interest rate pressures as those concertgoers still had big outgoings with mortgages and children.
“The demand for the Cold Chisel tickets show there are still hundreds of thousands of people who will go to see live music,” he said.
“But there is one demographic which has been hit harder by cost of living pressure and that’s the 30 to 40 year olds who might think I will give the tour a miss this time because I can see them play in another 18 months or so.”
Wade said Aussie artists were also in desperate need of more venues around the 1000-seat capacity in capital cities to make touring sustainable after the pandemic shutdown of gigs forced many to close.
Heymann said artists are increasingly conscious of offering accessible price points to fans weighing up on spending their discretionary income to see their favourite artists.
Most of the international tours are keeping the top tier tickets – not VIP packages – under $400 and offering cheaper, nosebleed seats around $100 or less.
“An artist like Luke Combs or Billie Eilish are very conscious about ticket prices and as shown by their sales, it seems fans are feeling comfortable about getting value for their money.”
Other international tours expected to be heading to Australia in the next 12 months include Oasis, the Rolling Stones, Morgan Wallen and Zach Bryan.
THE GIG DELUGE
All the tours announced in last four weeks.
INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS
Stadium/Outdoors
Luke Combs
Green Day
Ultra Festival
Coldplay (last tix)
Arena
Katy Perry
The Killers
Dua Lipa
Theatre/Club/Pub
Soft Cell
X Ambassadors
Dionne Warwick
Supergrass
Peggy Gou
The Roots
Role Model
Herbie Hancock
Still Woozy
The Libertines
Kristin Hersh
Khruangbin
Rufus Wainwright
Stone Temple Pilots
Kygo
Gillian Welsh and David Rawlings
City and Colour
The Dare
Becky Hill
The Primitives
Leon Bridges
Sigur Ros
BADBADNOTGOOD
Finneas
STRFKR
Kim Churchill
Two Door Cinema
Peach Pit
Los Chicos
Fletcher (rescheduled dates)
Selfish Sons
The Longest Johns
Calum Scott
AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS
Stadium/Outdoors
Spilt Milk House Party
Chase Atlantic
Red Hot Summer tour
CMC Rocks
Bluesfest third line-up
Arenas
Keith Urban
Kylie Minogue
Theatre/Club/Pub
Sycco
Kasey Chambers
Human Nature
The Amity Affliction
TISM
Black Sorrows
The Jungle Giants
A. Swayze & the Ghosts
Mick Thomas’s Roving Commission
PNAU
John Butler
The Ferguson Rogers Process
When Kev Met Bob Rides Again
Screaming Jets
Wafia
Kate Miller-Heidke
The Ripple Effect Band
Illy
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