Lisa Mayoh: Forget the merch, save your cash and just enjoy the show

The price to see the likes of Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo have gone to insane levels. But there’s one rip-off at a concert you need to avoid.

I am a live music girl. Always have been. Can’t (and won’t) sit in my seat during a concert and will dance the night away, happy to get caught up in the buzz when good humans just want to have a bop and sing along to good music.

But, like many of you I’m sure, I also have PTSD from the dreaded spinning Ticketek wheel of death that holds your future in its hands.

Will you get your golden ticket?
A good seat? Enough seats?

It is one in, all in, after all – on the right night in the right city?

Fan brave long queues and blazing sun to get merchandise — despite the hefty price tag. Picture: Flavio Brancaleone

It’s a lot of pressure.

But when you get your hot little hands on what your heart desires; that golden ticket, it’s like you’ve won the lottery — and you often need to have done just that. Tickets are hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

If I told you how much I spent on Taylor Swift you’d cry — then there was Pink, Olivia Rodrigo for one daughter, The Weeknd for another; the amazing (like really amazing) Luke Combs for me and the hubby, and, at the moment, Billie Eilish and our very own Kylie are in town.

How good is that?

Money on tickets I don’t begrudge, though — an experience is an experience and they’re always worth every last cent.

What does get me spinning around is the eye-watering cost for merch. Judging by the never-ending queues though, most fans think that $220 for a hoodie is OK – and I’m not sure how.

Health insurance is going up, a trip to the shops for milk and bananas will set you back a small fortune and a night out is already a splurge.

A hat, I get, maybe a T-shirt ... a memento to remember the epic night of soul-filling music is lovely.

But people really spend. Merch lines snake around like a maze as the music plays, fans oblivious to the playlist they’re missing, determined to get their hands on the stuff.

So I’m going to say something I think we all know, but may have lost track of in consumer-crazy madness. The stuff doesn’t matter.

Being in the crowd for your favourite song, phone away, truly enjoying the moment instead of trying so hard to memorialise it by way of an overpriced hoodie or three-minute video on your phone you’ll never watch again – that’s what you’ll remember.

Be there. All there. Appreciate the way a truly gifted artist can mesmerise a 90,000-strong crowd just by opening their mouths, strumming a guitar or looking you in the eye, making you feel like the only one in the room.

Unlike the merch, that feeling is priceless.

Do you have a story for The Daily Telegraph? Message 0481 056 618 or email [e-mail]