Music fans cite the toilet queue as their biggest turn-off at concerts and festivals

A major survey has revealed what festival goers hate, with the findings potentially the key to saving the industry.

Live music fans are over the vibe killers of long toilet queues and delays to get transport or exit parking stations after concerts and festivals.

The 2024 Live Music Census revealed long queues to get into venues and at bar and food stalls were also putting fans off going to gigs.

The Winarch Group survey found toilet queues were the No. 1 pet hate for gig goers with 67 per cent females citing it as the biggest frustration at shows. Surprisingly, 50 per cent of male respondents also said they hate toilet queues, with this result most likely referring to hideous festival portaloos.

Head of Winarch Live Ewen Craig said just because toilet queues have always been a fact of life at gigs doesn’t mean venue operators and promoters shouldn’t fix the problem.

Taylor Swift fans queued for hours in Sydney and Melbourne to buy merchandise before her Eras Tour shows. Picture: David Swift.

“It is still a major problem because most of the big venues, mostly for festivals, are temporary and they have to bring in toilets,” he said.

But there has been a stealthy erosion of the value of a music ticket for audiences at stadium concerts for pop stars including Taylor Swift, Coldplay, P!nk, Pearl Jam and even Cold Chisel this year caused by the hassle of getting home.

Thousands of fans are missing out on up to half an hour of a show because they leave early to beat long queues for trains and buses or the hour-long delays to exit parking stations.

Fans at Splendour in the Grass waited four hours for buses in 2022. Photo: Instagram structuralartsaus

Craig said behavioural scientists who have charted the experience of the gig-goer from buying a ticket to getting home after the gig found they were treated as a fan until the lights came on at the end of the show and then as a trespasser getting immediately kicked out of the venue.

He said more venue and entertainment precinct operators should adopt the Sydney Olympic Park model which has food trucks, light night bars and buskers for fans after the show to alleviate bottlenecks at train stations and parking lots.

“You see it at all the big stadium or outdoor shows now where people will miss the last five songs because they are trying to beat the traffic,” he said.

“Some of that problem comes down to licensing rules not allowing bars in the venue or the surrounding area to stay open, but if they were allowed an extra half-hour of trading, that would stop the exodus.”

Food trucks and bars stayed open after the Coldplay concerts at Sydney Olympic Park. Picture: Jonathan Ng

The census found 74 per cent of respondents said they would be encouraged to go to gigs if ticket prices were lower.

“Cost of living is real and tickets are expensive and that is one of the reasons festivals have fallen away because people won’t pay big money to see just one or two of their favourite acts. They’ll wait to see them do their own tour,” Craig said.

“They will come back but festival promoters have to redesign what they are offering and make it more approachable and affordable for a new generation of fans.”

A surprise result of the survey was that 29 per cent of people want earlier show times, but Craig said that may also be a reflection of fans being frustrated by artists going on stage late for no valid reason.

“Going back in time, I remember when Rihanna went onstage more than an hour late in Adelaide and her audience was a lot of 16-year-olds at the time and they booed her. She didn’t go on late again on that tour,” he said.