Coachella Secondary Prices Tick Up After Midweek Slump
After dipping down to a historic low, prices for a three-day pass to Coachella in Indio, Calif., have bounced back for Weekend 1 (which starts today), although fans can still buy tickets at face…
After dipping to a historic low, prices for a three-day pass to Coachella in Indio, California, have risen slightly for Weekend 1, which started Friday (April 13) — although fans can still buy tickets at face value for Weekend 2.
Tickets for the Goldenvoice-promoted event headlined by Radiohead, Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar are selling for about $625 on StubHub, plus another $130 in fees, a markup of $354 over the ticket’s face value of $399. A VIP ticket to Weekend 1 will cost $1,289 plus $263.25 in fees, a markup of $753 over the $799 asking price.
A glut of supply had pushed the price downward earlier in the week — three-day wristbands were going for as low as $525 plus fees on StubHub, while VIP tickets were priced near the $1,150 mark. Despite the dip in price followed by the slight resurgence, prices on the secondary market are still far cheaper in 2017 than this time last year, explained Patrick Ryan with Eventellect, a ticket pricing and distribution company.
In 2016 on the opening of Weekend 1, “Prices exceeded more than $1,200,” he explained. This year, prices dipped substantially in “large part that so many resellers had positions to liquidate” and “fans who waited last year paid a premium, but this year fans going to Weekend 1 benefited by waiting.”
There is also more ticket inventory for Coachella this year than this same time in 2016. Besides more tickets being sold to the public — last year, Indio officials approved a gradual, multi-year increase in capacity from 99,000 to 125,000 — Ryan thinks more brokers bought tickets after last year’s high markups, flooding resale sites like StubHub and VividSeats with tickets.
Fans who wait until the second weekend of Coachella (April 21-23) can get an even better deal, explained Ralph Garcia with TiqIQ, an online marketplace for tickets.
“Weekend 2’s cheapest ticket last week was $518, and that’s actually decreased down to a get-in price of $409 as of this morning” — a markup of only $10 over face value, meaning fans who waited until the last minute will pay about the same as fans who competed for tickets during the January on-sale.
“Similar to Weekend 1, we’re going to estimate that prices will go up throughout this week as inventory dwindles down,” Garcia said.
An even better deal are Weekend 2 VIP tickets, which are currently priced at $750 on StubHub, $50 below face value. With plenty of VIP inventory available, fans have the luxury of taking advantage of the low prices now or waiting and hoping prices drop even lower.
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