Desert Trip fest poised to become highest-grossing music event

PanARMENIAN.Net - Desert Trip festival features the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and the Who - and, all 70,000 of the three-day tickets for each of the festival’s two weekends have sold out in under three hours, Gigwise said.

Last year’s highest grossing festival was Coachella – run by the same organisers putting on Desert Trip, on the same site near Palm Springs, California made $84.26m over two weekends, according to Forbes.

Yet, Billboard reports the gross revenues from ticket sales reach $150m would make Desert trip, comfortably, the highest-grossing event in music history. Though, the festival’s organisers – Goldenvoice and AEG z – have not made an official announcement about how quickly tickets for the event have sold.

Premium acts come with premium prices, and the 35,000 reserved seats for each weekend sold for between $699 and $1,599, while general admission was $399. The last tickets to sell out were the $199 day passes.

Yet, according to a source from the Guardian, Desert Trip might well be paying between $6m and $9m to each of the six acts - a reason for the higher ticket prices, if ever there was one.

As well as ticket sales, the organisers will be making money from ancillary activities such as selling licenses for catering and luxury camping, with Desert Trip promising “over 30 culinary masterminds” providing food.

The festival takes place over the 9-11 October and 16-18 October in what is set to be record-breaking event.

See full tour dates below:

5 June 2016 – SSE Hydro, Glasgow 7 June 2016 - SSE Arena, Belfast 8 June 2016 – 3Arena, Dublin 10 June 2016 – First Direct Arena, Leeds 11 June 2016 – O2 Arena, London