The concert at Werchter sold out within a few hours

“We can’t find any available tickets at this time. Please try again later.” Anyone who wasn’t there right away to buy tickets for Bruce Springsteen at Werchter’s was out of luck. Despite the high ticket prices.

“Will this be the last time Bruce Springsteen paints the E Street Band’s rock history in beautiful sepia on Belgian soil?” We wondered last summer in a great review of Bruce Springsteen’s TW Classic concert. The answer, as it turned out earlier this week, was no: On Tuesday it was announced that the president would visit Werchter’s Prairie again on Tuesday, July 2. A few hours after tickets went on sale on Friday, all tickets were sold out.

“We currently cannot find any available tickets, please try again later,” read the Ticketmaster website for those who did not join the digital waitlist after 10 a.m. However, a single ticket costs €138, which is a bit more expensive than the €114.5 I paid for the TW Classic last year. Then you also have concerts by Simply Red, Triggerfinger and Jack Johnson: This year’s The Boss concert is not part of the TW Classic or Rock Werchter festival day, so you’re only paying for the show by Springsteen and his E Street Band.

Live Nation spokesman Nele Bigaré said Friday in response that the increased ticket price was not set by concert promoter Live Nation. Homo. Since this is just a Springsteen concert, the ticket price is set by Bruce Springsteen’s entourage.

Pay for unique products

It fits in with the increasing age you also see with concert and festival awards. Between 2019 and 2023, Rock Werchter tickets have become 20 percent more expensive, up to €292 for a combined ticket. In the case of Pukkelpop, the price has risen by almost 30 percent in the same period. Among other things, experts reported in this newspaper last year that a reassessment of live events following coronavirus lockdowns increases the public’s willingness to tolerate price increases.

This certainly applies to performances of Bruce Springsteen’s caliber. “Artists like Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen are such unique products that they are automatically paid a lot of money for them,” business economics professor Bruno Cassiman (University of Leuven) said last year. “Because there are a limited number of places, prices can sometimes go up.”

Fans of The Boss don’t seem to have a problem with this: the man behind “Born to Run” and “Thunder Road” has an impeccable live reputation and there’s a growing notion that the 73-year-old Springsteen wouldn’t make it. Continue the tour indefinitely. There is undoubtedly something to it. “One thing is for sure,” we decided last year. “Bruce Springsteen will always be the boss, you and I are clumsy water bearers addicted to music.”