By Ségolène Poirier, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The cost of seeing concerts in Rio has climbed to new heights, the R$190 price (R$90 for students) to see the Rock in Rio event last year was one thing, but on Sunday, fans will pay R$500 to see Bob Dylan perform at Citibank Hall. A recent O Globo report reveals that fans spent R$97 in Santiago, Chile and R$83 in Buenos Aires, raising the question of what is driving the prices so high in the Cidade Maravilhosa.
Even for British eighties pop-squad Duran Duran’s show on the April 30th, in Rio – again at Citibank Hall – tickets are selling for R$180. The same show in São Paulo, on May 2nd, the cost is R$130, and in Buenos Aires, three days later, tickets are only about R$66.
According to experts, one of the reasons for having such expensive concert tickets is the fact that Rio is now one of the most expensive cities in the Americas, and ranked twelfth most expensive in the world.
Yet even though prices are high, Carioca fans are paying. “Eight out of ten shows we do here have sold-out. There are people paying to see these shows in Rio,” says the producer Bernardo Amaral, who acts as booker at HSBC Arena in Barra da Tijuca,
For Amaral, another main cause is the extensive use of half-price tickets for students. “[In] São Paulo half price represents between 30-40 percent of box office, in Rio can oscillate around seventy percent.”
A third reason the O Globo report provides for the high prices of tickets for international shows has to do with the low number of service providers operating in the city. From hotels to sound equipment there are fewer options and less competition, which keeps costs high.
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