One Direction: How much do your concert tickets cost, compared to elsewhere?

Last year’s Bieber fever has been surpassed by the stampede to buy One Direction concert tickets – even though the boy band won’t hit our shores for nearly a year.

Directioners (otherwise known as fans) queued for up to 15 hours to get their hands on tickets at Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates, Abu Dhabi Mall and The Villagio Mall in Doha. The On The Road Again Tour 2015 comes to Dubai on 4 April next year and is expected to draw a crowd of 30,000.

The Middle East has begun to draw big names, such as JayZ, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna and, most recently, Justin Timberlake.

But just how much are you paying compared to a fan in another country? We did a general and VIP concert tickets comparison for the biggest, latest three concerts – One Direction, Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga – to see how the UAE shapes up against London, Houston, Melbourne and Montreal as a venue.

Our findings:

• Tickets were cheapest in the US for general admission and VIP tickets, compared to other countries; One Direction tickets are 20 percent cheaper in the US than Dubai.
• General admission tickets were most expensive in the UAE; Justin Timberlake tickets were 54 percent more expensive and Lady Gaga tickets a whopping 74 percent more in the UAE  than in the States. Purchasing tickets online, using a credit card may cost you a few extra dirhams. However, it’s worth remembering that in the UAE, you may end up in a much smaller crowd (30,000 for 1D in Dubai compared to 90,000 at London’s Wembley) with less of a crush and smaller queues for the loos, food and getting out. And public transport is cheaper in the UAE, with venues often a lot closer to home than they would be in big cities elsewhere, not forgetting some people would actually have to travel INTO a city and pay for overnight accommodation too.
• VIP tickets were most expensive in Australia. But the prices for VIP tickets can vary according to the many different benefits offered, such as unlimited food and beverages, goodies, pre-show hospitality, private parties and collectable memorabilia.
• Remember, it’s not always easy to do like-for-like comparisons: Venues may have huge ranges and brackets of concert tickets according to the venue size and seating arrangements. For instance, the Du Arena in Abu Dhabi has a capacity of around 25,000 people, compared to the NGR Stadium in Texas, which can hold more than 70,000 people. With a smaller venue size, you’re more likely to get close to the stage and get a better view of the show.

Table 1: General admission concert tickets (price per person)

Table 2: VIP concert tickets (price per person)

Table 3: Concert tickets – the venues and dates

Sources: Ticketmaster, Ladygaga.com, Onedirectionmusic.com, Justintimberlake.com, Axs