Hart fans say ticket prices are a joke

MONEY'S WORTH? Kevin Hart. Picture: Youtube

MONEY'S WORTH? Kevin Hart. Picture: Youtube

Published Sep 7, 2015

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SOCIAL media are abuzz over hefty ticket prices for upcoming tours by international acts, among them US comedian Kevin Hart, whose top ticket at Durban’s International Convention Centre (ICC) on March 28 will set you back R2 925.

Another eyebrow-raiser is that the top ticket for Hart’s concert at Joburg’s Ticketpro Dome on March 30 costs a whopping R3 825.

A spokesman for tour organiser Real Concerts, replying to comments on Twitter, said it was expensive to bring an artist of Hart’s calibre to South Africa. The top ticket prices included a “platinum hospitality suite, snacks and drinks, parking and the best seats in the house”.

Meanwhile, after tickets for the Mumford & Sons tour sold out in two minutes last week, some tickets are appearing online for up to 14 times the official R499 price.

Tickets are on sale on the viagogo website for as much as R7 000 each for the concert on February 6 at Pretoria’s 25 000-seater Voortrekker Monument amphitheatre.

They are on sale for R4 311 for the February 3 concert at Durban’s Botanic Gardens.

Misha Loots, the project director for tour organiser’s Hilltop Live, said the band were disappointed.

It was always the intention of Mumford & Sons to offer affordable tickets to their fans, he added.

“The band worked very closely with us to get to a ‘crazy’ ticket price for a really nice, comfortable and quality show. They never once asked how much money is in it for them,” said Loots.

“If these tickets end up online at five times the price, it undermines the intention of the concerts,” he added.

Durban’s Karen Campbell-Gillies said on Facebook: “Botanic Gardens is a lovely but very small venue. The polo fields at Shongweni would be much better for Mumford & Sons.”

Many fans of comedian Hart, star of stand-up comedy, film and TV, were aghast at prices for his tour next year when bookings opened at Computicket on Friday.

The lowest price is R400 at each venue, which includes a performance at Cape Town’s Grand Arena on March 26, where, as with the show at Durban’s ICC, a top-price ticket costs R2 925.

YFM radio presenter Themba Mbolekwa tweeted that at that price “I expect Kevin Hart to pause and bring me food and liquor every hour”.

Another Twitter user, Nick Frost, said the comedian was “already telling jokes with his ticket prices and he hasn’t even landed in SA yet”.

“Not worth it. Is he bringing 10 set changes, a dance troupe and 500 Cher-type costumes?” commented Durban playwright-actor Clinton Marius on Facebook.

 

Theatre producer Sandy Bigara, who recently emigrated from Durban to Australia, said on Facebook: “Surprising! Convert to Aussie dollars and that would be $292.50. Very, very expensive.”

Top Durban theatre producer Steven Stead was more sympathetic. “It’s what it costs. Maybe Durbanites will think twice before declaring that a R300 ticket for a big, glossy musical is over-priced.”

Hart tour organisers were unavailable for comment.

 

The Mercury

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