How Beyoncé and Katy Perry are main a post-pandemic VIP tour bundle craze

When Beyoncé brings her much-anticipated “Renaissance” world tour to MetLife Stadium this Saturday and Sunday, elite members of the Beyhive shall be buzzing inside stinging distance of their Queen B.

The most popular — and most costly — tickets, which offered out instantly, are two VIP experiences named after “Pure/Honey,” the penultimate monitor on Bey’s Grammy-winning “Renaissance” album, which permit the famous person’s followers to observe the present from risers onstage.

Along with a devoted bar and restroom, a limited-edition tour reward and extra, these prepared to drop a whopping $5,000 — assuming they have been even capable of seize the tickets at face worth — will discover themselves within the entrance row of the risers, shut sufficient to get in formation with Beyoncé herself.

Stage-side seating is simply one of many next-level VIP perks being rolled out because the stay music enterprise bounces again with a post-pandemic bang.

Now that the times of social distancing are over, artists are all about giving followers A-list entry, permitting concertgoers to rise up shut and private with intimate experiences that embody all the pieces from doing pre-show pictures of tequila with Katy Perry to hopping a tour bus to trek round Europe with the Backstreet Boys.

“Individuals have been simply hungry … and then you definately open the floodgates,” stated Eddie Meehan, CEO and founding father of Please & Thank You, the fan-engagement firm behind Backstreet Boys’ European expertise, in addition to VIP choices for everybody from Justin Timberlake to Mötley Crüe.

“Individuals need to be a part of the present. Individuals need to be near it.”

And whereas there may be rampant fan demand, there may be additionally pent-up want from the artists to make connections— and money.

“Quite a lot of artists try to make up for the loss within the pandemic,” stated Dave Brooks, senior director of stay music and touring at Billboard. “You already know, ‘What can we promote?’”

Which explains the way you get a pop famous person reminiscent of Katy Perry boozing it up with followers as a part of her “Firework” VIP Expertise for her “Play” present at Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas, which begins its last run of dates this weekend. That top-tier bundle — which additionally features a “sensible” seat, a person picture op with Perry and a number of her favourite sushi and sake — prices a cool $1,999.

However that will look like a cut price in comparison with the expertise Meehan cooked up for Mötley Crüe followers on the group’s co-headlining stadium tour with Def Leppard final summer season. Along with all the same old VIP perks — together with the OG meet-and-greet picture op — you bought an autographed guitar from the band that despatched the bundle topping out round $5,000.

And for one thing much more intimate and interactive, Meehan’s firm organized a VIP bundle for New York indie pop trio AJR that included taking part in dodgeball with them.

For when an evening to recollect isn’t sufficient, some artists are bringing their followers with them on trip. That’s precisely what shall be happening when Lionel Richie’s Dancing on the Sand takes place on the famend Atlantis resort within the Bahamas Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Packages vary from about $3,900 to about $6,500 for 2 individuals.

“We’re gonna construct a stage on the seashore, the place Lionel goes to carry out for about 2,000 to three,000 individuals,” stated Howard Cohen, president of Vibee, a brand new arm of Dwell Nation specializing in music-oriented vacation spot experiences.

“It’s very, very intimate,” he added of the occasion, which will even embody Sheryl Crow and disco legends Nile Rodgers & Stylish. “We’re going to be internet hosting a hearth chat, the place it’s going to be a one-on-one dialog with Lionel speaking about his storied profession.”

That’s a variety of face time for the followers — the other of what they’ll get from main live performance divas Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, who don’t even have direct contact with their VIP bundle holders.

Swift’s extra primary providing on her epic Eras tour topped out at about $900, and Brooks doesn’t assume that something dearer than the near-$5,000 price ticket of Beyoncé’s priciest of 5 VIP experiences could be a superb search for her.

“It seems such as you’re simply gouging individuals,” he stated.