A Coachella Weekend Is So Expensive That More Than Half of Attendees Used a Payment Plan

Move over KMart, layaway plans are growing in popularity for the concert industry as costs for festivals like Coachella continue to soar.Organizers are trying to convince shallow-pocketed fans in their 20s that four-figure price tags are affordable if they just break up the payments.The concert-goer is offered a low down payment and then payment plans that can stretch for months.General Admission tickets for a three-day pass to the Coachella festival in California this year is $549 plus $50 in fees. Shuttles to the festival can add another $150 to the cost. Hotel packages will add $1,000 or more for the long weekend and buying food or drinks can add hundreds more to the bill. That’s not chump change for young fans to experience the musical acts and surprise guests like Congressman Bernie Sanders.About 60 percent of general admission ticket buyers at this year’s Coachella festival turned to a festival payment plan system, according to Billboard. Along with the tickets, there are also payment plans for lodging and transportation. That can leave fans paying on multiple accounts at the same time.A Reddit thread on the pros and cons of purchase plans had differing opinions.“If you can’t afford to buy the tickets outright, the answer is that you shouldn’t be attending festivals,” user Wrbhawkeye said.Others said that the payment plans are a good deal for people who can afford the festivals and all of their add-on expenses.“I pay off my credit card every month, but the fact that the plan fee is so low and there’s no other interest means you’re essentially getting a loan from the festival at a super low interest rate,” user muchies777 said. The use of payment plans is becoming more popular with Lollapalooza, Electric Daisy Carnival, and Rolling Loud selling the majority of their tickets through payment plans, according to Billboard.Unlike payment systems used by consumers to buy things like couches and beds, the payment systems used by most festival promoters are not from credit providers and don’t require a credit history check. They are run by the ticketing companies as a service to the events with no interest charged.The concertgoer puts a deposit down to secure their ticket and then the balance is divided into equal monthly payments leading up to the festival. Ticket buyers are charged a fee for using the payment plans. Coachella has a $41 fee. The fees are generally cheaper than financing a ticket on a credit card that can have interest rates topping 20 percent.For Coachella, if someone defaults on their payment plan, the money already paid is issued as a “Coachella Credit” that can be used to pay for the following year’s event but the funds will expire 12 months from time of issuance. An industry source told Billboard that it is rare for a fan to default on tickets after two payments have been made.The ticketing plans are not just for music festivals. On Location creates premium live event experiences around sports and entertainment events from the Super Bowl to the Olympics. It offers various monthly payment plans including one with a small deposit with two large payments ahead of the event date, and one with a small deposit and then one big payment before the event.

A Coachella Weekend Is So Expensive That More Than Half of Attendees Used a Payment Plan

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