by Ben Butler Contributor | Photos by WENN

Tags: Neil Young, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who 

The highest-grossing event in music history is coming

Desert Trip festival is going to break records with The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, and the Who

 

Desert Trip is set to be the highest-grossing event in music history Photo: WENN

Desert Trip festival features the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and the Who - and, all 70,000 of the three-day tickets for each of the festival’s two weekends have sold out in under three hours.

Last year’s highest grossing festival was Coachella – run by the same organisers putting on Desert Trip, on the same site near Palm Springs, California made $84.26m over two weekends, according to Forbes.

Yet, Billboard reports the gross revenues from ticket sales reach $150m (£104m) would make Desert trip, comfortably, the highest-grossing event in music history. Though, the festival’s organisers – Goldenvoice and AEG z – have not made an official announcement about how quickly tickets for the event have sold.

Premium acts come with premium prices, and the 35,000 reserved seats for each weekend sold for between $699 and $1,599, while general admission was $399. The last tickets to sell out were the $199 day passes.

Yet, according to a source from the Guardian, Desert Trip might well be paying between $6m and $9m to each of the six acts - a reason for the higher ticket prices, if ever there was one.

As well as ticket sales, the organisers will be making money from ancillary activities such as selling licenses for catering and luxury camping, with Desert Trip promising “over 30 culinary masterminds” providing food.

The festival takes place over the 9-11 October and 16-18 October in what is set to be record-breaking event. 

If you're getting rather jealous of the festival, tickets for Neil Young's UK and Ireland tour are on sale now. 

See full tour dates below, and get tickets and more information here.

5 June 2016 – SSE Hydro, Glasgow
7 June 2016 - SSE Arena, Belfast
8 June 2016 – 3Arena, Dublin
10 June 2016 – First Direct Arena, Leeds
11 June 2016 – O2 Arena, London 

Below: Brutal band on band insults, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Stone Roses


Ben Butler

Contributor

An unapologetic lover of everything from UKG to garage rock, to anything indie or emo-orientated; Ben has been making up for lost time by going to just about any festival or gig he can sneak into since graduating from University. Having cut his teeth writing for forward-thinking publications like 1883 Magazine, The 405, Gigwise, Public Pressure, and Haptic World he has relished writing on music culture's most ridiculous, asinine qualities to its stratospheric heights. He can be found @Benjaminabutler where he'll be spouting nonsense on anything from the state of modern house music, to the UK festival scene and pop-punk bands or how bar tokens are the worst thing that has happened to live events, ever.

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