It was a special day on Tuesday, July 15 for Paul McCartney fans who registered for the presale for his Sept. 29 concert at Acrisure Arena, but many locals who were fortunate enough to make it to the portal to buy tickets are singing “You Never Give Me Your Money” after seeing prices ranging from $800 to nearly $1,700 each.
When a Desert Sun reporter checked the presale around 1 p.m., there were only a handful of tickets left, and those that remained cost $1,659 each.
According to Instagram user @espiritu_libre38 on Acrisure Arena’s Instagram page, presale tickets were sold out after “waiting in line almost an hour.”
“Tickets were $1,659. I stood no chance,” Instagram user @myampfel said. User @derekmack7556 faced a similar issue, adding “How was the minimum priced ticket over $300?!? Highway robbery.”
Fans will have another opportunity to purchase tickets at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 18 at acrisurearena.com/event/paul-mccartney.
The Beatles star is kicking off his Got Back tour in Palm Desert — the only California stop on the tour — before heading to 15 other cities across the U.S. and Canada. The tour will end in Chicago with two shows at the United Center on Nov. 24 and 25.
Other Paul McCartney tour stops face similar pricing
It wasn’t just the opening night of the tour in Palm Desert at Acrisure Arena that came with a high ticket price. One Reddit user said ticket prices for one of the final two shows of the tour in Chicago at the United Center showed $1,200 and another reported paying $650 for “nosebleeds” for the Oct. 17 show at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
“This felt like trying to get tickets to the Taylor Swift or Oasis tours. The dynamic pricing and bots/resellers made this so expensive and out of control, and I had to wait 197K people deep in my queue. I’m fortunate that my mom is who I’m going with and that she was willing for fork over $2500 for our 6th row lower bowl tickets, but if I were going on my own or with a friend I would’ve been seriously priced out,” said Reddit user ConsiderationCrazy22.
At 83, McCartney is one of the most beloved singers in history. In 2009, the former Beatle headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at 66, and he remains the oldest Coachella headliner in the festival’s history. He played a marathon of a closing set on opening night of the three-day event that was all anyone could talk about, according to The Desert Sun journalist who reviewed it. McCartney’s set also went 54 minutes over curfew, resulting in Goldenvoice paying a $54,000 fine at $1,000 a minute back then.
For two weekends in October 2016, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters, and The Who performed during Desert Trip at the Empire Polo Club — the same venue as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach country music festival — as part of a one-off festival created by Los Angeles promoter Goldenvoice. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see literal legends responsible for the songs that have made up the soundtracks of so many lives.
McCartney, who headlined both Saturdays and performed after Young, performed sets that included Beatles, Wings, and his 2013 album “New.” When he performed a Beatles classic, he told the crowd that cell phones lit up the field like a starry galaxy, which was the case when he was joined by Young for “A Day In The Life,” John Lennon’s “Give Peace A Chance,” “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road.”
Paul McCartney tour dates
Can’t get a ticket to the Acrisure show? Try your hand at one of the other tour stops releasing tickets at 10 a.m. local on July 18.
Here’s the full tour schedule:
Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment for the Desert Sun. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Fans voice frustration as Paul McCartney Acrisure Arena presale tickets go for $1,659
Reporting by Brian Blueskye, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
