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Oliver Anthony was scheduled to perform at the Cotton Eyed Joe in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 27, 2023, as part of his ongoing series of solo shows across the mainland United States. However, the singer canceled the show on September 11, 2023, due to the high price of the tickets, which he considers unacceptable.
The singer announced the cancellation of the show, which had tickets priced as high as $90 and $200 for the meet and greet, via a post on his official Facebook page.
Oliver Anthony guarantees $25 and free meet and greets on all upcoming shows
Hours before the cancellation, Oliver Anthony informed fans via an Instagram post not to buy the tickets, stating he was trying to work out a solution to the ticket prices:
“Don’t buy $90 Cotton Eyed Joe tickets or $200 for a meet and greet. That’s not acceptable. My shows should never cost more than $40, ideally no more than $25.This will get straightened out tonight. Hold off on buying tickets for now.”
When the show was canceled, Oliver Anthony came forward with another post, addressing how his performances will be structured price-wise in the future, where he elaborated that all shows he performs will be priced at $25 going forward, except for festival shows such as Louder than Life.
While Oliver Anthony canceled the show over the high prices of the tickets, the venue, Cotton Eyed Joe, reached out to tell their side of the equation and why they set the prices so high in a press release on their Facebook page, stating:
“The North Man of Richmond contracted to play the Cotton Eyed Joe for $120,000 for 60 minutes.... after doing the math and knowing we can only hold apprx. 1500 people, paying the ticket website their fee to sell the tickets, paying the tax man, opening the JOE on a closed night... we set the ticket price to break even and bring our customers a show we thought would be fun.”
The statement continued:
“To our talent agency and promotor friends that follow us... be careful booking the North Man of Richmond.”
Ticketing debacle and Oliver Anthony
With his cancellation of the concert over ticket prices, Oliver Anthony became the latest musician to weigh in on the growing discussion on tickets and ticket prices in the music industry.
Earlier this year, Neil Young reacted to The Cure ticket price debacle, where Ticketmaster processing fees doubled the price of tickets, suggesting that the high ticket prices were making tours and concerts unviable for most fans of the band due to the hassle required to procure such expensive tickets.
More prominently, the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster debacle has landed the company and its parent division, Live Nation, in a legal problem, with a Congressional hearing at the US Senate being conducted on the matter on January 24, 2023.
The ticketing debacle has also spread to the UK, where James Acaster fans were met with multiple crashed sites and sold-out screens as ticketing vendors could not keep up with the comedian’s tour ticket demands.
