ABBA Voyage Concert Experience

[theatreian]

Tickets start at £21, there will I imagine be several prices depending on view etc and some are standing at the front. Some information on link below:

abbavoyage.com/tickets

More general info plus a look at the seating plan here:


www.ticketmaster.co.uk/abba-voyage?int_cmp_name=ABBA-Voyage-2022&int_cmp_id=UK-Home-601&int_cmp_creative=Home-main-1

[FairyGodmother]

Sept 3, 2021 11:37:55 GMT @stuckattheback said:

There's also this. I'm not an ABBA superfan by any stretch. But I think this looks quite cool, actually. My only concern is that they will look like ants, even from the standing area. I still think people would go crazy for a couple of live performances but I guess they just don't want to do it, which is totally ok. If it's reasonably priced, I can see myself going.

Would they have to though? If they're computer generated there's no real reason why you couldn't make them bigger.

I suppose you risk any real humans looking like Borrowers, but it could be done!

[alece10]

My code has just arrived.

[talkingheads]

Sept 4, 2021 14:21:16 GMT alece10 said:

My code has just arrived.

Given how the website crashed it seems everyone will have a pre sale code, so tomorrow morning is going to be interesting!

[alece10]

Sept 4, 2021 14:25:30 GMT talkingheads said:

Sept 4, 2021 14:21:16 GMT alece10 said:

My code has just arrived.

Given how the website crashed it seems everyone will have a pre sale code, so tomorrow morning is going to be interesting!

I'm not expecting to get anything but I'll give it a go.

[theatreian]

Well at least there will be plenty of options even after the initial pre sale with 7 shows a week for a couple of years.

[alece10]

I had an e mail from the Abba people earlier as I had contacted them regarding access tickets and the reply I got might give you an idea of what prices are going to be like.
They gave me the price for accessible spaces and an adjacent seat which, I guess, is if you took someone with you and they are going to be:
£86.95 Monday and Thursday, £97 Saturday matinee, Sunday matinee and Sunday evening and £107 Friday and Saturday evening.
So I am guessing the £21 seats are going to be sitting on a park bench down the road and listening to the sound.
Credit cards at the ready folks.

[talkingheads]

What a nightmare the presale was! Ages to get through, then they have the cheek to not let you buy general admission tickets without a hotel! Ended up going for cheap seats.

[anthony40]

I’m in baby- Ant’s off to the ABBA Voyage concert on 30th May!

[mkb]

Can't say I'm surprised. Over £100 a ticket for any decent seat, and standing tickets only available if you also book a hotel, starting at £436 for two in a three-star Holiday Inn Express.

Absolute greed.

[Mark]

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man's world

[anthony40]

BTW, I’m Ant

[theatreian]

I can't quite believe it but managed to get opening night tickets!

[alece10]

Maybe I was lucky as the process was all pretty quick. I was expecting to be in the queue for hours but I was in within 10 minutes.
I had a feeling prices would be high but I have managed to get a couple of tickets for the first Saturday afternoon performance.
And it seemed to let me book without having to buy the CD. I also decided not to pay extra for the souvenir ticket as what would I do with it in reality apart from sticking it with my pile of old tickets and programmes

[floorshow]

Relatively painless getting decent seated tix. Prices are exactly what to expect though - big brand and location.
Can't imagine the edge seats in the horseshoe are going to be great for the (not) holograms but hey, you can watch your holograms on a big screen, I guess.

Incidentally, TMs choose your seat thing can just be ignored and you can pick individual seats from the seatplan

[mkb]

£75-£85, which is a lot, gets you a comfy seat in a prime view in an historic West End venue, watching a cast of 20+ performing live, with a live orchestra, and without the economy of scale of 3,000 capacity.

A large temporary shed in Stratford that will no doubt be too hot in summer and drafty the rest of the time, with only a live band of 12 for 100 minutes, ought to cost considerably less.

The only advance clue that rip-off pricing would be in place was the choice of Ticketmaster as the selling agent

[timothyd]

Got two tickets! Cheap and in the back, but really happy I'm able to go.

Didn't expect it to be so easy and can't wait for the album in November and show in June.
Hope the other songs on the album are as good as the two they've released this week.

[theatreian]

Sept 5, 2021 9:47:21 GMT mkb said:

A large temporary shed in Stratford that will no doubt be too hot in summer and drafty the rest of the time, with only a live band of 12 for 100 minutes, ought to cost considerably less.

The issue here is that this show has had hundreds of people working on it for 5 years so far so I guess a lot of costs to recoup. My tickets were £65 for seated ones which i thought was reasonable given the costs of some concerts. Elton John was charging up to £1000 for some seats.
Concerts have a different pricing structure to theatre, although some theatre can cost well over £200.

[Deleted]

Each to their own but I think that sort of price to not even have a live performance aside from musicians who will obviously have to replicate their performance exactly each night to match the holograms rather than have any individuality is insane. If something ever goes wrong it will surely be blindingly obvious rather than people using their skill to recover/cover it.

When you think about how much effort the band themselves are putting into this you are essentially going to a filmed concert (which they did in special motion capture suits, but it is still just a live performance recording at its core) with some extra special effects. Much of the money spent on this appears to be on the non-visible tech.

You are paying to watch a recording not dissimilar to what you could see on Sky Arts anytime (indeed, whether the performance energy is even half what it was 40 years ago remains to be seen). No chance of seeing anything remotely different to the night before. There is no joy or chance for ongoing creativity and flair in that, and the investors must be laughing all the way to the bank. It seems like a con to me.

And I live less than half an hour from the venue so if I did want to go and stand I'd be pretty annoyed at having to buy a hotel.

[interval99]

Seems Ticketmaster site either works well or you just get stuck in a loop of errors and it crashing when you hit the final payment button.
Will try later.
Congratulations to all who have tickets, it's almost certain to extend booking period soon and at least you know with this new type of show you will be seeing the same lead performers even in ten years

[timothyd]

Sept 5, 2021 10:04:58 GMT @posterj said:

And I live less than half an hour from the venue so if I did want to go and stand I'd be pretty annoyed at having to buy a hotel.

You don't need to buy a hotel, it's optional.

[digipal]

Sept 5, 2021 10:06:20 GMT interval99 said:

Seems Ticketmaster site either works well or you just get stuck in a loop of errors and it crashing when you hit the final payment button.
Will try later.
Congratulations to all who have tickets, it's almost certain to extend booking period soon and at least you know with this new type of show you will be seeing the same lead performers even in ten years

Same here, I had tickets in my basket three times and it crashed at final payment. I’m not trying again for the moment in case I get charged for three sets. I never normally have issues on ticketmaster

[talkingheads]

I'm sure it's a lot more complicated, but aren't we essentially paying £75 for a technician to press a button to start the show each night?

[max]

I wonder how long the band spent in the motion capture suits. I imagine it was a short time, to capture any gestures that seem particularly 'them', especially in the 'between song' moments that will make it feel more real. For the rest of it, they'd surely get younger performers to recreate the dance routines - ABBA weren't great dancers, but there was energy, and they wouldn't move the same way now.

[timothyd]

Sept 5, 2021 10:33:24 GMT max said:

I wonder how long the band spent in the motion capture suits. I imagine it was a short time, to capture any gestures that seem particularly 'them', especially in the 'between song' moments that will make it feel more real. For the rest of it, they'd surely get younger performers to recreate the dance routines - ABBA weren't great dancers, but there was energy, and they wouldn't move the same way now.

Five weeks according to the press release.

The actual band performed every song in the show while wearing motion-capture suits so their movements could be captured accurately (by 160 cameras, over five weeks).