Will there be any more concerts at Alton Towers?

Got an idea of how the Alton Towers Resort may develop over the coming seasons? Discuss it here.
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Eagie
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I don’t think so. Well not many anyway.

The reason is all down to this year’s policies. For many people the late offers and deals for both the Alton Towers Live and Black Eyed Peas concerts have left a sour taste in the mouth and I fear that Alton Towers have traded the long term sustainability of these events for short term gain.

As both events this year have had their ticket offers revised substantially closer to the actual date (from changing whether MAP holders can get in on the day to the two for ones), many people are annoyed and will obviously look at how they purchase tickets for Alton Towers concerts in future.

There has been no advantage to either booking early or being a loyal Merlin Annual Pass holder with these events. The people getting the best deal are normal members of the public who have shown no real interest in the event up until the last minute panicking from Alton Towers management.

The situation is likely to be that tickets for any future events do not sell particularly well when released as people, now familiar with Alton Towers and their desperate sales policy, wait for the inevitable price reduction whatever form it takes. The exception to this would be if the act was so popular that tickets would always be at a premium (I am thinking someone along the lines of Kylie or Take That).

Low advance ticket sales for an event are bad news and will leave management with 2 options: either cancel the concert or slash prices. Neither situation is good. On one hand you lose credibility within the industry, destroy links with important players within the concert game and generate a wealth of bad PR. On the other, your event becomes unprofitable.

Either way future events are unlikely.

This is the bed Merlin have made and they must lie in it but it is a great shame. I enjoyed the Pink concert immensely and my wife and daughter are sure to have a good time at Alton Towers Live (I do hope they have improved the way cars exit though) and we would welcome more. Hitting the rides and seeing a concert with the Towers in the background is great and, when it goes right, is good PR for the park. Sadly I think the decision made this year may have cost us future events as they have damaged trust with the general public and fans.
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Badgy
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I'm, not sure I agree.

In general the public, who dont follow Alton Towers/Merlin anouncements hourly like seems to be the case here, dont know or care. Yes MAP holders will be aware but these are a minority of the people that would visit.

I personally think its about the line-up. Pink was a guaranteed seller, whilst BEP arn't the draw they used to be, especially this side of the Atlantic.

My 2 pence worth.

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Eagie
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This is not just a issue for MAP holders as it affects all people who book tickets in advance. You do not need to follow Alton Towers to the extent you suggest to find out the change in offers and deals.

Currently Alton Towers has 733,151 people who follow them on facebook. The 2-4-1 offers will have appeared on their news feeds. And then there is twitter. I do not use that but I assume they have a good following on that too.

Do not dismiss the intelligence of the general public - it is not just sad people like me that notice what is going on.
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Dylan
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Other concert promoters are doing similar deals. I noticed yesterday that Ticketmaster were doing a 2for1 offer for Hyde Park Calling ( and they have bigger acts). Outdoor concerts are everywhere, I just think people are more careful where they spend their money. Even Reading and Leeds haven't sold out which they normally do in April. If Alton has Take That or Gaga, people would come!
Blaze

Take That unfortunately would, Gaga fortunately would not be so successfull. She is no bigger, and just as bad, as the acts in this years concerts, so it's unlikely. I'm really surprised Take That didn't play this year, but I suppose it's easier for their target audience of alcoholic menopausal woman to attend stadiums and arenas.

Alton would have to really get festical headlining material to have a successfull concert.

Although I think there will be more concerts. These two have sold bad, but that's happened all over the country. Reading and Leeds haven't sold out either (although the lineup overall is poor, wihch has some effect), so it's not simply because Alton have some of the worst acts imaginable and the organisation leaves lots to be desired.
fredward

I know Reading and Leeds is terrible... this crap band is headlining I think it's called mouse or mooze or something similar, just god awfull :wink: Just annoying you Blaze!

The reason Alton Towers had these offers is because there's not enough people attending and you know why? The overly ridiculously high ticket prices! People don't want to go to Alton Towers to see a concert if it's gonna cost them double as much, be awkward to get to and spend 5 hours in the car park trying to get out... Sure you can say you have a theme park to enjoy before the acts come on.. But since you've paid that amount of money your not gonna want to go to far from the arena if you want a nice place!

Of-course I'm gonna say my obligatory GET SOME ACTUAL GOOD BANDS statement... but I think getting Muse or Maiden or any other amazing live bands would make everything worse... there's a reason most venues are in or near a city... Transportation to get there!

no matter how much I would love to see some of my favourite bands play at Alton, I think the only way for these live concerts to work is to get smaller bands or local bands to play at several small stages throughout the day.

That way Alton could also cater to people who enjoy rock/metal as well as people who listen to crap like Black eyed peas aswell as people who listen to anything in-between.
djtruefitt

I imagine it will really depend on well the concert tomorrow and the black eyed peas concert goes. None of us really know how well the tickets have sold for them until we see how busy they are on the day. I think it might also depend how well run they are and what the general public really thing about it.
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siralgenon
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I think they will have more concerts, Only the other day they released on facebook 'If we were to hold another concert in 2012, which band/artist would you like to see perform at the Alton Towers Resort? so they must be thinking of holding another concert? :)

Hope so, iv'e missed every one yet lol.
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Blaze

I've been lucky enough to miss every one so far. :lol:

But yeah, there'll be more concerts coming.
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James
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[quote=""siralgenon""]I think they will have more concerts, Only the other day they released on facebook 'If we were to hold another concert in 2012, which band/artist would you like to see perform at the Alton Towers Resort? so they must be thinking of holding another concert? :)

Hope so, iv'e missed every one yet lol.[/quote]
I think that was just posted on Facebook for the management team to have a vague idea on whether more concerts would have enough interest or not, I'm sure there will be customer surveys rolling out across the park too. They will also want to see what artists may be in higher demand, although looking at the general IQ of those on Facebook, Alton won't get far with any decent answers.

I've never really been bothered with concerts at Alton. They just don't take my fancy. Alton Towers Live/The Black Eyed Peas are just too mainstream for me plus for those who have seen the Black Eyed Peas live (like myself) will know they can not sing a single note in tune.

It's only the P!nk concert that has made me want to go to one at Alton. Looking at videos of her performance at the resort it really makes me wish I did show. She can put on a real show.

If Alton Towers do want to have a successful concert in future, they need different genres and need to try and get someone high profile as a main act. I'm sorry but JLS aren't a headline act for me, they are just some reproduced X Factor crap that have fame mainly on "looking fit". Alton need one high profile, main steam act, someone that is doing well at the time (a bit like how Katy Perry is the "in" thing at the moment), then a pop group/act and an alternative/rock group. If they balanced things out smoothly whilst still maintaining a healthy amount of mainstream artists they will reach out to a wider array of people and get all different age groups interested. That's where they've gone wrong this year: Alton Towers Live = 14/15 year old girl teenagers. Black Eyes Peas = Young teens that think they are cool.
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[quote=""James""]That's where they've gone wrong this year: Alton Towers Live = 14/15 year old girl teenagers. Black Eyes Peas = Young teens that think they are cool.[/quote]

Surely what you're really trying to say is that the performers this year should have been at Thorpe Park? :P
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Of course they will They are a resort, right?! 
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haydn!
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[quote=""Blaze""]Take That unfortunately would, Gaga fortunately would not be so successfull. She is no bigger, and just as bad, as the acts in this years concerts, so it's unlikely. I'm really surprised Take That didn't play this year, but I suppose it's easier for their target audience of alcoholic menopausal woman to attend stadiums and arenas.[/quote]

Are you serious? Yes, Take That would sell out instantly, but so would Lady GaGa! GaGa is far more popular than JLS, McFly and the Saturdays combined! 39 million fans on Facebook, 11 million followers on Twitter, and her latest album sold over a million copies in it's first week of release. I don't think there would be any problem in her selling out Alton Towers.

Take That probably didn't do Alton Towers because it's capacity is not enough. They're doing the biggest of the big stadiums across Europe.
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Crofty

I think there are a few points that Towers should be considering when looking at how good/bad this years event's have sold.
Both concerts have popular groups but ticket sales haven't sold as well as they hoped. I think the main reason for the BEP fail would be that the concert is on a weekday and people have accounted for a lot of extra time to leave the park and get home, the ticket prices were also very high initially (even though you get theme park entrance) and then we had all the messing about with the prices later on.

I Think Alton need to take a hit in one form or another to enable them to fill the park. It's all very well saying you get the theme park tickets as well as the concert but if you have to start entering the concert area at say 4pm then you will be looking at finishing your day on the park at around 3, it's not really a day on the theme park when you factor in extra queues and leaving the rides early so you shouldn't be charged as if it were.
Looking at the Alton Live concert. would it not have been better to take a massive hit on Ticket prices to enable them to fill the park to capacity? I think if they made the park event ticket holders only and charged a small premium (£45 park and concert) they would have been able to have the concert running all afternoon. They could have subsidised the concert by using sponsorship which I'm sure they did anyway.
I hope we see more concerts next year and that Towers haven't been too scared off by this learning experience but I fear they will be.
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I don’t know about whether there will be any more concerts at Alton Towers, maybe there will, maybe there won’t. But I certainly hope so! It doesn’t really matter to be which band(s) are playing, I’m unlikely to attend anyway, unless AP holders are allowed in free... but concerts at Alton Towers just have that, well, magic, in the same way that Scarefest and the fireworks last year do. I think the park benefits from these events.

Even better, I hope that Alton host another free-for-all concert, like the 80s concert last year. I would love to attend another of those events, they have a fantastic atmosphere.

But I suppose that, at the end of the day, Alton is a business... Whether we’ll see another concert or not comes down to how much money they make from this year’s concerts... And from what we’re hearing, that figure has fallen below expectations. :(
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bands played so far since concerts returned (This is purely my perception and average ages are once again my perceived average age of a fan)

P!nk - sell out, A list performer, show relevant to a theme park. Average fan age 25

80's show - only really attended by MAP owners (there were more grey drinks refill containers than I have ever seen on park. not a sell out. C list stars (even though I genuinely enjoyed it). Free. average fan age = 35

AT Live = aimed squarely at teenage girl bands (teenage girls cant really afford 50 quid tickets) - not a sell out average fan age = 14

BIP = Not a sell out, BIP renown for not being good on stage, Also even though everyone knows their music , they are one of those bands that you don't realise you know loads. Likely people to be fans of BIP are teens, not quite in to proper dance music but into still pop music. Teens don't have 80 quid expendable cash. Average fan age = 17

Average age of Alton Towers visitors = 25

I would love to see the actual age averages for the people who attended each of the concerts. Concerts fail to sell tickets ONLY when organisers don't do their home work.

What might be worth is doing a topic of 'Who would you pay 80 for to see live at Alton Towers.'

The top of my list would probably be, in order of preference:

Pink Floyd/Roger Waters
Foo Fighters
Metallica
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