It’s been a bruising few weeks for banking giant Barclays’ music activities, with a ‘Bands Boycott Barclays‘ campaign seeing more than 150 artists pull out of The Great Escape festival in protest at its links to the arms industry.
Lost in the noise, but still interesting as a piece of analysis, is Barclays’ claim that Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is going to provide a “nearly £1bn boost” to the UK’s economy this year. £997m to be specific.
This is based on nearly 1.2 million fans going to the 15 concerts spending an average of £848 each on tickets, travel, accommodation, food, outfits (18% of fans surveyed said they’re buying one especially), merchandise and other costs. The analysis suggests that while the average amount spent on a ticket is £206, 14% of fans spent more than £400 with VIP options and premium seats.
And if you want a comparison to conjure with, try this: the £848 average spend is more than Brits’ average £779 spend when they go on a hen or stag do. And we Brits *really* love spending absurd amounts of money…
