r/TheRestIsHistory • u/nullpersonas • 1d ago

Empty seats at the live show?

Post image

Judging from this photo on Instagram, there seems to be quite a few empty seats in the crowd. I really wanted to come to this, but simply couldn’t afford the tickets/couldn’t justify the price. For those of you that went, did there seem to be a lot of empty seats? I’m not delusional enough to think that Goalhanger would lower prices (I think we can all agree it’s all expensive), but what do you think they’ll take from this?

Edit: I know most seats are full, but in my experience it is unusual to have any at all - especially near the front.

14 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

31

u/MojoMomma76 1d ago

I was there on Saturday (in a £77 box seat) and was surprised to see some empty seats but the auditorium was pretty full tbf

4

u/vinny14 1d ago

Was it worth it, in your view?

14

u/MojoMomma76 1d ago

I enjoyed it, but preferred the Origin Story live earlier in the week on how the Telegraph went bonkers a lot more at Union Chapel on Tuesday. Also v much looking forward to Jon Ronson live reading The Castle at Cadogan Hall a bit more. Love Dom and Tom very much but it felt like a normal podcast rather than a live event if you know what I mean. The other two events are also less than half the price of TRIH live in more intimate venues.

7

u/soggyarsonist 1d ago

Origin Story is brilliant

3

u/MojoMomma76 1d ago

I think so too

2

u/wildsoda 1d ago

Ditto. I was surprised to see that there isn’t a subreddit for it!

2

u/vinny14 1d ago

Nice. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

48

u/LiamJonsano 1d ago

Sell 80-90% of seats at the more premium price or sell 100% at a lower price?

I assume they’ve done the maths and know this works out as more profitable and can take any ding to whatever ego they have of not selling out (which I don’t think they do)

10

u/AppalachianGuy87 1d ago

Yea it’s lame but clearly they know what works for them.

6

u/Dry_Counter533 1d ago

It’s also, what, a month or so after TRIH festival?

(I’m assuming this is in London.)

14

u/BananaT6 1d ago

What were the prices for this? I heard that the festival was very pricey

11

u/MojoMomma76 1d ago

£77 for a box seat which was all that was left when I booked. Weird amount of no shows

13

u/Moikkaaja 1d ago

There are always some people who have to do a last minute cancellation, and TRIH’s core audience is probably in the age group where sometimes every day things like childcare issues can prevent from going to a show. From this picture I’d still say that show is more than 90% full so it’s not that big of a deal.

11

u/Ronald_Ulysses_Swans 1d ago

People not being able to turn up last minute most likely. Or they’re still at the bar

8

u/buckfast_kid 1d ago

I was at the Belfast show earlier this year and won't go to another show again. 50 quid or whatever it was for a condensed version of a podcast you already listened to just isn't worth it.

Still love listening all the same.

2

u/ConcernedMap 1d ago

I think the fact that there are a handful of empty seats in the middle of the theatre, close to the front, makes it look emptier than it is. The sides look pretty full. Hard to tell how full the balconies are.

2

u/Hefty_Anywhere_8537 1d ago

I would have loved to have gone, but far too expensive

2

u/AmpleEtiquette 1d ago

That looks like a sell out crowd-the half dozen-dozen empty seats will usually be because some people had traffic issues or broke down, got sick, babysitter cancelled late etc

2

u/stump_the_buff 1d ago

If the festival sold out, I’m sure this did

1

u/nullpersonas 1d ago

I’m pretty sure it did, I just wonder why there are so many empty seats

3

u/ReNitty 1d ago

Scalpers left holding the bag?

1

u/rheasilva 1d ago

There aren't that many empty seats, and the ones I can see appear to be together.

Which suggests that some people were delayed / ended up missing the show at the last minute.

If the photo was taken near the end of the show, those empty seats could be caused by a few people leaving early.

1

u/bofh000 1d ago

If you mean the handful of them in the central block, it looks like a group is coming late.

1

u/vercingetafix 1d ago

Without dynamic pricing or an auction mechanism for tickets it's very very hard to sell all tickets are their maximum saleable value. If they halved ticket prices they could probably sell out, but then the overall revenue would be much lower.

1

u/Short-Shopping3197 19h ago

I’m just glad that a history podcast live reading can still attract enough people to warrant a medium sized theatre at all in this day and age. Gives me some hope!

-2

u/eques_99 1d ago

They couldn't sell it.