Frugal Scholar reports on a wonderful day at the New Orleans Jazzfest (and ancillary activities), a good reason to live in or visit New Orleans. In passing she remarks that folks grouse about the $43–$50 ticket prices. That sounds like quite a bargain for twelve stages (!) hosting over seventy performances.
Some months ago my friend Kathy and I bought tickets to see Joshua Bell perform with the Phoenix Symphony, an event that coincided with a visit from her now-married daughter, who by the end of high school had become accomplished enough with the violin to consider a professional career. The concert was last night. When I pulled out my ticket, I was reminded that we paid $85 apiece. Parking was $12 in a garage whose elevator didn’t work, so, in high heels, we had to walk down and later up five flights of fire-escape stairs inhabited by bums, one of whom amused himself by filling up the stairwell with cigarette smoke.
On reflection, I thought…good heavens! If you were a couple and you wanted to go to a symphony performance, it would cost you $182, and that’s before you’ve had dinner or spent the gas to drive downtown. Most people like to have a nice dinner before a concert or at least dessert or drinks afterward; around here you can easily spend $40 or $50 apiece on dinner, especially downtown. By the time they’d paid tips, a couple could have invested another $100 in the evening: almost $300!
It makes $43 for a daylong festival of jazz look like a mighty bargain, eh?
I certainly can’t afford to pay almost $100, exclusive of dinner, to go to a classical music concert very often, and I make a decent salary. The message is that “cultchah” is only for the rich.
More plebeian pursuits will set you back a pretty penny, too. A single seat at an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game at an elevation that does not require you to bring an oxygen tank can run $50 to $70. Apiece! Imagine bringing the whole family to that game: Mom, Dad, and two kids: $200, before you get to the hot dogs and Crackerjack!
Where do people get that kind of money?
I see the New York Times is about to jack up its subscription prices to almost $60 a month. Mine is a cut-rate deal for university employees, but I’m sure it will rise, too—after you get through the punch-a-button phone maze, the robot voice flicks you the gesture by informing you that no one’s there to speak to you, so it will be Tuesday before I find out whether I have to cancel the paper or not. I sure can’t afford sixty bucks a month…but then, just a glance at the Times‘s advertising tells you the news is not addressed to the peasantry, anyway.
PBS has been taken off the air for people who receive their TV by antennas. The new digital incarnation does not come in on my flicking “box.” I can’t afford cable, nor can I afford an expensive new antenna and a workman to install it, so apparently PBS is already a thing of my past, as the Times is about to be.
These developments impoverish America far more than does the general collapse of the economy. When people can’t get exposure to great music, can’t see a decent television program, and can’t even go to a damn baseball game because the better things in life are priced out of reach, we’re all dumbed down. We don’t need as much money as we imagine we do, but we do need access to the things that matter in life: music, art, serious news reporting, drama, sports.
Fortunately there are a few back doors into some quality cultural events. The Phoenix Art Museum has a freeby night once a week, although of course we bums aren’t allowed in to see the major traveling shows. Several churches in the Valley have such high-quality music programs that attending a service is akin to enjoying a free chamber music performance—albeit, nonbelievers have to sit through a lot of hoopla for the privilege. Some church music ministries bring guest performers or engage Phoenix symphony professionals to put on religion-free concerts at reasonable prices. And there’s a surprising wealth of jazz in Arizona, much of which can be enjoyed in relatively affordable venues. And sporting events, not on the professional level but maybe so much the better for that, can be caught at nearby colleges and universities.
In most cities you can find guides to these events and activities at your local NPR station’s website, in events listings in “alternative” newspapers, and in handouts available at local libraries. Just because you can’t afford rich folks’ entertainment is no reason to sit at home. Here are a few places to look for free or low-cost cultural events, with examples from my part of the globe. Google…
1. Your local NPR station(s); look for an events calendar at each station, since they may differ.
2. Local museums, botanical gardens, and zoos
3. Events calendars at local colleges and universities
4. A nearby university + the team name
5. A nearby college + sports events
6. Your city’s Parks and Recreation Department
7. Your city + events
8. Event calendars for cities within day-trip driving distance
9. Chamber of Commerce events calendars
10. Volunteer gigs as ushers or ticket-takers at concert halls and theaters.
11. Nearby cultural centers
12. Jewish Community Centers
13. Your local YWCA or YMCA
14. Local church events and music calendars
15. Special interest groups such as the Audubon Society, the Nature Conservancy, or the Sierra Club
16. NPR online, PBS online, and Hulu
Et vous? How do you find kultcher on a shoestring?
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Oops! By light of day, I see I repeated myself in (2) and (10)! Sorry about that. Safari crashed just as I finished that list, the first time around, erasing the whole thing. So, with great disgust and impatience, I had to try to remember and then rebuild all the suggestions I’d dreamed up and relocate all the links I’d dredged up. Sooooo… Let’s change numero (10) to the hint I remembered after I first published this post.
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Copyright © 2009 Funny about Money
Chamber music is generally more reasonably priced than symphonies (and we like it better). We see the big guys–including Joshua Bell–at Tanglewood. My parents (now just my mother) volunteer at the gift shop and get some free tickets.
Colleges have a wealth of free and low-cost performances.
Museum memberships are reasonable and museums often host performances of various kinds.
It’s funny you cited Mr. FS’s post. We were out-frugalled by a colleague who said that Jazzfest weekend also has free concerts in Baton Rouge. He scoffed at our Jazzfest spending!
LOL! Yes, the Phoenix Chamber Music Society has a lovely season every year, and I also prefer chamber music to loud symphonies.
However, the Society moved its venue from the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts to a church. When I was on the board, the society was constantly squabbling with the Scottsdale Center, so I guess a final straw must have settled on someone’s back.
At any rate, I can’t say I relish spending two or three hours in a pew (ouch!) and so haven’t pursued it. Guess I should get over that and go do it.
Oh…Your comment reminds me of another way to get FREE ADMISSION to plays and concerts: Volunteer as an usher!
Some years ago a friend put me on to this: many performing arts venues use volunteers as ushers, and when you take on that job, you get to see every performance for free.
Sorry to hear you were out-frugalled! 😀
There are lots of lower priced tickets than 85 a piece for the Symphony and the Opera and the Ballet…cultural events don’t have to cost an arm & leg to attend. You should also check out Showup.com for discounts to many shows in the valley.
@noboop: Sure. But since this was a special occasion, we really wanted to sit closer to sea level than the lower-priced tickets will allow. Those seats are generally in the nosebleed section, or else way off in a corner on the left or right sides.
Tickets for the next concert range from $22 to $72. The lowest-priced tickets are in the back three rows, underneath the balcony, on the far left and right edges of the hall. This puts 29 to 30 rows of heads in front of you, and your view would be less than ideal from that position if you were the only people in the audience. The hall is poorly air-conditioned — we were all suffocating by the time the concert ended — and so one can only imagine how uncomfortable it would be in the back, beneath an overhang. Given that an affordable ticket seats you where you can’t see the orchestra, I’d rather listen to one of the major urban classical stations on iTunes, kicked back in an easy chair in my living room with a nice glass of wine at my side.