Oasis are returning to Knebworth. Thirty-one years after the concerts that became part of British music history, Liam and Noel Gallagher will return in 2027. This time, though, standing in that crowd will come at quite a different price tag. General admission starts at £170.50, and front standing is at a dizzying £203.50!
If this is the future of music, then many of us will be out of pocket, and even more of us can forget enjoying the ‘live experience’ in these inflationary times.
Stop Moaning!
Perhaps it’s just me. Judging by the ticket sales, fans were hardly put off. All 42 of the Live’27 shows sold out after a three-day, ballot-based sale which had fixed prices and nontransferable access codes designed to avoid the chaos of previous tour years. But a few brave fans did voice their concerns. One in particular compared today’s ticket costs with the £6.30 they paid to see Oasis in 1994. The response? Liam Gallagher, simple and blunt as ever, told fans to ‘stop moaning.’ The sale may be fairer through the ballot, but affordability is a different question.
Oasis are no outliers when it comes to raising the price of tour tickets. A general admission ticket for Glastonbury 2027 now costs £408, including postage and packing, while Parliament’s fan-led review warned that rising ticket prices, fees, travel, and food are making live music ‘increasingly inaccessible,’ particularly for young or lower-income audiences.
Priced Out of the Moment?
For younger fans, especially, the problem is not a lack of appetite. Music Week reports that a YouGov survey of 2,123 young UK adults found that 54 per cent of 18–24-year-olds have attended a gig or concert in the previous year, compared with 39 per cent of UK adults overall. The same age group also spends an average of £425 a year on live music. This enthusiasm sits awkwardly beside Parliament’s warning that younger audiences increasingly value affordability and local events. When one major night out can run into hundreds of pounds before travel, food or even accommodation, being part of the cultural moment starts to depend much less on how much you love the music and more on what you’ve budgeted for.
This vast divide is easy to picture. One fan is inside Knebworth, surrounded by thousands of people singing the same songs. Another sees the moment through shaky TikToks, Instagram Stories and clips that have been uploaded the next morning. Both know the concert happened; only one could afford to be there. As live music becomes more expensive, the risks are not only that young people stop caring about it, but that participation in culture becomes increasingly split by income as the financial divide increases.
Big Stages, Small Margins
At the other end of the music industry, the venues producing tomorrow’s headline acts are barely breaking even. Music Venue Trust’s 2025 report found that grassroots venues ran with an average profit margin of only 2.5 per cent. And 53 per cent made no profit at all! Grassroots venues are the smaller clubs, pubs, and independent spaces where emerging artists build audiences. Thirty venues closed permanently that year, and around 175 towns and cities were left without regular touring shows. Stadium tours may be booming, but the foundations of new music are slowly crumbling.
This matters because every stadium act starts somewhere smaller. Mark Davyd, chief executive of Music Venue Trust, warns that ‘the future of British music depends on stabilising and rebuilding the grassroots touring network.’ If those starter venues disappear, the problem is bigger than losing cheap nights out. It becomes harder for new artists to build audiences, tour nationally and eventually reach the stages now dominated by the likes of Oasis.
This imbalance is hard to ignore. Parliament’s fan-led review revealed that some fans were willing to spend £200 on a stadium show while grassroots venues struggled to charge more than £10. It also warned that when so much disposable income goes on one major event, there is less left for newer artists and smaller venues. The problem is not that fans should feel guilty for seeing Oasis. The issue is that an industry built around blockbuster tours still depends on those smaller spaces where unknown artists get their first gig.
Not a Luxury
The Government’s 2026 music plan says it wants access to music and cultural opportunities to be ‘not a luxury for the few, but an everyday reality for the majority.’ That ambition sits uneasily beside an industry where major tickets can cost hundreds of pounds while many grassroots venues survive on tiny margins. Making live music more accessible does not mean every stadium ticket has to be cheap. It means protecting lower-cost venues, keeping pricing transparent, and making sure cultural participation is not reserved exclusively for those with the most disposable income.
Oasis’ return to Knebworth will undoubtedly be a huge cultural moment. But the question is no longer whether fans want to be there. It’s who gets to take part. If live music becomes something experienced first-hand only by those who can afford it and second-hand by everyone else, then the culture may still be shared, but the experience won’t be.
DISCLAIMER: The articles on our website are not endorsed by, or the opinions of Shout Out UK (SOUK), but exclusively the views of the author.
Freddie Amy
Freddie Amy is a Media, Journalism and Publishing student at Oxford Brookes University. His interests include media, politics, technology and society, with a particular focus on the forces shaping young people’s lives.
