Ticket inflation

We all know about the rising cost of living, with official figures last month revealing that consumer prices inflation (CPI) had leapt to 3.5%. But there is another CPI that seems to be shooting up much faster – concert price inflation.

Many long-time gig and festival-goers are paying significantly more than they were just a few years ago to see the same act, or attend the same event – and that's even before the myriad fees and charges are added on.

Perhaps the most extreme example of gig ticket inflation is the cost of seeing Lady Gaga strutting her eccentric stuff. The triple Brit Award winner has just finished a string of UK arena shows, with tickets priced at between £27.50 and £35.

However, tickets for the extra dates in London, Manchester and Birmingham in May and June, which went on sale this week, carry a £50 to £75 price tag. That is despite the fact it is the same tour, visiting the same venues, just three months later. The star's debut album is called The Fame, which might prompt some fans to ruefully recall that famous line in the eponymous 1980s TV series: "Fame costs. And right here's where you start paying …"

But it's not only Lady Gaga. Tickets went on sale this week for the Latitude Festival in Suffolk – a highlight of many a Guardian reader's calendar, which will this year be headlined by Florence and the Machine, Belle and Sebastian, and Vampire Weekend. This is the fifth Latitude, taking place on 15-18 July, and weekend tickets have risen to £155, with day tickets rising to £65.

That compares with the £95 and £40 respectively that punters attending the first Latitude in 2006 paid – quite a hike in the space of four years.

However, while some fans on the festival's forums were complaining, others seemed relatively relieved the cost had "only" risen by £5 since last year (weekend tickets were £150 in 2009, while day tickets were £60). Of course, the granddaddy of music festivals is Glastonbury, which, this year, takes place on 23-27 June and will see U2 make their debut appearance at the Somerset institution.

Tickets were quick to sell out, despite costing £185 each (plus £5 per ticket booking fee, and £4.95 postage and packing) – £10 more than last year, and £30 up on 2008.

In fact, Glasto tickets have more than doubled in price over the past decade; they cost £87 in 2000, when David Bowie was among the acts delivering storming sets. Turn the clock back 20 years to 1990 and you would have handed over £38 to see bands such as the Cure and Happy Mondays.

There are plenty of examples of what some would say are simply crazy prices:

• Aerosmith at the 02 Arena, London, on 15 June – £106 from Ticketmaster (£95 + £11 fees)

• Bon Jovi at the 02 Arena in June – £51.25 to £215 from Ticketmaster (face values £45-£200)

• Paul McCartney "Platinum Package" tickets for Hard Rock Calling in London's Hyde Park on 27 June – £938.83 (yes, that's not a misprint). Includes a champagne reception at Abbey Road Studios, three-course lunch, free bar ("excludes champagne"), VIP seating and other perks.

Standard McCartney tickets are available at £62.50 plus fees. When Bruce Springsteen headlined Hard Rock Calling last year, standard tickets cost a lot less – £45 plus fees. Some might wonder whether the price differential has anything to do with Springsteen tickets selling out in a matter of hours, and many then turning up for sale at much higher prices on resale sites such as Seatwave.

So it is perhaps no surprise to discover that these price rises are officially running ahead of inflation. The Office for National Statistics told Guardian Money that, while consumer prices as a whole were up 3.5% in the year to January, "cultural services", which includes live music, cinema and theatre tickets, were up 5.6%.

For those who still want their festival fix, but can't afford the high prices, the answer is probably to turn to one of the scores of smaller events popping up all over the country. According to website efestivals.co.uk, there are 491 festivals in the UK between this weekend and the end of the year, so there's bound to be something for every taste.

Meanwhile, growing numbers of music fans have been giving the UK a miss altogether and packing their bags for warmer climes. Benicassim, Spain's major festival, is an increasingly popular draw. This year it is on 15-18 July, and will feature appearances from the Prodigy, Kasabian and Vampire Weekend. A four-day ticket costs £160 and includes free camping between 12-20 July, so you can make a holiday out of it. The site, near Valencia, is just a stroll from the beach.

But good weather is far from guaranteed; last year, strong winds caused havoc, forcing Kings of Leon to cancel their headlining slot – which may be why the price was frozen this year.

Responding to the Lady Gaga controversy, promoter Live Nation insists the prices are "comparable and fair" adding: "What was a small arena/theatre production is now a massive, first-rate arena production. Ticket prices for the previous dates were set long before the current Monster Ball [tour] was developed."

The Paparazzi singer's new dates are Birmingham LG Arena on 28 May, London 02 on 30 May, and Manchester MEN Arena on 2 June. She played the same venues earlier this year.

Asked about the price hikes over the years, a spokesman for Glastonbury Festival spokesman told us: "Running a festival for 140,000 people in the middle of the countryside is inevitably expensive, and the costs of things like diesel fuel have risen substantially. We're also always investing in improvements, such as £250,000 this year for a new drinking water reservoir."

He added: "We offer fantastic value for a show you couldn't find anywhere else – five days of fun, something like 2,000 performances across dozens of stages and venues, free programme, no hidden extras plus all the magic that Glastonbury offers – and we still manage to donate £2m a year to good causes.

"The fact that nearly all our tickets for 2010 were snapped up last October suggests our audience agrees."

Another big cost a few years ago was a steel fence installed after a mass break-in in 2000 brought vast numbers of people on to the site.