Just as Sweetest Day is a holiday made up to sell flowers and greeting cards and Christmas was created to market North Pole tourism (ALLEGEDLY), National Concert Week feels suspiciously like something a giant concert promotions corporation would concoct in order to boost ticket sales.
But, just as it’s nice to get flowers and a day or two off in December, National Concert Week has definite perks if you can find a good deal, go to a lot of concerts and like to spend as little as possible to attend said concerts.
Live Nation’s National Concert Week begins today and runs through May 7, offering $20 “all-in” tickets (meaning no extra service fees — they’re $20, full stop) for a variety of concert events, including several in the Cincinnati area for shows at venues like Bogart’s and U.S. Bank Arena.
A graphic for the promotion includes names like The Black Keys, Beck & Cage the Elephant, Flatbush Zombies, Jason Aldean, Brad Paisley, Def Leppard and The Who and Live Nation says the deals include “two million tickets to 2,800 in-demand shows from over 600 artists.”
That’s a lot of concerts, but last year there were complaints about the limited and less-than top-notch events made available for the discount in some markets, including a few shows with tickets that seemed valued at around $20 in the first place.
But you can poke around for yourself and see what you can find here. When tickets went on sale today at noon, concerts listed at the $20 price point included New Kids on the Block and The Chainsmokers shows at U.S. Bank Arena, Buckethead and PUP at Bogart’s and Apocalyptica at Taft Theatre.
If you do find something of interest, act fast — another qualm last year was that some of the concerts had only a limited allotment of tickets that qualified for the $20 deal.
This article appears in May 1-8, 2019.