Taylor Swift, Grateful Dead Top Poll as Hottest Summer Acts
Taylor Swift performs during The 1989 World Tour at Tokyo Dome at Tokyo Dome on May 6, 2015 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Jun Sato/Getty Images for TS)
by Steve Chagollan
When it comes to fan loyalty, Dead Heads can’t be beat, according to StubHub, the online entertainment ticket-brokerage behemoth.
In its list of the Top 10 hottest tickets of the summer concert season as determined by sales and demand from its more than 16 million visitors, StubHub found that the two series of concerts by the surviving members of the Grateful Dead in Chicago and San Francisco — only five dates total — will outsell any summer festival this year, respectively, and command nearly 65% more sales per show than Taylor Swift, the No. 1 artist in the poll.
For her part, Swift, according to Jonah Freedman, editor-in-chief for StubHub, “is the hardest working solo female performer in showbiz, having outsold Beyonce by 60% since she started touring in 2011.” According to the survey, Swift nearly tripled the demand of the poll’s No. 2 artist, One Direction.
Not surprisingly, legacy acts — with their deep catalogs and baby-boomer fan base — are heavily represented in the pecking order, with the Dead (No. 3), the Rolling Stones (No. 4), Billy Joel (No. 8) and Rush (No. 10). Of those acts, Joel commands the highest price for a ticket (StubHub listed a stage-front section ticket for this Madison Square Garden show as high as $1,000, while a competing online broker, Vividseats.com, commanded $7,400 for a seat in the same row.
U2 (No. 5), Kenny Chesney (No. 6), Ed Sheeran (No. 7) and the Foo Fighters (No. 9) round out the list.
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