SEOUL– Sales of music concert tickets have been rising rapidly in the wake of the lifting of almost all COVID-19 restrictions.
According to Interpark, a local online reservation service, ticket sales of concerts planned for the second quarter of this year jumped 267 percent from a year ago.
The upward trend can be seen in the number of concerts during the period.
A total of 353 concerts were planned for the second quarter, up 43.5 percent from last year’s 246.
“We see that’s because the number of spectators that can be accommodated per show has increased as COVID-19 rules, such as sitting apart and the capacity limit of spectators, have disappeared, and many popular concerts were sold out,” the service said in a release.
K-pop star Sung Si-kyung’s first live concerts in about three years were the most popular among the concerts for the second quarter and whose ticket reservations closed by Tuesday. Sung is to hold two concerts, on May 28-29, in Seoul.
Coming in second was the annual Seoul Jazz Festival, an outdoor concert set to kick off three nights of shows on May 27 in the capital city.
Including the jazz fest, six of the top 20 shows in terms of ticket sales were outdoor concerts.
“Pent-up demand from consumers seems to have been unleashed with the resumption of outdoor music festivals as they prefer festivals that make them feel like they are out for picnics to those in closed spaces at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet,” an Interpark official said.
Source: Yonhap News Agency