# Woodstock tickets cost $8 a day in 1969.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 10, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828 "2018-06-10T17:12:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/1 "2018-06-10T17:12:05Z")
$8 was a significant amount of money in 1969. My allowance then was $2 a week. Cokes were a quarter. IIRC lunch at McDonald’s was still under $2.50.
I’m surprised tickets for the entire three days was $24. Hey man, Peace and love don’t come cheap. 😉 Wonder what weed sold for in 69? LOL
Course, the flood of gate crashers made it a mute point. ;). There were more gate crashers than paying ticket holders at Woodstock.
Here’s some original tickets. You could buy a single day or three day pass.
[https://m.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-WOODSTOCK-TICKETS-August-15-16-17-1969-Lot-of-4-LOVE-PEACE-U65-/232783905244](https://m.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-WOODSTOCK-TICKETS-August-15-16-17-1969-Lot-of-4-LOVE-PEACE-U65-/232783905244)
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/2 "2018-06-10T17:22:44Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> Here’s some original tickets. You could buy a single day or three day pass.
> [https://m.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-WOODSTOCK-TICKETS-August-15-16-17-1969-Lot-of-4-LOVE-PEACE-U65-/232783905244](https://m.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-WOODSTOCK-TICKETS-August-15-16-17-1969-Lot-of-4-LOVE-PEACE-U65-/232783905244)
I still have mine. They are like the examples in the bottom row, although mine are in better condition. Of course, by the time I got there no one was collecting tickets so I kept them.
It was a lot of money at the time. I had just graduated high school. My first temporary job was as a supermarket cashier, which was minimum wage, at that time about $1.30 an hour. My summer job was as a doorman on Park Avenue which paid the princely sum of $2.50 an hour.
The first concerts I went to were at the New York City Rock Festival at Singer Bowl in Flushing Meadows. The first show I saw featured The Who and the Doors. The second had the Chambers Brothers, Big Brother and the Holding Company (with Janis Joplin), and Jimi Hendrix. Tickets were $2.50.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/3 "2018-06-10T17:32:33Z")
But remember Woodstock lost money–a lot of people just ignored the ticket sellers and paid nothing at all (no secure fences):
> **[Interview with the organisers of Woodstock Festival](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/6017442/Interview-with-the-organisers-of-Woodstock-Festival.html)**
>
> Forty years ago, Woodstock made pop history, but there was a shock in store for the men who made it happen .
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2018, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/4 "2018-06-10T17:44:10Z")
At $1.30 an hour minimum wage.
$24 is approx 18.5 hours of work to buy tickets.
Woodstock did offer a lot of top bands and they had to be paid.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2018, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/5 "2018-06-10T17:47:04Z")
If you estimate inflation via the Consumer Price Index, $8 in 1969 bought as much as roughly $55 in 2018. Cheap? Expensive? Depends how much you got.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2018, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/6 "2018-06-10T18:31:23Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> If you estimate inflation via the Consumer Price Index, $8 in 1969 bought as much as roughly $55 in 2018. Cheap? Expensive? Depends how much you got.
I think it illustrates the hugely disproportionate inflation in the prices of all kinds of entertainment, from concerts to Broadway shows to baseball games since then. Back in 1969, I could go to a concert with multiple top acts for the cost of one or two hours of work. Today a ticket for the same level of acts will cost you the equivalent of one or two days (or more) of work.
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### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2018, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/7 "2018-06-10T18:57:25Z")
That doesn’t seem very high at all - concerts today cost more, adjusted for inflation. I just looked up a yearly all weekend concernt, Carolina Rebellion, and this year a 3-day pass ran from $150-$300 depending on how far in advance you bought it, plus another $175-$275 if you wanted a camping space. The flat $165 for Woodstock tickets is a huge bargain compared to that. I looked up an evening concert near me and it was $40-$45 for tickets, which again makes the all day for $55 pretty reasonable.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2018, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/8 "2018-06-10T19:03:26Z")
On the flip side: [How Much Did the Musicians of Woodstock Get Paid?](https://priceonomics.com/how-much-did-the-musicians-of-woodstock-get-paid/)
The Who’s fee ($6,250) in the article doesn’t jive with the infamous contract insert from Live At Leeds–it stated they were to be paid $12,500 (half in advance, half after the performance). Considering the dynamic between promoters, managers and artists at the time, the lower amount is probably more believable.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2018, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/9 "2018-06-10T20:23:25Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> I think it illustrates the hugely disproportionate inflation in the prices of all kinds of entertainment, from concerts to Broadway shows to baseball games since then. Back in 1969, I could go to a concert with multiple top acts for the cost of one or two hours of work. Today a ticket for the same level of acts will cost you the equivalent of one or two days (or more) of work.
I’d like to see a comparison between how much the performers were paid fifty years ago, adjusted for inflation, and today. I’m speculating that their payments have remained pretty steady over the years and it’s the various intermediaries who are making a larger share.
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2018, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/10 "2018-06-11T00:12:13Z")
> [@Pantastic](#):
>
> That doesn’t seem very high at all - concerts today cost more, adjusted for inflation. .
Like many people I consider inflation when looking at old dollar amounts. Which leads to a [tangent] Did you realize that it’s only people of our generation who had to do that? Value-of-money graphs available on the internet show that inflation on average was close to zero for most of American history.
It lends a different dimension to the idea of burying money or keeping it under the bed. Or even just saving money.
Also, $8 in 1855 money was much closer to 1965 money, than 1965 money is to 2018 money.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2018, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/11 "2018-06-11T11:00:14Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> At $1.30 an hour minimum wage.
>
> $24 is approx 18.5 hours of work to buy tickets.
Oh yeah, I’d forgotten, taxes hadn’t been invented yet. Those were the days!
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2018, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/12 "2018-06-11T11:46:45Z")
I saw **Led Zeppelin** in Sydney in 1972. A ticket cost $4 which, from memory, was less than it cost for my vinyl of _Led Zeppelin IV_ a few months prior. I was probably earning about $80 a week.
I recall reading **Robert Greenfield** ’s _S.T.P.: A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones_, about their 1972 tour of the US. It was reported to be the highest grossing tour in history to that point. The Stones had already begun running their own tours on their prior US tour. At the conclusion Greenfield said each band member received, I believe, $10,000 as their share of the profit.
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### Author:  [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2018, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/woodstock-tickets-cost-8-a-day-in-1969/815828/13 "2018-06-12T00:25:13Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#):
>
> I saw **Led Zeppelin** in Sydney in 1972. A ticket cost $4 which, from memory, was less than it cost for my vinyl of _Led Zeppelin IV_ a few months prior. I was probably earning about $80 a week.
>
> I recall reading **Robert Greenfield** ’s _S.T.P.: A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones_, about their 1972 tour of the US. It was reported to be the highest grossing tour in history to that point. The Stones had already begun running their own tours on their prior US tour. At the conclusion Greenfield said each band member received, I believe, $10,000 as their share of the profit.
As is well known (?) tours were promotions for the records, where the profit was, and for the bands, were less unpleasant than doing studio time.