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A packed 2026 touring calendar has left some music fans confronting steep ticket prices and substantial fees as they try to see artists such as Bruno Mars, Harry Styles and Noah Kahan.

Senior Leena Eid said she and a friend searched for Bruno Mars tickets as soon as his tour was announced, only to find starting prices above $200 per ticket—far more than they expected based on past concerts.

Ticketmaster, a major seller of tickets for concerts, theater and sports, adds fees that can raise the final cost significantly. In some cases, those charges approach one-third of the ticket’s original price, putting already expensive events further out of reach.

Junior Sydney Spriggs said the last several concerts she considered had no tickets available below $200, even before additional fees.

“It sucks because I love concerts, but spending money isn’t worth it,” Spriggs said.

Some fans have turned to resale platforms such as SeatGeek and TickPick in search of better prices. But the secondary market can also encourage buyers to purchase tickets through Ticketmaster and resell them at a markup, adding another layer of cost and competition.

Artists have increasingly faced pressure to make ticket sales more affordable. Folk-pop singer Noah Kahan and pop singer Olivia Dean pushed for fees to be waived as a condition of selling tickets through Ticketmaster and succeeded in securing those terms.

For fans, the concern is that concerts are becoming less about sharing a live music experience and more about whether they can afford to enter the venue at all.