Gig-goers push back against add-ons

Fans question additional costs for new venues and lament lack of transparency

- Aneesa Ahmed

A Gorillaz fan was charged a £1 'restoration fee' for a concert next June at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which opened in 2019 PHOTOGRAPH: BETHAN MILLER/PA.

Gig-goers who bought tickets for Gorillaz at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in June next year have been refunded some of their booking fee by the ticket seller Gigantic after the Guardian queried the pricing.

A reader contacted us asking why he had been charged a £1 "restoration fee" for a concert at the £850m stadium in north London.

The Gigantic website also listed the same fee for the recently built Co-op Live arena in Manchester.

Restoration fees and levies have become a familiar feature on venue and ticketing websites in recent years but the reader asked how they could be applied to these two almost brand-new venues, which opened in 2019 and 2024, respectively.

When we contacted Gigantic, the company said we needed to speak to the promoter, and it changed its website to explain that this fee was to support grassroots venues.

Closer inspection of the other fees that had been charged revealed that while the website listed a 10% booking fee, the reader had been charged 13% - with the 3% adding on almost £3 extra for each ticket purchased.

A spokesperson from Kilimanjaro Live, the promoter of the Gorillaz tour, confirmed that the ticketing website had made an error and that all affected buyers would be given a refund of the difference.