What ever happened to the good old days when you could buy "the cheap seats" to an event? Now, the cheap seats are outrageous - who wants to pay $60 or more for a horrible seat to an event? I mean, maybe the general population has money to burn, but if I want to take my family to anything, I can't afford $60 a ticket! I am amazed at how many of my friends go to numerous concerts, often traveling to do so, and how many of my kids' friends go to every concert that comes to town, despite the ticket price.
I absolutely LOVE live entertainment. Plays, concerts, holiday shows, high school productions, you name it. But the ticket prices for some of these events have risen so high that they are unattainable, save for the high school performances - and even with those, at $12/ticket, my family is paying $72 for a "cheap" night of entertainment.
Granted, there are six people in my family, but even Jeff and I have often said "Oh, _____ is coming in concert, we should go see them!" only to discover that it would easily be a $200 or more evening for two and who has that kind of cash laying around "just for fun?" Not us!
I do appreciate the fact that there are some alternatives, such as Goldstar.com, which offers discounted seats to many fun events. Of course, they are limited, and often on week nights, but for something I really want to see, I'm willing to make some exceptions. Another awesome program is TeenTix. Any kid 13-19 can sign up and use their TeenTix pass to go to some pretty amazing events - for $5! We once had season tickets to Seattle Shakespeare Theatre and were able to take Hannah and Arlie to a show with their TeenTix for just an extra $10. So worth it!
It's so hard around the holidays, and especially living in Seattle, where there are SO many live performances to choose from, to want to see everything but not be able to see anything because the prices run so high! I really, really wanted to see Wicked when it came to town, but just couldn't swing it. Now, there's A Christmas Carol at ACT Theatre (seen it before, but LOVE it!), The PNB Nutcracker (again, seen it three times, but would LOVE to take the whole family), Elf (brand-new and who doesn't love the movie?), Trans Siberian Orchestra (always wanted to see them, but -wow!- the tickets are through the roof!), and so many others.
What are your favorite things to see and do around the holidays in Seattle? We're planning to do the new Woodland Park Zoo lights, Lights of Christmas at Warm Beach (already got those tickets - thanks Living Social!), maybe ice-skating in Bellevue. We do the free stuff like Molbak's and plan to check out Wight's this year for their holiday displays. We might splurge for the Nutcracker (I've heard there is a TeenTix performance)!
What will you do? What are your favorite discount ticket sites? I just want the cheap seats back!
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