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Meet & Greet Experiences

As far as autograph collecting and music fan experiences goes, I find the range of stories I hear about various meet & greets to be pretty fascinating. I've heard of people paying modest fees (or nothing) for wonderful, fun experiences - and other stories of fans shelling out large amounts of money for a massive disappointment. And, of course, everything in between.

I thought we should have a comprehensive thread on the topic. Have you been to a pre-show or post-show meet and greet or know someone who has? Was it a bargain or a ripoff? What was the mood - structured and hurried or casual and fun?

My favorite band does meet and greets at every headline show they perform on this tour, chosen at fandom by fans who sign up for their fanclub and enter the show-specific drawing. There is no charge, and (usually) I don't believe a show ticket is even required. They were asked about this in an interview early this tour, and the response from one of the band members, Martin, was pretty passionate about musicians who charge high prices for meet & greets. FYI: I get that this band isn't quite a household name yet, so there might be a sentiment of "Who are they to say . . ." However they have an interesting perspective as both successful musicians with Top 10 records and huge music fans themselves).

Here's that portion of the interview:

https://youtu.be/l1da-ZW_3OA?t=6m48s

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Permalink Reply by Rich on September 8, 2019 at 4:23pm

It was basically a $100 photo op, though Grace was super sweet. I was first up, so I didn't want to rock the boat or set a bad mood by even trying, as they made it pretty clear that the policy was no autographs. Tried post show, but her team (who I have a few issues with) led her straight to the bus. She did stop for a couple fans reshow (before I got there). She seems to be one of the few musicians who's generally easier to catch pre-show than post-show.

Most of my M&G experiences this year have just been blah. Dido's soundcheck M&G was a very nice experience, and the Nina Nesbitt ones were by far the best value. But, overall, these things tend to be disappointing. Meeting these musicians on the street or by the bus is almost always better, and I'm not even talking about the money savings.

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Permalink Reply by RVK on September 11, 2019 at 8:15pm

I have done a few but Firehouse was the best. My sister who lives in another state liked them so I asked one of the staff on a whim if Firehouse might do a shoutout for my sister. Not only was the staff cool the manager agreed and the band did a quick shoutout for my sister. A little goes a long way and they could not have been cooler. I believe it was $100 for meet and greet with a nice bag of signed photos setlist etc.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on September 20, 2019 at 8:30am

Charli XCX will be doing free meet and greets at her shows - limited to the first 50 fans in line.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on September 29, 2019 at 10:50am

Yungblud is apparently doing a lot of in-store meet & greets on his upcoming tour. Looking for a post on this - I know it was in his Instagram Stories a few days back.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on September 29, 2019 at 11:27am

I saw Ashe earlier this week, and her pre-show meet & greet was fantastic. It was about a $40 or so add on, and it was about as good a value as you could ask for. It was sort of broken into three parts, organized but not super strict. Part one you got to chat with her one on one and took your photo ops. Part two we sat around in a circle, and she answered questions we wrote out (and just kind of chatted in general). Afterwards, she went around to us and signed whatever we wanted. A stellar experience and great value for a rising star.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on January 25, 2021 at 5:20pm

Curious if anyone has done a Zoom/virtual meet & greet? I was in the camp who thought these had to be second rate if not outright inherently disappointing experiences. I purchased one a few months back for my favorite artist, and was really pleasantly surprised how that experience somehow - in some ways - actually exceeded in-person counterparts. With the autograph/photo op aspect absent, the end result was actually more laid back and more interactive, a dramatic departure from the usual "on the clock" feeling you get at most live meet and greets. I suppose this is less exciting for people who are more casual fans (who at least walk away with an autograph/photograph/bragging rights even if the interaction is brief and awkward), but for bigger fans it might actually end up being a blessing that was damn near unheard of pre-pandemic. Obviously not all of them are are going to be great, depending on the organizer, artist/ego, involved, etc. But it is a different opportunity that just wasn't really a thing a year ago.

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Permalink Reply by Hervé on April 4, 2023 at 2:05am

Had a meet & greet with Tarja (Turjunen). Around $80 with goodies (signed setlist, signed poster,...) + 1 item signed, and she was really VERY friendly during the photo & discussion session, very far from the image some wants to give from her ! Really a nice experience. Only negative point is that the M&G was at 3:30 for a show at 8:00, so you had 3 hours to wait after (but who cares...).