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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 April 20, 2016 at 7:50am

VIP Nation added Meghan Trainor to their meet and greet artists. Gwen Stefani has briefly been listed but was taken down within a few hours.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on April 21, 2016 at 1:35pm

Gwen Stefani premium ticket + Meet & Greet: $1000 ea.

Nope.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on April 21, 2016 at 1:37pm

Ouch a grand.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on April 21, 2016 at 1:41pm

VIP Nation had briefly listed the perks, and from what I recall it didn't really sound all that great. Especially not a grand great.

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Permalink Reply by Robin McKay on April 21, 2016 at 2:23pm

I guess it depends how much you wanna meet someone if the perks matter or not - for example, meeting Arnold, couldn't give two about the perks, the guy's a legend, but each to their own and fair enough.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on April 21, 2016 at 2:33pm

I've seen some fans get mad when an artist charges anything, and others are fine with paying thousands just to get eye contact from their idol.

This continues the trend of seriously uneven pricing for these meet and greets. The level of success for some of these artists isn't even proportional to what they're charging. It seems like a couple celebrities at comparable levels of fame and popularity can be hundreds of dollars apart in their meet and greet experiences.

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Permalink Reply by Robin McKay on April 21, 2016 at 3:03pm

I know what you mean.

There are celebs out there who would charge a fortune for an intimate meet and greet but I would never pay an extortionate amount of money to meet someone who I felt didn't warrant their fee.

For me, to put it into perspective, meeting Arnold Schwarzenegger for the price, to me, was an absolute steal as he could charge at least 4 figures for his meet and greet and even then I wouldn't see it as an amount where I'd think twice, considering his pedigree.

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Permalink Reply by Rich on April 21, 2016 at 3:58pm

I guess it is hard to make comparisons, because everyone's a fan of different people to varying extents. If you have a chance to meet your idol, it might be worth it regardless of the cost. I wouldn't want to meet Motley Crue for free, but there are fans who'd pay thousands and think it's completely worth it.

I was interested in the Gwen M&G, but I had a suspicion that it would be at least a few hundred. At $1000, no deal. I'm just not a big fan. But others probably didn't think twice, even if it did represent a financial stretch.

I've met my favorite band (the one in the video that I started the thread with) nearly 20 times. Excluding costs associated with the efforts (concert tickets, travel, items to get signed, etc), this has all been free, as they hate the concept of paid meet and greets.

If they were to start charging, would I pay? Sure, though it would be a bit deflating. Not so much because of the money (I've spent an insane amount on them anyway), but because it suggests a change in their principles. That's not to say that everyone who charges is wrong - I've done moderately priced meet & greets with The Joy Formidable and Carly Rae Jepsen over the past couple months, and those are wonderful people. I don't fault them for that, and it doesn't cause them to be any less accessible than they'd otherwise be.

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Permalink Reply by Robin McKay on April 21, 2016 at 4:17pm

Thanks Rich, what you said is very true and I agree 100% with every word and is thought provoking.

Personally, although I have done paid meet and greets and conventions which is basically the same thing, its not necessarily something I totally agree with all the time.

However, that said, I may never get the chance to meet them again and especially when Arnold came over, it really was a no brainer as that type of meet and greet is really once in a lifetime.

I suppose in your heart you'd like to believe they genuinely want to meet their fans but I would rather think its what they get paid that would matter to a lot of them. However, I don't care really as it wouldn't stop me taking the opportunity to meet other famous people.

Also, I seem to remember hearing somewhere, could be wrong, that Arnold did the meet and greet because he was getting paid amongst one of the reasons why he did his talk/meet and greets. Doesn't surprise me. However, didn't change my opinion afterward as meeting Arnold was something I wanted to do ever since he came over to the UK in 2014 so once the opportunity came up once more, I could not resist.

Also, I think paid meet and greets could start to become the norm on a more permanent basis and I would actually prefer to meet people under controlled circumstances as I feel more comfortable with this and you only live once so on the grand scale, it doesn't really matter a jot.

Permalink Reply by Coachgd on April 29, 2016 at 7:17pm

I recently paid for The Darkness meet and greet. I actually met 2 of the guys in Pittsburgh last fall after the show and got them on a drum head. Since I got to shoot the show for free, I decided to pay the 50 pounds- $72 US to get the other 2 guys and see what it was like.

I thought it was well worth it. Fans got a T-shirt, got to hear a few songs at sound check (no pics or video) and then the guys came down and signed anything you had and they spent as long as you would want talking with you. No rush and all of them were very friendly. I got the drum head, 2 cd covers and a few pictures that I took in Pitt signed by the band. After everyone got their items signed, they lined you up and you got a photo taken with the group.

Not too bad! I know they aren't the biggest name, but they put on one heck of a fun show and play great rock and roll.

I got a free meet and greet with Foreigner on Sunday. I know that they are basically a cover band now but they do sound good. Hopefully Mick Jones will be with them. Probably not.

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Permalink Reply by Coachgd on April 29, 2016 at 7:27pm

After the show, a friend of mine met the guys and they all signed and took individual pictures except for Justin. He didn't pay a thing and basically got the same thing as me minus the t-shirt ($25 at merch booth) sound check and group photo. However, I didn't have to wait 90 minutes after the show. I'm glad bands are willing to meet their fans even if they do a paid meet and greet. I guess if you want the guarantee, you should pay. If not, they may or may not sign, depending on their mood.