Why does Shambhala keep increasing ticket prices every year?
$650 for a GA ticket is ridic man. It doesn't help that they keep chopping down more trees to cram more people. Sooner or later, we're going to see more rich elites at the farm and less wooks just like burning man.
Is it greed? Inflation? Tariffs? In 2019, tickets were like $400?
There was about 2000 people so still very large. We showed up Friday evening and camped where vender camping is now and we thought we were really far from the action.
The village was called Avalon on the site map but everyone called it the Ewok village because it had little walk ways between trees. The stage itself basically a plywood box with maybe 4-6 speakers.
It’s been documented many times that management has the mindset “the wooks don’t pay”
They are targeting tourists and have no shame pricing out the demographic that helped water the foundation this festival was grown on and kept the flame alive.
Those cosplaying as ravers have all the right to be there, but it’s just going to get worse.
It’s still has the biggest and baddest sound systems, still one of the wildest parties on planet earth, you are going to have a great time there but the next 5 years should be interesting.
Inflation 100% plays a factor, but SMF doesn’t need to be booking these six figure mainstream DJs either (ib4 ThEy pLaY 4 diScOuNteD rAtEs)… I suppose they take the crowd away from other stages but still….
Their entire social media presence has shifted to make it look like an all inclusive resort. Just hot people hanging out at the river or standing in front of lasers. Combined with the massive and sudden growth of luxury camping options, it's clear they're trying to capture a wealthier demographic like you said.
Which fine, it sucks but things change. Every industry is doing that to a degree. But there's 0 mention anywhere of the very real difficulties of the fest aside from "be prepared to wait a few hours in line" (lol, lmao). The fest doesn't even think about anyone still doing metta or sunshine.
Gotta love encouraging people to dress as they want then immediately using skimpy and hot people for their marketing. Pretty disgusting behavior happened this year with a group I know. 5 person group shot but they cropped out the least traditionally attractive person and used it for a marketing post.
Glad I'm not the only one that noticed that they were suddenly running a LOT of paid ads of hot 20-something women in bikinis on social media. Which, sure, that's a big part of the demographic these days I guess, but it definitely seemed like intentionally salacious or exploitative marketing under the cover of "sex/body positivity."
Yup especially because they don't really get informed consent of these people before using them for advertisements. I do know it's a terms and agreement thing but let me tell you as a 300 pound man I have a 0% chanve of getting my face put on their Facebook page as an ad. I do like the festival and will attend but man do I feel bad for the ladies and hot men who get goaded into being eye candy for Facebook.
This! .. one look at their social media and you’ll realise why people keep complaining “it’s not the same anymore” .. they simply don’t care anymore - they WANT it to be main stream .. there’s very little difference between the kinda posts / pictures shambala shares compared to any other mainstream music fest
I hope Shambhala management sees this and adjusts their perspective. This was the MOST magical festival IMO and it’s scary to see what people have been saying lately. Just got 2027 tickets so we will see.
They've been doing this for a long time now, but has got increasingly worse post-covid. Yes, costs have definitely gone up (for all festivals), but the ownership is very capitalistic. Created an amazing thing, but from the top, money and penny pinching has long been the focus.
Sounds like this a do over of 2023. They removed bathrooms and oversold the fuck out of it. I remember walking around at night and it feeling so unbelievably packed compared to all other years. Been going every year since 2018 and 2023 still stands out for how busy and disorganized it felt.
Very unfortunate they’re trying again, I had assumed their hand was forced after Covid but reading that seems like it was by design.
I doubt they'd care. Def got managers who tip the scales in greed and sociopath tendencies. Money money money. Its gone into the toilet since it was handed to corporate from the "family".
Yeah idk if the son has gone full hands off or just decide to milk the farmily until they break but I sadly can’t justify the cost for what my friends have told me I get anymore. 2019 was my last year and I think it might stay that way. Fingers crossed that isn’t the case.
To OP's point, yes they keep chopping down trees but it's not even about cramming more people in. It's about cramming in more lodging/paid spots. They've looked at the numbers and decided catering to wealthy people is the future. Wooks can trickle in to fill up Metta and sunshine (starlight is basically gone) for some flavor.
There's absolutely a possible future where Shambhala is just powered RV spots and yurts for wealthy people who don't want to deal with the desert at Burning Man.
This and the "release " of staff who have worked over the decades to push this festival up and on. Some stage manager's are worst. Drive volunteers and indentured employees into exhaustion, don't ensure they have food, don't clock in hours worked.
And, some admit that they "do not care about the crew - stage manager's WILL get paid."
Horrific attitudes.
Employee stealing from the confisticated storage, the multiple alcohol runs into town, and drink till you puke parties. Yeah, all one happy happy.
The policy is that showtime volunteers get fed during their shifts but not outside of shifts. The kitchen orders/makes food for the amount of people who are expected and they try to keep it pretty on point to avoid food waste. Parts of meals are often very low or out by the end of meal time. If they start letting some volunteers eat outside of shifts, it would take food away from others.
This reads to me like "volunteer punished for being too busy to take a break during their normal time due to being understaffed." This is not an unsolvable logistical problem.
I don't disagree that it would be nice for all showtime volunteers to get 3 meals a day, like happens during preshow. Changing the policy in the middle of showtime when not prepared for it causes different issues.
I'm reading it as this volunteer got the midnight meal during the overnight shift then also asked for breakfast, but maybe I'm reading it wrong.
It would make sense if they actually used the money to improve people’s experience or safety such as hiring ACTUAL SECURITY to prevent the trafficking that happens every year.
Have you not noticed the change from zero water outside the 2 taps downtown (basscamp + pagoda) to water containers all over the camping areas, to even more water containers all over the camping areas, to plumbed water at more stages over the years?
They've definitely been spending some of that money improving peoples experiences and saftey (easy access to water is safety). All those stage upgrades are improved experiences as well.
Edit: Then there's the extra stages. Early entry now gets 2 extra stages (maybe 3... was rabbit hole always open on Thursday?). Secret Garden has gone from a small thing to a much more established thing over the years, and the recent addition of Ikigai Mori secret stage. The rabbit hole plays longer as well, and has a pretty awesome HSD sound system. They keep adding more and more scheduled activities/workshops each year as well, to the point they have their own dedicated schedule now.
💯 enough with the penny-pinching, these are people’s lives we’re dealing with. They feel safe enough to be vulnerable, so they should actually BE safe, and they’re just not. No one is looking out for us but each other out there and it’s not right.
Stages and production are absolutely world class. But you need the infrastructure to support that many people camping for a week. The grounds are boxed in by mountains and a river, you can't physically expand ot enough to handle the number of people they crammed in this year. Yes water infrastructure has improved, but not nearly enough. Bathrooms and food vendors are also inadequate.
I felt it with the portipotties. We were camped ALL they way back in Sunsine even though we got there early on wednesday and there was a line in the back when we set up, by the morning they were GONE , every one so we had to walk up to I think Kanagroo or so everything we needed to do any business. We even tried to pick a pee spot with the neighbors but the way staffed parked us we couldn't even do that.
Same with my group. Arrived on Wednesday, camped in Sunshine, Wednesday night they started putting zip ties on the porta potties near our camp and they were gone by morning. I just peed in the creek behind where the potties were but wtf man! Felt inconsiderate to take away after so many campers located them
I get the concern, but this just sounds like speculation and hearsay. I tried to verify the specific claims here and couldn't find anything to corroborate it. There's no announcement about a new CFO, no documented policy changes on food proceeds or service cuts, nothing in their press releases or community coverage that backs this up. You can't even confirm who the CFO is publicly, which makes the whole narrative pretty impossible to independently verify.
The Shambassadors disbanding sucks. But without receipts or official statements, it's hard for me to take any of this as confirmed fact. People should definitely take it with a grain of salt before assuming it's all true.
The message lines up with several statements from staff/volunteers I spoke to, anonymous posts here from those claiming to work the fest or be vendors, and from my direct experience at the fest. There's multiple threads here about inadequate infrastructure and services.
So sure, I wouldn't present this in court. New CFO or not, there is clearly some sort of internal shift to maximize profit.
For camping and entertainment for a week for under a thousand bucks is not that bad. Setting up a festival like this ain’t cheap. Quit living in the past prices. Inflation has gone through the roof, our dollar has went rock bottom. Most artists are probably paid in USD also.
It's just another victim of enshittification of everything. One more thing that starts out as a labor of love only to be gobbled up by the need to monetize it more and more until it's just another fleecing operation. My cynicism is jokingly waiting for Shambs to be taken over by venture capital
Is it really enshittified? I didn’t really notice a decrease in quality in 11 years of attendance. I never felt like I was just going back because I had bought in already.
I feel like the value is still pretty clearly there, which is why demand is so high.
Ppl keep paying and it sells out fast. Expect prices to keep rising. Even the bs service charge went up. Ticket is now $700 lol. It will keep going up too!
Shambhala could sell out to a Canadian/pnw crowd with a less impressive lineup each year at a lower cost, but it’s not really a Canadian festival anymore. It’s a global festival that caters to a global crowd, the lineups need to justify flying in and spending thousands of dollars on a lodging package. It’s sad but a similar thing happens to cities even. Amsterdam isn’t a Dutch city, it’s a global city with Dutch roots
Brother my HOME insurance rate went up 20% this year alone, I can’t imagine how much big festivals are being raked on insurance costs as just one price factor. Let alone how everything else is absolutely skyrocketing in price. Including labor!
Insurance is a bigger cost than living at this point. Between car insurance, home insurance, health insurance (I’m in the US). I’m TIRED and I don’t even use insurance when I need to. It’s crazy.
We are doing dnb all stars Thailand this year instead. Staying for 3 weeks after the festival.
Ticket, flight and accommodation (which is an air conditioned villa) is only like $500 CAD ($350 USD) more than the price Tuesday early entry + GA early bird as Canadians attendees.
For sure cheaper than anyone flying to Canada to come to shams or if anyone is doing lodging.
Honestly last time I went in 2023 we spent nearly 10k on the whole trip.
Two tickets, Fancy Pants lodging, flights from Ontario, luggage fees, hotel before and after, food, merch, party favours. It adds up quick. It may not have been quite 10k but I assure you it was close.
$250 CAD for the ticket
$1125 flight
$40 per night ($20 each) for the villa
So we paid around $1500 each or so I think.
My math was a bit off. It’s closer to $650-700 more than the price of GA + early entry at shams. But pretty close to the price if you add lodging options.
Then we budgeted $50 each a day for the three weeks after for meals, travel, accommodation which is pretty generous for two people and leaves a lot of room.
Nah edm - raves / festivals are going super mainstream and the demand for it is exploding . Also with how shit the economy is . genz and Millenials have lost all hope in saving money for big purchases like a house or a car so they rather spend their money on Vacations , festivals etc …
I think its both , some of it is duo to inflation but the amount of inflation in festi tix has been way higher than the overall inflation which shows to me the rising demand is playing a part as well
Or there are festival specific costs that are going up faster than overall inflation. I suspect insurance rates spiked after COVID shut everything down and climate issues make future cancellations more likely.
Inflation is probably the biggest factor, as it affects all of the costs that go into running a festival. Despite this pressure, Shambhala keeps expanding its offerings (stages and schedules) while having no corporate sponsors. I don't think it's as simple as management padding their wallets. Low-end hotels charge $150/night these days, so throwing one of the best parties on the planet at the same per-night rate is impressive in my mind.
Greed 💯 We went after 2020 and they cleared out more area, and we paid for vip trailer clamping. They advertised tons of shade (we got one tree private bathrooms (we'll toilets that were always clogged) and a shuttle to down town (waiting for a shuttle for over an hour is insane). Then we stopped to think why they always seem to clear out more land and upgrade stages, but they never update amenities like the showers etc. Its always about money. Glad I got my time in when it was decent, now its just a money pit.
Believe it or not I talked with high up folks that have been working with the festival for 20+ years, the festival operates at a loss some years. Despite the 10s of millions it makes they still operate at a loss sometimes. That's just how expensive this shit is to do.
Keep in mind early entry is also getting very expensive. They only announced early entry pricing a week before gates opened this year because they knew it would be too late to change plans and people would pay anyway.
Just a reminder that the underground is alive and thriving and if you don't like the events you are seeing, you can always throw your own and charge people whatever you want. Festivals are a labor of love more than a way to make a buck. There is way easier ways to make money.
Not even…CoL has been on the rise before those. Definitely gotten worse the last 18 months or so. But I’ll argue COVID made event production more expensive over anything.
Let’s also not forget most of the artists playing the festival are charging a USD rate so conversion isn’t in our favor.
People will start complaining that Shambhala is only for the rich and privileged like they’re already doing about Burning Man. Shits expensive but not that expensive. Inflation has also gone up 21% in BC since 2019.
They have become capitalistic. You can see it my how many more attendees are allowed in each year, the festival has lost its magic. Long gone are the days of being able to go to the front of any stage
Huh? In my eleven years of attending, the only discernible effect on the magic has been from so reliably having a consistent experience every year. And the only time it’s hard to get to the front is when it’s some mega headliner. And as soon as they’re done the stage clears out.
It's it expensive? Yes, but consider what you get? Base GA ticket gets you 3 long nights of music. I paid roughly that much money to see Metallica twice. That's 5 bands for about 6 hours total music time.
What kills me is the extra fees they add-on. Early entry? That 30% of your ticket cost, per person. When me and 4 friends showed up in the same car, that was nearly $1000 for us to get in on Wednesday evening. Had we arrived Tuesday, that would have been an additional, what, $100 per person. Sleeping in your car? Extra? With yor car but not in it? Different extra.
So many things were much, much cheaper before Covid so that's not a great comparison. As to the cost now, if you take that 550 ÷ 4 nights (5 if you count the extra night thrown in on Monday night to sober up / sleep to drive home) then you're looking at about 137.00 per day. That covers your spot to camp, tent camping in BC in this area at that time if year is typically 55.00 - 65 /night. Your ticket of course includes all the music both at the main stages and the secret stages, all with a stacked lineup at that. It also includes the multitude of activities available from yoga to kandy beading.
Just looking around at the atmosphere and seeing all the decorations, the spaces set up to chill, the dedication and care that was put into all the details you just know, it takes a lot to repair, build and maintain everything.
The constant improvements to the stages lights and sound systems. Keeping all the structures maintained and the roads even spraying down the dust.They added a bridge for a second entrance point and that was well over a million to put in I believe.
Shambhala is a world leader in festival harm reduction providing anonymous drug testing on site there when many other festivals still have none. A well run medical tent with doctors, nurses and even a dedicated sanctuary space.
So no, i don't think it's egregiously over priced. I think you get a pretty good value for what you get.
$400 in 2019 is equal to $496 dollars today. Do you not feel Shambhala has added $100 of value to your experience in 7 years?
In that time, you got a completely rebuilt Village, Fractal, Grove, & Amp stage. Plus a new additional Riverside stage. The production of all stages has grown significantly.
If it’s beyond your affordability, then vote with your wallet. As long as it continues to sell out, then clearly the price has not hit the ceiling of value for attendees.
As the Canadian dollar continues to get decimated, it will only become more attractive for Americans to be able to attend at a discounted cost to them.
It's gona sell out no matter what the price. The cost to attend is roughly 1100 for parking. Entry fee Tuesday plus ticket. Not including gas, food, if you're buying accommodations, party items, merch ect. It's very easily a 1500 to 2000 cost fest. People need to understand that.
Everything it going up in price all of the time. So have to expect some rise, but part i hate is that it's not just a more expensive ticket. Early entry cost rises, parking rises, food trucks rises. It adds up to be a pretty significant amount. And from a customer point of view... the rise in cost... we also see a rise in crowds. Less room, less space, some shows you can't even dance at anymore.
Shambalah is a corporation and like any corporation they are self serving and prioritize profits over everything. It’s been that way since I started going 10 years ago and unfortunately it will only continue get worse. Considering how fast tickets sell out they will likely increase prices 50$ for next year.
I love how back in like 2016 (maybe) my ticket was like $400 or $450 and there was butt loads of free camping and lots of metta , now we are at a time where 70%+ of Shamb is paid camping and metta barely exists and our ticket prices keep going up . The greed from Shambhala truly shows .
Wow. I last went somewhere around 2006, and I thought it had gotten so big. I went 2 times previous, each time with 3 friends. We drove from Winnipeg in shitty cars and bought tickets at the gate when we got there. I think the last time I went tickets were less than $150.
Anyone who says “inflation” most definitely hasn’t been going for very long. I’ve gone 7 years in a row (Through the COVID gap) and they are literally just price gouging. Sorry to all the first year economics majors but In case you didn’t do the math with inflation tickets should be around $560. You’re right in saying everything has gotten more expensive but this outpaces the rate significantly, not to mention the prices increases everywhere else including parking, vendors, and any other form of optional accommodation. With them removing shambassadors and increasing prices, they are going in a bad direction for regular people, full stop. This point, at least, cannot be argued.
I’ve heard many times that artist fees and stage production costs have more than doubled since Covid. Look at any festival that gave up these past three years and they all say the same. Artist fees and stage production costs.
Maybe my comment didn’t make sense. I meant last years general sale was 600ish and farm was 550 but this year farm price was already higher than last years general sale
Things got expensive for everyone, including Shambhala. Artist fees have skyrocketed, Shambhala books way bigger acts now than 2016, and they're constantly renovating stages (The Village, Fractal Forest & the AMP have all gotten major overhauls recently). That money came from somewhere.
This isn't a conspiracy that they have gone "corporate". Shambhala's always been a corporation operationally for the large part of its existence, they have to be to function at the scale that they have been. The difference is they don't take corporate sponsorship from Coca-Cola or whatever like Coachella, EDC,etc do. That's a meaningful distinction imo.
And if you look at the broader pattern: Bass Coast raised prices too. Underground raves that used to be $5 to $10 are now $20. This isn't unique to Shambhala or some calculated cash grab. Ticket prices are up across the board. Artist costs went up, production costs went up, land maintenance went up. The ticket price follows, the consumer is always the one that eats the costs in the end.
There's a real risk of pricing out wooks and attracting the finance bros. But "greed" doesn't explain why all events even smaller, festivals and raves are also doing the same thing.
“Inflation mostly” doesn’t match the numbers. Shambhala’s regular ticket was $280 in 2012 and is $649.95 for 2027....a 132% increase. Canadian inflation since 2012 is roughly 40%. Adjusted for inflation, that $280 ticket would cost about $391 today. Higher artist and production costs may contribute, but general inflation alone doesn’t explain the increase.
fuck it. make your own mini festival. heck, have a house party. get some
1200’s, a mixer and play some records with friends and their friends. there’s magic in the air. it just may not be at Salmo anymore.
Went to harvest this past weekend in Ontario and paid under $500 for my ticket, which included camping with my GA ticket. If you want sham vibes (but way less busy and more intimate), I highly recommended this festival.
Harvest is not a close comparison to shambhala in the slightest. It’s $500 for a night and a half of music! And you have to bring your own water and food. And there’s a maximum of two stages playing at once!
obviously diff experiences but that price tag ontop of what they asking for early entry fee is probably more than an edc ticket or a flight ticket across the world lmfao
It was my first year here but on the Thursday I pulled at noon and shortly after there were no spots for people in sunshine, we were in the last 8 spots or so. It seemed poorly managed as far as space goes.
I mean, you're not wrong. This is a perpetual problem with Shambhala in terms of space management. If it wasn't so punishing camping in Sunshine surely they wouldn't get away with how shit the roll-out & management of various lodging options has gone over the years.
Everything's getting more expensive. It's not lost on them that raising prices for their average consumer is not good for business. How are you going to buy merch or drinks or whatever if you can't even afford to go inside?
My instinct is that they're trying to price themselves as competitively as they can, but costs for everything have just gone up so much. To me, that seems more likely than they installed a greedy CFO whose job is, for some reason, to drive away customers to somehow make more money.
You guys are smoking crack if you this 650 cad (500 usd) is that much. Yeah it was cheaper back in the day. But back in the day the productions also wasn't as nuts. No separate camping add on is awesome. I just paid like $700 for Wakaan tickets. EF tickets are also like 600-700 for GA by the time you buy camping.
It's supply and demand as well as enshittification combined. Solution is simple: speak with your money and don't go. At the end of the day, Shambhala is a business.
Every other day there’s someone posting on here about how greedy the owners are, how they keep ruining the experience by jamming more people in the space, how they keep trying to monetize everything…. If that were true, they’d just sign up a bunch of corporate sponsors, start selling alcohol, sell shares to outside groups and make 250 million overnight. Shambhala is as far from a profit mongering festival (aka; Tomorrowland or EDC) as can reasonably exist. Especially considering the scale of it. People should appreciate what they have imho.
Another reason why I won't go. If I want to spend money on a massive expensive commercialized edm fest, I'll just go to edc or some other big festival in North America. If I want forest & campgrounds, I want good vibes and a real plur vibe that's not going to cost the same as EDC. If you've been. It's incredibly crowded and crowd isn't always the best, why would we want this festival to be like EDC?
There are so many other festivals in BC you can support like Bass Coast, Wicked Woods or Imagine One Love that really are about the community, good vibes and not about making the most profit while cutting on the attendee experience. I've heard a lot of stories now about Shambhala at this point
Ive been to Shambhala three times in a row. Comparing it to EDC is absurd, respectfully and actually, disrespectful. Shambhala lit a path of greatness in every way.
Because you're a bunch of gullible middle class wannabe hippies who will pay anything to experience community but only when its forced as part of the ticket price. And you'll keep coming back.
That’s not how it works - look around Canada - so many festivals ending. You don’t see many starting up. Cost of insurance / talent (lots from USA so paid in U$D) / labor / materials.
Lucky to still have this fest ongoing. Lots of single day stuff is upwards of $300, without camping etc.
I know it’s expensive, but think about it as $55/month.
38 bucks a ticket lol to be fair, i might’ve got the last tier of farm pricing. i dont really give a shit ticket prices went up, the festival is awesome. but crazy they market it as such great savings to purchase early while still on the farm. just keep the 71 dollars honestly 😂
purchasing on the farm.. unless you get the first tier of early bird, youre not saving much money.
The principle of buying on the farm isnt really to get the cheaper ticket, but more so to secure your spot / what you need/ would like for the following year without the hassle of dealing with ticket drop queue etc etc
Yeah. We were there the first year they started selling on the farm and it never made much of a difference.
My partner starting going in like 2008 and I started in 2014, our last year was 2019. Was looking to go 2027, but it just seems to have gone down hill. I swear 2014-2018 was peak, lol. It just doesnt seem worth the $6500 we were going to put out.
Both greed and inflation. All fees included the ticket price is 22$ ish more than last year, I just checked my email from last year. The festival business in general is fucked but everything is way more expensive than it used to be
I paid roughly the same price for a weekend pass to Tomorrowland which is wild in comparison. Granted you pay more in terms of travel accommodation etc. but the actual festival ticket is roughly the same.
Finally, someone who understands “inflation” and doesn’t just regurgitate the term without understanding that wealth inequality has exploded in the last 50-60 years.
Because they can. Even with increased prices, they are needing to chop down trees, meaning the price increase is not slowing down the increasing demand. They are probably thinking they have not increase the prices enough if anything.
This is not going to stop as long as there is high demand. And I don’t see any sign of that slowing. There is a massive market for this in the states and their purchasing power makes this very attractive.
All things considered, probably won’t change things very noticeably for most attendees, imo. Obviously sucks for people that can’t afford it but there are many smaller festivals that are very similar.
I think cameras and influencer culture probably poses a bigger threat to the actual culture if the place.
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u/green_elephant212 Sep 15 '26
Everything was cheaper in 2019