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Billboard Hot 100 Fest Has Prices Only a ‘Poser’ Would Pay
What would you call someone who was willing to drop more than $20,000 so that he (or she) and a date could fly into a concert and hobnob with celebrities and musicians they will never see again?
Would they be a fake? A phony? A wannabe? According to the organizers of the Billboard Hot 100 Fest held Aug. 20-21 on the grounds of Nikon Beach Theater in Wantaugh, N.Y., that person would be a POSER.
Organizers are embracing the term used for years to make fun of hanger-ons, offering A “Poser Package” to this year’s event headlined by Calvin Harris, Ariana Grande and Fetty Wap. For $10,000 a ticket plus $28.26 in fees, buyers of the Poser Package get a seat on the main stage, a helicopter ride to and from the venue and meet and greet opportunities with artists like Martin Garrix, Awolnation, Nervo and Sleigh Bells.
THR-BB Media Group Co-President John Amato is going to have to sell a lot of Poser Packages if he’s going to make up for last year’s festival, which cost Billboard “untold millions,” according to gossip site Hits Daily Double, and “became known as Amato’s Folly.” This year’s run sounds underwhelming and overpriced, with $500 VIP packages that include little more than flushable toilets, cellphone charging stations and meal vouchers.
For $950, you get your own VIP entrance, but you still have to schlep around on a platform near the mixing station with the riff raff that paid half as much. Even the fees for GA tickets seem high: a one-day pass to the show will cost you $59.50 plus $16.50 in fees – a 28 percent surcharge. That’s more than most other events at
This all comes as owner Todd Boehly is reportedly contemplating a sale of Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter and Dick Clark Productions, just a few months after the properties were divested by Guggenheim Partners.
In June, Boehly told Reuters he had “received unsolicited interest in one of its media assets” and hired Goldman Sachs to conduct a strategic review of his media holdings.
According to Hits, DCP is “the only viable component of the crumbling platform” while “Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter have been hemorrhaging money at the rate of $20m+ per year.”
A representative for Boehly told Pollstar the $20m+ figure is “nonsense” and Boehly’s Eldridge Industries “is not looking for buyers of any of its properties.