Why You Should Travel For An Event

People travel for all kinds of reasons. Maybe you want to explore a new place, learn about a new culture, or visit people you haven’t seen in a while. Recently, I’ve started to travel for events. Whether it’s gigs, sporting events, weddings – whatever – and it’s centered these trips on a completely different purpose. 

Traveling domestically for sporting events and gigs is something that I’ve done for most of my life. For instance, most major matches and tournaments happen in London, which is a 3-hour drive or pricey train ride. For the same price as that train ticket, I could get a cheap flight somewhere in Europe. The same goes for gigs, especially if it’s a band that’s not based in the UK – they’ll normally do one or two gigs, normally one in Scotland and one in London – both are expensive and time-consuming to get to. So, why not base a city break or holiday around an event? 

I’ve based trips around cuisines, free accommodation whilst a friend is living in a city, or simply by what flights are cheap when I want to go away, so this doesn’t seem like such an outlandish idea.

Ticket prices

Firstly, the UK ticket prices for events are expensive. I’ve seen the British and Irish Lions play rugby in New Zealand (which isn’t exactly a cheap country) for £35 by buying through New Zealand Ticketmaster. In the UK this year a similar warm-up game was going to cost £85. For that £50 difference, I could get a hostel room and dinner. It’s mad.

I have a friend who saw the same band twice, once in the UK and once in Copenhagen and there was a huge price difference. Whether it’s because sport and music are considered more accessible in that country or the venues don’t take such a big cut, often tickets even city to city can have a big price difference.

Atmosphere

Another benefit is the atmosphere. If you can see a band or a team in their home nation then the vibe is automatically going to be up a level. Now, it’s not exactly home turf, but a friend and I went to the French Open in Paris when Rafa Nadal was there. If you don’t know, he basically owns that tournament and has a ridiculous win rate there. Seeing a player on a surface or at a specific tournament that they love is a whole new level and something you wouldn’t necessarily get at more local events.

Explore new locations

Something else is that you end up going places that you wouldn’t ordinarily consider. A family member had their wedding at Christmas time in the Cayman Islands. Would I have gone to the Caymans otherwise? Probably not. I’m not a massive lie on the beach for a fortnight-type person. But being there at Christmas instead of freezing at home and being there for a specific purpose gave a whole different feeling to the trip. 

When you’re traveling for a specific reason it roots your trip. Even if you’re the most unorganised traveler in the world, you know you need to be in a certain place at a certain time for this event. And when you’re in a city or country when a tournament or event is on that isn’t on every week, you get to experience the city in a completely different way, which is amazing.

The thing is, if you’re planning on seeing a specific band or team and you’re going to have to travel anyway, why not make a trip out of it? There’s a reason fans always love an away game – because it’s more of an adventure. So next time a tour is announced, maybe don’t just look for the closest location and see if there’s anywhere you want to visit that they’re also playing. You’ll probably have a much more memorable time than spending another sweaty evening in your local gig venue…