Pulse Report: Does global uncertainty affect Aussie ticket buying?
Early 2026 was wild.
The partial release of the Epstein Files raised more questions than it answered. The conflict in West Asia saw global panic around petrol supply. Bluesfest’s sudden liquidation left thousands of businesses (including Bolster) and ticket holders in the lurch. The RBA’s interest rate hikes affected millions of mortgage holders across the country. A little cruise ship was stranded off the coast of Cape Verde, with confirmed cases of Hantavirus spreading through the ship.
It was making me nervous. It felt like April 2020 all over again.
This was the feeling on the ground when I proposed a new research report concept to the powers to be at Bolster. The result was our first-ever Pulse Report, which provided a quick consumer snapshot into how global conflicts and skyrocketing petrol prices are impacting Australian live events on home soil.
Based off my hypothesis, I set up a survey asking:
Where do you live?
How do you identify? (Gender)
What best describes your current living situation?
Are current global events making you nervous about buying tickets to events?
In times of global or economic uncertainty, how does your attendance at live events change?
How does the current fuel crisis affect you going to events?
I deployed the survey using SightX to a panel of 350 Australians who had all been to a live event in the past year. Additionally we set up quotas to ensure minimum numbers for each age bracket, gender, capital city and regional area.
The results were stark:
Downstream effects: Geopolitics aren’t directly impacting ticket sales, but the secondary effects are. Audiences aren’t staying home because of the news, but rather because everything involved with getting to a gig is too much.
Close to home: The fuel crisis is causing event goers to prioritise events closer to home, or venues that are easy to get to by public transport.
Cash flow is driving late sales: Delayed ticket buying isn’t a lack of interest. Audiences are holding off while they prioritise paying their rent and bills, or holding off due to job loss anxiety.
A tale of two economies: We are seeing a massive split in the crowd. Mortgage-holders, share house renters and those aged 35–44 are really feeling the crunch at the moment, unlike our ESCAPIST persona (especially driven by 18–34s) and outright homeowners.
I’m extremely proud of this body of work, from the concept, to designing and deploying the survey, analysing the data and writing the report. Huge kudos to Fernanda Aguilera for the beautiful design work.
