What kind of party feels right without some awesome music? You can really set the tone and bring people together with a band that knows what it’s doing. Seemingly dissimilar people start vibing and the entire ambiance is lifted.
This desire for live music and partying like no tomorrow is even more evident as people start throwing parties and going to festivals again. It’s why LA Times reported how Californians excitedly embraced the lifted COVID-19 restrictions right away and saw 750,000 attendees at Coachella 2022.
A great band makes or breaks a party, especially when it’s a private affair. So, what if you got some of the biggest names out there? Check out the most expensive bands you can hire for a party, with sky-high fees just based on their minimum asking price.
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are legends, so it only makes sense that they carry a legendary price to perform at any private gig. At $3 million, it’s definitely a major investment to get some satisfaction. Just to really hammer in the proportions of this fee, that’s about 461 times as much as the most expensive and experienced rock band you can hire on Function Central. Consider the fact that the average premium pricing hovers in the thousands, but the Stones are not just your average party band.
What makes this asking fee even wilder is that this is actually already the minimum, with their rates going up to $8.1 million. The band was also famously paid $11.5 million to perform a 90-minute set at TGP Capital founder David Bonderman’s 60th birthday party. The billionaire pulled out the big bucks to get his favorite band to play, much to the joy of his star-studded guest list.
Coldplay
Coldplay has long been known for being emotional, powerful, charming, and deeply connected with its fans. Even as the band grew to become one of the biggest stars in the world with a decades-long career full of hits, fans have continued to feel a warmth come through every performance and action. As recently as June of 2022, frontman Chris Martin stopped by a local pub in the West Country and played ‘Sky Full of Stars’ and ‘Ghost Stories’ on the piano for guests. Onlookers were amazed by his sweetness and down-to-earth attitude despite coming from a major festival.
Exactly how lucky those pubgoers were to get that intimate performance becomes more apparent when you find out that Coldplay usually charges a minimum of $2.5 million for a private event.
BTS
BTS is the biggest boyband in the world. As of 2022, they had already achieved over 105 million equivalent album sales. They have garnered such a huge following that Google even unveiled a special easter egg for the anniversary of their fanbase, BTS ARMY.
With their extremely packed schedule and sold-out concerts, one might think that it would be nigh impossible to get them for a party. The reality is that their management company Hybe Corporation actually can lease them out for a performance, as long as you have anywhere from $1.5-5 million. The K-Pop icons come with massive performances that include a lot of movement and technical equipment, so the asking fee actually includes those considerations already. Of course, rich fans will have to wait a couple of years to hire the entire group as some members are currently fulfilling their mandatory military service under South Korean law.
Maroon 5
Remember the popular ‘Sugar’ music video where Maroon 5 crashed all those weddings? Well, anyone who wants to recreate that moment with the real deal will have to shell out $1.5 million. With the band’s extremely well-received Las Vegas residency, you may even have to crank up the fee if you want them to carve out a private performance from their packed schedule.
Having just celebrated the band’s 20th anniversary in December, the residency is seeing tickets go for thousands of dollars from scalpers. Even if you were to go the official route, the cheapest seats run over $100.
Arctic Monkeys
The English kings of alternative rock may have started out as indie darlings, but the prices charged for an Artic Monkeys private party performance are certainly the opposite. If you want to get the party going with renditions of the timeless ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ or ‘I Wanna Be Yours’, the price is going to be $1.5 million.
In recent news, the band just performed to thousands at a sold-out Release Anthems performance. This set marked the long-awaited return to Greece after seven years. With such demand on an international scale, you would have to pull out some cool cash to get Arctic.
