Everything is costly these days – even dreams. For aspiring musicians, life on the road is alluring. A new city every day, different cultures and foods, and all while getting to live out your lifelong dreams.
Yet the harsh truth is that in today’s cash-strapped music industry, young bands face
a mountain of challenges when it comes to touring. From crew costs to travel to merch, the reality is pretty brutal. Looking to raise awareness of what it actually costs to tour in 2025, Hertfordshire’s Vexed published a breakdown on Discord of costs from their recent mainland European and UK tour supporting progressive metalcore mob Silent Planet. And it’s eyewatering.
From spending £9,145.10 on bus hire to £1,024.56 on ferries and £2,662.65 on fuel, among many other expenses, the 24-date jaunt cost them £34,370... of their own money.
“It’s a deposit on a house. It’s crazy,” says vocalist Megan Targett. “This was the first tour we’d done without label backing and without being able to get any charitable funding grant. It was quite interesting to see people’s reactions to the document, because I don’t think a lot of fans realised how much money it costs to tour.”
The bulk of the costs, she says, come from travel. “There are tolls, bridges, ferries... all of that costs a few grand, and then your fuel costs a few grand on top of that. It adds up fast, and that’s us keeping everything as low as we possibly can. Before you’ve even left the country, you have to get a carnet, which is basically just a declaration
of goods, but the carnet itself costs [almost] £800.”
People might assume bands are living it up each night in nice accommodation, but Vexed spent nearly every night sleeping in the van or on friends’ floors. “We did one Airbnb in Germany, but it wasn’t glamorous at all,” Megan says. “We were all sharing beds.”
Although Vexed were previously signed to Napalm Records, that doesn’t mean they had an unlimited budget to tour as much as they like. When they parted ways with the label after the release of 2023’s Negative Energy, they were forced to make brutal decisions about where their money would be spent. A sound engineer was non-negotiable and they also forked out
the money for a merch seller.
Doing merch every night gets tiring, so we scrimped and saved a little bit extra because it was worth it,” Megan admits. They couldn’t afford to pay someone to run their lighting, so they’ve had to learn to do it themselves. But lighting in 2025 is of secondary importance to other aspects of modern touring.
“You need content creation, you need TikTok... all that,” sighs Megan. “We don’t give a crap about any of that stuff – we just want to play live gigs and meet fans. But if you don’t take a content creator, you may as well not go on the tour.”
The reality is that, at the grassroots level, live music is struggling. Many venues, fighting a rise in their costs, take a cut of merchandise sales, pushing up the price of the merch. And ticket prices have risen through the roof, making gigs, especially for larger artists, a luxury that many fans are now struggling to afford.
“Everybody’s put their prices up because the cost of living is higher,” says Megan. She can’t solve the conundrum, but understands the challenges being faced by all parties.
“The quick fix would be finding a label that is happy to chuck you loads of money because they want you to get bigger... but it’s hard, because a lot of labels are just oversaturated with bands [and can’t afford to bankroll lots of tours]. It’s the worst of both worlds.”
What will happen if we get to the point when bands can’t afford to tour? “We’ll end up with content creation TikTok bands, and that will be it,” Megan says. “I hope we don’t end up relying on technology too much, because it will take away the heart and soul of music.”
To recoup some of the costs sunk into the Silent Planet tour, Vexed turned to their fans, starting a GoFundMe to try to get out of the red, and hosting a raffle to give away collectors’ items including signed vinyl, a Culling Culture stage backdrop, and even a catsuit Megan wore in their Anti-Fetish music video. They don’t have another tour booked yet, but the looming debt hasn’t put them off.
“This is what I have dreamt about since I was 12 years old,” Megan says. “I’m 30 now and I can’t give up. Every night after I get offstage, I’m just on cloud nine. It’s worth the stress, but people need to know the sacrifices their favourite bands are making to play you a live show that lasts half an hour.”
Vexed play 2000 Trees next month. Head to linktr.ee/vexedvexedvexed to learn more about the band's fundraising
VEXED SUPERBLOOM TOUR COSTS
Merchandise: £5,333.91
Merch restock: £2,414.92
Van hire week one: £1,690
Sleeper bus hire: £9,145.10
Van hire home: £320
Ferries: £1,024.56
Tolls: £270.26
Carnet: £762
Crew: £8,420
CDs and vinyls from Napalm: £2,089
Accommodation: £237.62
Fuel: £2,662.65
Total: £34,370
