Poverty campaigners have slammed Barack Obama for the “extortionate” prices of tickets for his live show in Scotland.
On Ticketmaster, the former US president of the US is charging almost £400 for some seats and more than £1800 for a front seat plus photo package.
Ticket touts twisted the knife further for ordinary Scots, snapping up some of the cheapest tickets for £55 then listing them on tout site Viagogo for £173.
The appearance by Obama at the OVO Hydro on October 14 comes as the US marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence. Obama’s talk will lay down what he believes could come next.
Anti-poverty campaigner Sean Clerkin was stunned at the pricing to see a former president who was supposed to be a “man of the people”.
View 3 ImagesTicketmaster site selling inflated priced tickets for Barrack Obama show in Glasgow
He said: “I’m sure there will be lots of Scots who will be simply priced out by these eye-watering ticket costs.
“There is something obscene about these charges, coming at a time when homelessness is off the scale and poverty is rife.
“It also sets the price bar higher for other performers and that will mean more are tempted to price out ordinary people.”
Obama has held huge appeal since the end of his presidency in 2017 after being credited with advances in the US economy and social care.
In his post-presidency, via the Obama Foundation, he established programmes for emerging leaders across continents.
The blurb for the Glasgow show promises “a call to hope, resilience, and the belief that ordinary people, together, can still shape what comes next”.
Despite the focus on ordinary people, Photo VIP Packages were selling yesterday for £1877.
The bumper fee would secure photo opportunity with Obama for two people as long as both pass advance security.
Lucky buyers would also get a “designated VIP check-in” and a take-home copy of Obama’s book, A Promised Land although it does not promise that it will be signed.
View 3 ImagesViagogo site selling inflated priced tickets for Barrack Obama show in Glasgow
On Viagogo scores of tickets were available from faceless touts, bumping up a £400 ticket to £660 and a £55 ticket to £173.
The Glasgow appearance will also mark Obama’s return to Scotland almost five years after he addressed world leaders and climate campaigners at the COP26 summit hosted by Glasgow.
During his two-day visit in 2021, the former president said younger generations were right to be angry about the failure of those before them to tackle the crisis adequately.
Since then the US, under Donald Trump, has abandoned many of the climate pledges set by his predecessor.
Obama’s Glasgow show comes nine years after his first visit to Scotland, when he spoke at a charity dinner in Edinburgh and played golf in St Andrews shortly after leaving the White House.
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The tour follows live events in Dublin and London last year. It begins in Belfast on October 13, before moving to Glasgow and concluding in Manchester on October 15.
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