How to read your concert ticket

Now that you have your concert/show/play/whatever ticket, you will need to know where your seat is.


You may want to open this site and find your venue. Most venues are listed and have maps.



The seating information is listed in two places. It will be on the right-side in that area they will detach when you go to the show. It is also listed on the bottom of the ticket. The seats are obviously different for every venue, so it is always good to have that site ready. When you get to the venue you can always have a staff member help you to your seat if you can’t seem to find it.

As you can see on the above ticket, there is a lot of information. The name of the show, the date and the time, the venue name, etc., The information at the bottom of the ticket is the code for the show, the fanclub number, a set of numbers I left out, the name of the person, and then the price of the ticket. Please note that I heavily edited the above ticket (as should be obvious) to protect any identities so that no one gets in trouble with the fanclub. But, you can get a general idea about the ticket from that.



Arenas and Halls:


Usually, but not always, there is only one entrance. Look for where all of the fangirls are lined up and that should be it. There will also be several staff members to tear your ticket, check your bag, etc., Once you get through that (read here for more information), you will need to find your seat.


Domes and halls/arenas/middle sized venues are generally arranged as such: Arena means the floor area, stands is the seats. Note that Yokohama Arena is really weird. The place usually called arena is instead labeled as center. The first floor of stands is called arena. The second floor of stands is called stands.


Your ticket will have several kanji along with numbers, alphabet letters or hiragana/katakana.


階 is floor (not all halls or arenas will have more than one floor)

東西北南
means east/west/north/south (only some arenas have this)

列 is the row

番 is your seat number


Here are some example tickets with the information translated.


      

   




Because Yokohama Arena labels their seats differently, I have three separate tickets edited for you.








Domes:

A dome concert ticket will have more information because the places are just so much bigger. There are multiple entrances (gates), so they have to tell you that along with all of the other information.


ゲート is the gate. This will be the first place you need to go because it is the entrance you will use. There will probably be a line of people waiting to get inside.

塁側 is base side (i.e. first base, third base)

通路 is the aisle. Generally the gate will get you close to your aisle number. They should be translated into English, but again, if you need help don’t hesitate to ask a staff member.

列 is the row

番 is your seat number

Tickets from playguide will have a little extra info on the dome ticket.

Here is that ticket with the seats explained.

last updated February 4, 2011