What time does a concert start and finish?

If you’re not an avid concert goer, but you decided to give it a go and go for a live musical performance, you may want to get filled in on the basics before you buy your ticket.

This may be evident, but here it is: the overwhelming majority of concerts start at night. Musical matinees in the morning or in the early afternoons are rare. The best chance you have for attending a professional musical performance at that time are musicals in a theater - however, they aren’t really considered concerts, are they? Even in festivals that go on for multiple days, the stages are usually empty in the mornings. The lesser known performers take the stage earlier in the evening, while the more famous headliners go on later at night.

So having said that, you definitely should count on a night out if you’re attending a concert. However, please note that these events tend to start even later than the time denoted on websites and the marquees. That time usually denotes when the doors of the venue are opened. However, it can take up to 30 minutes to an hour before the first notes are actually played. Many major artists tend to have opening acts as well. So that means if you’re looking to hear the famous headliner you bought tickets for and nothing else, you have to wait for even more before the “actual” show starts.

Unfortunately, finding out when the headliner takes the stage at a concert is virtually impossible. The time between the doors being opened and the main artist starting to play can differ from show to show. Venues usually print an earlier starting time on the tickets on purpose - it’s because they can increase food and drink, especially alcohol, sales that way. Having said all that, let’s take a look at the start times for the most popular artists’ concerts on our website, at the time of writing. Billie Eilish’s next 3 upcoming shows start at 7:30 pm local time in New York and New Jersey.

Post Malone’s concerts are at 8:00 pm. Meanwhile, Green Day’s show starts surprisingly early, at just 5:30 pm at City Field in Flushing, NY in August this year. However, please note that that is a stop for the “Hella Mega Tour” featuring three popular musical acts in the line-up: Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer. For a packed ticket like that, an early starting time is more reasonable. As for how long these shows go on, we covered that in another article. In summary, most concerts go on for 3-4 hours on average, if you include the time the opening acts are on stage. The headliners tend to play for 1-2 hours themselves.