With tickets for Friday night's Olivia Rodrigo concert at Xcel Energy Center still hovering above $300 on resale websites — and many over $1,000 — tour promoter Live Nation and Rodrigo's team have offered up $425-$495 "charity platinum" seats at the last minute.
Several rows of seats in lower-level sections near the stage for the St. Paul tour stop suddenly appeared Thursday on Ticketmaster, where tickets have been listed as sold-out since the day they went on sale back in September. The late, charitable ticket drop is a new way to combat ticket brokers who swooped up seats to the show to resell at inflated prices.
It's not clear how much of the platinum-seat money actually goes to charity. Efforts to have that clarified by Rodrigo's team and Live Nation representatives went unanswered Thursday.
But it is known what cause the money will go to: Rodrigo has created a new charity for her Guts Tour called the Fund 4 Good, a play on the title of her song "Good 4 U."
In a TikTok video posted last month, the 21-year-old singer described the fund this way:
"The Fund 4 Good works to support all women, girls and people seeking reproductive health freedom. The fund will directly support community-based nonprofits that champion things like girls' education, support reproductive rights, and prevent gender-based violence."
Some of the nonprofits are affiliated with the National Network of Abortion Funds, with whom Rodrigo has partnered for her tour. At her St. Louis concert Tuesday, representatives from the reproductive rights organizations Missouri Abortion Fund and Julie (a contraception pill) were on hand passing out materials in conjunction with the Fund 4 Good.
Rodrigo is not the first artist to sell charity platinum seats like these. Billie Eilish and Phish are among those to already do it. However, hers is the most in-demand tour so far to do so.
