Kids under five can go to the footy free. So why do parents have to buy them a ticket for a gig?

September 11, 2026 — 3:00pmHannah Elizabeth’s son Jasper had seen more gigs than most by his fourth birthday. At 18 months he had danced alongside his parents at the Golden Plains Festival. He’d attended baby raves, spent two weeks at Dark Mofo, and rocked on in protective earmuffs in a mosh pit at a Khruangbin gig.And on most of these outings he attended free – no ticket required.Hannah Elizabeth has loved taking her four-year-old son Jasper to gigs since he was a baby. One of the best parts? He’s always gone free.Joe Armao“We’ve always just been allowed through. He’s always been so little,” says Elizabeth, a mother of two from Melbourne’s inner-north. “He’s four now and I still just take him. It never crossed my mind to see if he needed a ticket for an adult thing, unless I want to give to him his own seat.”This, however, has not been the case for every parent. Last month writer Bethany Williams was told she would have to buy her baby a ticket to see Olivia Dean at Sydney’s Afterpay Arena in October. By then her baby will be five months old, and will be strapped to her body the whole time.“For the Olivia Dean event, all patrons must hold a valid ticket for entry, regardless of age,” read the email sent to Williams following her inquiry about pram storage. Seated tickets sold from about $109 and have since sold out.Other parents were given similar instructions before the gigs of Pink, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Simple Plan, which took place at venues across the country. Some of these venues also host sporting events like AFL games, which allow children five and under to attend free as long as they don’t occupy their own seat.Want to see Olivia Dean in concert later this year? Everyone needs a ticket – even the babies.Getty ImagesAccording to a spokesperson for TEG, which owns ticketing platform Ticketek, age policies are set by the promoter and venue for each event. They may “vary to reflect the nature of the event and the venue it is held in”.“Across events on sale at any given time you will see the full range: some are strictly over 18 or over 16, some allow infants in arms, free of charge, some require a free pass collected from the box office, and some require every attendee to hold a ticket regardless of age.”If a parent needs to know the policy for a specific event, they should visit the event’s ticket page and check the venue’s conditions of entry, the spokesperson said.Elizabeth describes these policies as inconsistent and exclusionary, especially for breastfeeding mothers who cannot be away from their baby for more than a few hours.Hannah Elizabeth with her son Jasper at a gig when he was a baby. “Unless you want to put breastfeeding mums up on a shelf for however long they want to breastfeed, it’s very discriminatory. It’s already so hard keeping pieces of your identity self-fed when you’re looking after a tiny person. You’re hamstrung in those early days. So if you’re introducing a prohibitively expensive barrier that maybe isn’t intended to exclude parents, but does by its design, then I don’t really see how that could be positive,” she says.Most of Melbourne’s major music venues – including the Palais, Arts Centre Melbourne and arenas at Melbourne Park – have set policies. Children under two are permitted to attend adult-oriented events free as long as they don’t require their own seat. However, this can vary depending on event organisers.“It seems to be a loud and clear message that [parents with babies] are not welcome,” says Professor Jennifer McIntosh, Director of La Trobe University’s Bouverie Centre. “It represents such a bias in thinking that feels arcane … They say you don’t have to pay if you’re pregnant; if the baby’s inside. But you must pay if the baby’s outside, even though the baby is fundamentally still tied to the mother’s body.”McIntosh says streamlining policies across Australian events and venues is a “no-brainer”, and that it should permit infants to attend cultural events free as long as they don’t require their own seat and the parent soothes the child as needed. This aligns with non-entertainment scenarios, such as public transport, on which children under a certain age can travel free (this age varies by state).“We want our public policies to be facilitative of young families who are just beginning the process of creating the next generation,” she says. “It’s a time in young parents’ lives when they need contact, connection and normalisation of their experience. But then you get this sector of society that suggests you’re not welcome.”Parents in Melbourne in particular would benefit from streamlined infant ticket policies because they live in a city defined by its cultural events, Elizabeth says. She has loved attending gigs for decades and would love to pass that interest on to her children.Hannah Elizabeth and her partner Shem Cale have always loved going to gigs. Now they want to share that with their young kids.Joe Armao“We’ve found that taking our kids to gigs here and there has been a really lovely way to straddle that divide between new family life and the parts of ourselves and our interests that we value,” she says. “So if we can safely and appropriately bring them along to things, that’s really valuable.”The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.Nell Geraets is a Culture reporter at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.From our partners