If you’re attending Black Sabbath’s star-studded Back To The Beginning show this summer, you may face dramatically increased prices for nearby hotel rooms.
According to local newspaper Birmingham Live, hotels near to where the pioneering metal band will play their swan song at Villa Park on July 5 are upping their rates by up to 725 percent.
The publication singles out the three-star Apollo Hotel on Hagley Road, a 15-minute drive from Villa Park, as an example. It reports that a ‘superior’ double room without breakfast on the night of the show will set you back £619 on Hotels.com. By comparison, the same hotel room – when booked via the same site for Saturday, June 28 – costs just £75.
Birmingham Live also points to a Travelodge on Broadway Plaza, 14 minutes from the gig, reporting that a room there which costs just £53.99 on June 28 will be £319.99 on July 5. Similarly, in Yardley, a 22-minute drive from Villa Park, a Travelodge room will cost £303.99 on July 5, compared to £47.99 if you were to stay the week before Back To The Beginning.
Jacked hotel prices are the latest in the series of difficulties fans eager to attend Back To The Beginning have faced. The BBC reports that, after tickets to the show went on general sale on February 14, the online queue to buy passes exceeded 60,000 people. (Villa Park has a seating capacity of just 42,000 people.) If they got through the queue, fans then faced ticket prices that ranged from £200 up into the thousands.
Back To The Beginning will mark the first time Black Sabbath’s founding lineup – singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward – have played together since 2005. It is also set to be the band’s final show, as well as the last time Osbourne performs onstage. The Prince Of Darkness retired from touring in 2023, due to the physical effects of numerous surgeries and Parkinson’s disease.
Rounding out the show will be a who’s who of hard rock and heavy metal. Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Slayer, Anthrax, Gojira and more have been booked, as has a “supergroup” composed of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith and more. Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello will perform and be the event’s musical director, while famed actor Jason Momoa (Aquaman, Game Of Thrones) will compere.
All proceeds from Back To The Beginning will go to the charities Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital, Acorn Children’s Hospice and Cure Parkinson’s.
