DIAMANTE: Embracing The Fans
Oscar Rendon | St. Louis, MO | August 26th, 2019
Diamante is a rising star in the rock scene, while she is not new in the music industry releasing music since 2014 she has started to gain traction and is currently touring with Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Chevelle, and Dorothy. Like most artists, at the start of their rise they take the time to meet their fans in structured scheduled meet and greets at the shows and it truly feels like you’re getting to meet the person not the artist. While these days bigger names put an absurd amount of dollar in meet and greets for 15-30 second interactions with a photo included it feels like the fan is being taken advantage of. While we don’t control how the fans choose to spend their money on these meet and greets we do however expect the bands/artists to put more effort into these meet ups with their loyal fan base especially for the price at which these fans buy these M&G packages. A generic ‘M&G Package’ almost always includes: Exclusive T-Shirt, Lanyard w/ Laminate, Poster (usually pre-signed), Early Access to merch, Early Entry to Venue, and Photo with said band or artist. All of that in our opinion is worth $150-$200 at best if theres no effort put into it. The bigger the star the double sometimes quadruple the price goes up. Ariana Grande although one of the biggest names in music right now for everything I included in the Starter M&G Package I came up with at the top of my head would charge near $1K for the exact same services provided, nothing special or unique to justify paying that much. That is the price of an entire paycheck for the normal middle-class person working a normal job and it’s only for 1 person, imagine a family who wants to go all out. Lets say a family of 3, $3K for 1 family to get the basics of a normal/non-unique VIP/M&G Package. So how and why does Diamante factor into this story? I’ll tell you how.
We were at the very first show this summer in St. Louis for the Breaking Benjamin Summer Tour where Diamante opened up for the band, in between the other artists sets she would come out and greet as many of the fans that she could until shew got to every single one. She would have quick or small conversations with the fans, sign merch, and take a photo. Pretty basic right? Well actually no, Diamante charged $0 for these M&G’s if you bought or already had Diamante merch you automatically skipped into the front of the line. I was there as a photographer shooting the show for Off The Record and noticed this every time I went down to shoot another band and it caught my eye for the right reasons. What made this normal M&G so unique was Diamante herself, she took time out of her day to come out after each set and greet the fans. She took it into her own hands to make sure people at the show left having a great and unique experience. I know that she’s still early in her career at only 22 years of age but I’d like to be optimistic and hope that if she ever does start charging for M&G’s at her own shows that those experiences are as fun and unique as her and that the price matches the experience if not exceeds it. At the start of writing this article Diamante announced a phone number you can call/text her at that she will answer or message you back if you are a fan of hers. While opening up a direct line of communication like this has its drawbacks it also speaks to her commitment to her loyal fans. You can catch Diamante on tour STILL with Breaking Benjamin as they finish up the rest of their summer tour dates. If you plan on attending know that Diamante will continue to hold her Meet & Greets just not during the show, you can catch her at the Main Gates of the venue she’s performing at after the show for a quick hello, photo and autograph. On her instagram she said she “will stay all night” until she’s met everyone who wants to meet her, if you’re looking for her she’s not hard to find she’s the one with the rock’n blue hair!
