The Encore

Thermal paper fades. Tickets get lost. Years later you'll wish you'd kept them. This guide covers storage, display, and preservation so your stubs last decades.

A concert scrapbook combines the physical proof (tickets, wristbands, photos) with written memories that give them meaning.

Wash before storing, fold instead of hang, and keep in acid-free conditions, your vintage tour shirt will thank you in 20 years.

Wristbands prove you were there, store them flat for longevity or display them as part of your concert story.

No one regrets keeping a ticket stub. many regret throwing them away once the artist retires, the venue closes, or the memory fades.

I still have a shoebox somewhere. Ticket stubs from 2003 to 2015, faded thermal paper, a few that are basically blank now. I haven't added to it in almost a decade — not because I stopped going to shows, but because shows stopped giving me anything to keep. Here's what we lost when tickets went digital, why it actually matters, and how to build your own system for holding onto concert memories.