So, you've decided this weekend to see the Sydney Festival's baroque show-stopper Dido & Aeneas; choreographer Sasha Waltz's underwater spectacular set to Purcell's 17th-century opera at the Lyric Theatre. How deep are your pockets?

You're about to be slugged a booking fee that Australian consumer advocacy group Choice criticises as ticket sellers ''creaming'' ticket buyers.

A ticketing parody from Choice magazine.

Those attending concerts, arts and music festivals, sports and theatre around the country are charged up to $9.15 on top of already expensive tickets no matter which option they use to buy them - phone or internet; home delivery or pick-up. Sometimes there is a fee even for buying online and printing at home. So what are you paying for?

Most of this money is going directly to the festival organisers or to the venue, or is split with the ticketing agency if selling is outsourced. The usual culprits - credit-card charges - account for little of booking fees. The Reserve Bank of Australia estimated in September the average merchant service fee for MasterCard and Visa is 0.81 per cent of the transaction.