As you may or may not know, I have some pretty strong feelings about ticket resales. Not the ones that are genuine like Twickets, but those ones that bulk buy tickets and then sell them for an enormous profit. Despite a petition being launched trying to make it against the law, it seems as though ticket touts remain resilient and continue to rip off the genuine fans.
I have always been relatively “lucky” when it comes to buying tickets for gigs and have never failed to get tickets for someone I want to see. That is, until the other week when Ed Sheeran’s tour dates went on sale.
I had two pre-sale codes, one for his website on Tuesday and another for a ticket company on Wednesday. I was unsuccessful for both due to the sites crashing and failing to load. I did have tickets in my basket at one stage, but then the page crashed and I lost the tickets I had – typical!
All my hopes were pinned on Thursday, the date of general release. Within 10 minutes of them going on sale, though, all dates were sold out and tickets were already appearing on sites for more than double the price.
https://twitter.com/eleanor_c88/status/826371180433141760
Don’t get me wrong, I love Ed – but there is no way that I would buy tickets to see him (or any other artist) for more than what the ticket is worth. You may have seen an article about the girl who ended up spending over £1000 on tickets (but hadn’t realised until it was too late). I’m not sure how you don’t know you’re spending that much until you get to the confirmation screen, but there you go. After Ed heard about the ticket resellers he made a statement.
What does Ed Sheeran think about his ticket resellers?
“We are vehemently opposed to the unethical practices that occur in the secondary market. We have written to each of our partners, be they promoters, venues or ticketing companies detailing the way in which we expect tickets to be sold: direct to fans. We have also partnered with a company called Twickets, which is a site aimed at the ethical resale of tickets. It allows fans to swap tickets at face value or less; we are pushing them as the official resale partner and a safe place for fans to swap tickets.”
Writing a letter to them is all very well and good, but is that really going to stop people from doing it? The only way that you’re going to stop this going on is by following what Adele did at her concerts. Each person entering the arena has to take a photo ID, and that ID must match the name on the tickets bought. Saying that, this hasn’t stopped people from reselling tickets for her farewell tour at Wembley Stadium in June/July.
I don’t know what Ed’s approach would or could be. In the meantime, I thought I would write him a letter –
Dear Ed,
I know you probably won’t read this, but I feel the need to write to you on behalf of myself and all your other fans who have missed out on getting tickets for your upcoming tour. As many fans were delighted by your comeback at the start of this year, we now feel let down.
Although some people complained about the ticket prices, I believe that they need to get a reality check. Some “fans” were expecting to pay £30-£40 to see you. I know some people have paid £20 to see you in the past, but that was way back when you played at student halls and whatnot. I saw you 3 years ago in Birmingham and I did pay around £45. I understand prices do go up. I enjoyed your concert so much the last time I saw you, I was fully prepared to pay £60+.
When you announced you would be doing a tour, I didn’t realise that it was going to be so soon. Not that I was complaining. I (and many others) are in your fan club. We were over the moon that you gave us a chance to buy tickets in the pre-sale two whole days before anybody else. Needless to say, it appears as though the website operator could not cope with the amount of people trying to access the website. Despite this, SOME “members” managed to get onto your site with ease, purchase four tickets (the maximum allowed), and put them up for sale on ticket reselling websites for £300 each.
These aren’t fans. They are money making arseholes who would rather let genuine fans miss out on seeing you perform live than go themselves and appreciate your amazing talent.
You may or may not have heard about the time Tom Petty cancelled over 400 tickets for his show that had been resold on these vile websites. Miley Cyrus also opted for the paperless approach which allows only the person who has bought their ticket with that exact card to enter the arena on the show date. I know that Biffy Clyro did the same last year when they came to Cardiff. What I’m trying to say is – there are ways of stopping this!
All I can hope for now is that you release more dates. Failing that, I have everything crossed that you come to Cardiff. There are loads of artists who are coming to Cardiff these days so I reckon you definitely need to jump on the bandwagon ;). I read in an interview that you said you’d try and come. I know the Motorpoint Arena isn’t as big as the others you’re playing at, and then we have the Principality Stadium. I’m sure you could sell out the arena ten times over. Failing that do a huge gig at the stadium and keep us all happy!
I hope to see you soon,
Eleanor x
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