Festival scalper warning

BASS tickets sold for nearly four times original price

BASSINTHEGRASS ticket holders are being warned not to be careless and post photos of their unique barcodes online where they can be ripped off.

Each year organisers battle against scalpers and Major Events general manager Andrew Hopper urged ticket holders to protect their unique barcodes and for those who missed out to steer clear of tickets being sold for inflated prices. “People need to be careful with their tickets which have a unique barcode that they only be scanned once,” Mr Hopper said. “If people are too public with that ticket it can be copied.”

On Gumtree this week, scalpers were asking $260 for one general admission ticket to this year’s sold-out event on May 20. Other ads showed hopeful revellers willing to pay up to $160 a ticket. First release tickets were $70.

Mr Hopper said tickets being sold for more than the original price would be traced and cancelled.

“We have absolutely cancelled tickets (in the past),” Mr Hopper said.

“We support selling tickets at face value if you can’t come.

“We facilitate that because they need to have the ticket changed into the other person’s name.”

Cancelled tickets will not be reissued for the festival.

Darwin Entertainment Centre, the authorised ticketing agent for the Darwin Queens of the Stone Age show, is not issuing hard-copy tickets until the event sells out to pre- vent copies being sold on. The rock band will play at the centre on July 16.

The unregulated website Viagogo has sold tickets at wildly inflated prices with ridiculous admin fees and ticketing agents are attempting to prevent this.

DEC general manager Alan James said by not issuing hardcopy tickets they were hoping to flush out scalpers easier.

“We are aware people are buying tickets through Viagogo and we can’t guarantee people are going to get their ticket,” Mr James said.

“By withholding until we sell out is minimising that because the scalpers that go through Viagogo have come to realise they haven’t got their tickets yet.”

Mr James urged ticket buyers to only purchase through ticketing agents who were covered by a code of conduct.