The great rock’n’roll swindle: fans’ fury at BBC over ticket touts
THE BBC has outraged music fans who claim they are collateral damage in the broadcaster’s new war on ticket touts. The BBC has warned that fans who buy resold tickets for the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival in Glasgow will be barred from the event. Tickets for electro pioneers Depeche Mode, headliners at the festival, who are slated to play at the 2,100-capacity Glasgow Barrowland, were sold out in minutes on Friday morning, with £30 tickets then becoming available on the Viagogo resale site and selling for up to £879 each – more than 30 times the original price.
The touting comes despite the BBC warning that tickets resold for profit or commercial gain by anyone other than nominated ticket agent, the Ticketmaster-owned Ticketweb, will become void.
The BBC has confirmed that it has approached Switzerland-based Viagogo about the promotion and resale of tickets on its site which the public corporation has said should not be resold. The BBC has warned fans with resold tickets that they will not be allowed in, which means they stand to be massively out of pocket. The chaos has led to the BBC being bombarded with complaints, with fans saying the corporation had allowed them to be exploited through their handling of ticket sales, with one fan describing it as “the real rock ‘n’ roll swindle”.
To guard against tickets touts reselling for profit, 6 Music Festival tickets have been printed with the name of the lead purchaser who will have to show ID at the venue to gain entry.
The BBC said that all fans going to the festival will need ID matching the lead booker’s name on the ticket. Without that, fans will be refused entry. Officials have warned that there will be security at all venues to monitor for ticket touts.
Other major ticket resale sites like Ticketmaster’s Get Me In!, eBay company Stubhub and Seatwave – among those which have come under fire in the past as forums for touts selling tickets for massive profits – did not appear to be hosting the BBC festival tickets.
Ticketmaster confirmed it had put a block on the resale of tickets on its secondary sites, because of the BBC restrictions. A BBC source said: “Viagogo is not a partner and we strongly recommend the public do not buy tickets being resold, as the purchaser cannot guarantee they are genuine and not copies, and without the ID of the lead purchaser they will not gain entry to the festival.” The source warned that offering tickets for resale was breaking the terms and conditions buyers agreed to during the booking process. She insisted that the venues will be policed to ensure that people who have resold tickets will not gain entry.
Asked if Viagogo has been approached about the promotion and resale of tickets, the BBC source said: “Yes, and to reiterate, resold tickets will be void.” But Viagogo, which has remained silent about the criticism, was continuing to resell tickets yesterday. Music fans became enraged after spotting the sales and have complained that the festival has now become a target for profiteering touts.
Jim Cassidy, 47, from Airdrie, who lost out on buying tickets said he was shocked at seeing tickets being resold on Viagogo and believed that genuine fans would once again suffer in the BBC’s war against the touts. “The fan gets shafted every way,” he said. “He doesn’t get the ticket in the first place, then he gets done over when he buys at inflated prices from a secondary place and then when he turns up at the venue, because he has not bought it from the original seller, he gets turned away at the door. This is the real rock’n’roll swindle. It’s horrendous.”
Viagogo did not respond when asked for comment.