Scalper alert as festival hits record

Electric Avenue tickets have sold out, with 25,000 people set to party in Christchurch next month but organisers have issued a warning over worldwide ticket scalpers targeting the event.

Relying heavily on local talent, the festival lineup has more than

35 artists scheduled to perform across multiple stages over

12 hours in Hagley Park on February 27. Performers include Benee, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Shapeshifter, L.A.B., Scribe and Australian artists Tash Sultana and Ocean Alley.

Christchurch-based promoter Callam Mitchell, chief executive of Team Event, said it was a record crowd for the event and

3000 to 4000 people were already on a waiting list for tickets.

‘‘We are pretty stoked – 25,000 is a big jump up from previous years and to sell it out six weeks in advance is pretty unbelievable really,’’ he said. ‘‘I believe it is the biggest music festival in the country this summer.’’

The Christchurch festival had been ‘‘targeted by worldwide ticket scammers’’ though, as New Zealand was one of the few countries in the world holding large-scale events due to the

Covid-19 pandemic, he said. ‘‘There is a huge number of people trying to scalp tickets, especially through social media.

‘‘Most people know a fake profile when they come across one now but we have a lot of communication going out ... advising people not to buy tickets through any other channel other than the Ticket Fairy resale platform.’’

Team Event had problems four years ago with unauthorised overseas ticket resale sites such as Viagogo selling fraudulent Electric Avenue tickets online.

The overseas site legally buys tickets to key shows to resell them and charge huge booking fees but many ticket buyers have paid huge prices for forged tickets. Yesterday, Viagogo was offering tickets to hundreds of New Zealand events with one ticket to Electric Avenue being offered for more than five times the original ticket price.

Under the Consumer Guarantees Act, sellers must guarantee that consumers who buy tickets do get genuine tickets that can be used and that the tickets match the description advertised.

‘‘There is a huge number of people trying to scalp tickets.’’

Callam Mitchell Team Event chief executive

Ticket scammers are also targeting University of Canterbury O Week events.

University of Canterbury Students’ Association (UCSA) president Kim Fowler said fraudsters were offering fake combo tickets to multiple O Week activities, such as movie nights, club days and the ‘‘popular music events’’. ‘‘UCSA does not support the purchase of tickets from Viagogo, Trade Me, individuals on Facebook or Facebook Marketplace,’’ she said.

Fraudulent tickets would not be accepted and holders of those tickets would be required to buy new tickets, which would only be available if the event did not sell out, Fowler said.

Students should buy O Week tickets from the source wherever possible and should only use Tixel to buy third-party tickets.

‘‘The name on your ticket must match your ID and student ID and these name changes can only go through Tixel,’’ Fowler said.