Sold out in 36 minutes! Now Eurovision tickets resell for up to £12,000

TICKETS for the Eurovision final in Liverpool were snapped in just 36 minutes yesterday – but reappeared within hours on resale websites for up to £12,000.

Organisers faced a backlash over claims of glitches as people who had queued online at noon to purchase from the official Ticketmaster website said they were booted off, leaving them behind up to 2,000 others when they tried to reconnect.

One fan wrote: ‘I’m between heartbroken and extremely p***** off.’ Another woman said she had reached 29th in the online queue, only to be thrown off the site.

Face value prices were £30 to £290 for semi-final shows and £80-£380 for the grand final shows. The huge hike in prices on resale websites led to calls for a crackdown on such ‘profiteering’. Eurovision’s organisers cautioned fans against spending large sums for resales with no guarantee those tickets would be valid.

Eurovision is being held in Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine, which won the contest last year. Although Liverpool Arena normally holds 11,000, production requirements mean a much-reduced capacity of just 6,000 per show. Some 3,000 tickets have been set aside for Ukrainians staying in Britain.

Meanwhile, there was also frustration as advance rail tickets between London and Liverpool for the final on May 13 are not yet on sale. And hotels in the city – where there will be a separate ‘fan zone’ with a capacity of up to 25,000 for people to watch the show – are hard to come by, having sold out last October.