LONDON — A ticket-buying expert is revealing the secrets of what you should be doing to secure tickets to the most competitive concerts and festivals. Music journalist Georgie Rogers, a veteran of what she describes as the “military operation” of grabbing tickets, says teaming up with friends and family to all try their luck is key.
According to Rogers, tablets tend to work best as they are the quickest to connect to the internet, and would-be attendees should know the layout of different venues by heart so they know what tickets and seats to get. However, overloading a Wi-Fi network is a no-no, as this can slow the connection and lead to missed opportunities.
The ticket-buying pro’s tips come as a new survey of 2,000 adults finds 53 percent have missed out on attending their dream festival or concert because they were stuck in an online queue. According to fans of live events in the United Kingdom, tickets to Glastonbury, the World Cup, Ed Sheeran, and Wimbledon rank as the hardest live events to get tickets for online.
For every three attempts to buy tickets for a live event online, respondents were only successful with two of them. When trying to secure the goods, 32 percent set up different devices and log in 12 minutes before the queue opens.
“There are countless gigs and live events I’ve been desperate to get tickets for, only to find them all seemingly selling out within a second of going live on sale,” says Rogers, who is working with Lottoland.co.uk on a must-have guide to getting high demand tickets, in a statement.
“Through trial and error, research and lots of practice I’ve perfected the art and there are definitely tips and tricks you need to be aware of if you’re going after the hottest tickets. Glastonbury is in huge demand every year and any stadium tour will usually mean online queues and sweaty palms as you wait for your turn to book.”
The research also found 62 percent of adults think buying tickets online is simply too hard nowadays. Pricing (50%), automated bots buying up tickets (44%), and the time involved (37%) are the biggest barriers to success, according to the OnePoll survey.
Additionally, 52 percent consider getting tickets to something like Glastonbury about as unlikely as winning the actual lottery. As many as 12 percent would even trade in a jackpot-winning lottery ticket if it meant front-row seats to the band or artist of their dreams, dead or alive.
“Trying to get tickets for a big event can definitely feel like a lottery,” a spokesperson for Lottoland adds in a statement. “And it’s surprising to see that as many as one in 10 of us would trade a winning jackpot in for gig tickets.”
“Given how strongly people feel about getting to see their favorite artists, it’s no wonder we employ all sorts of tips and hacks to try and make our odds of getting through just a little better.”
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South West News Service writer Charlotte Minett contributed to this report.
