Oasis Tickets: Council's View
By
Stop Crying Your Heart Out
on
July 24, 2009
East Riding of Yorkshire Council agreed to answer the following questions posed by the Free Press about the sale of tickets for the Oasis concert at Bridlington Spa ...
How many tickets were on sale at the Spa? Is this more or less than for other rock gigs recently?
600 tickets were available from the box office. The number of tickets given to the Spa for events varies but this was towards the lower end of the scale due to national demand for the event.
How many customers were sold tickets/transactions were made at the box office before they sold out at 11am?
Tickets sold out at around 11.30am. All 600 tickets were sold. The number of individuals that purchased tickets will be held on our booking system and available to auditors but cannot be easily obtained.
There are lots of reports of queue jumping, with many people saying Spa staff turned a blind eye to it. Are you satisfied the security was adequate?
Spa staff dealt with a number of people who tried to queue jump, some of whom were suspected of already having purchased tickets.
No "blind eye" was turned. Security will be reviewed if face to face sales are made in future, as is normally the case after any major event.
Why were people queuing at 6am, for example, not given a ticket or wristband which could have proved they were there first and identified the queue-jumpers?
The Spa has previously hosted numerous sell out concerts and this has never been necessary in the past.
For future events – if we sell tickets face to face – we will look at this.
Why were people allowed to buy four tickets? Doesn't this encourage people to buy more than they need and sell them oneBay? Wouldn't a limit of two per person have been fairer?
The numbers of tickets offered per person was the same as available through other outlets and standard for this type of event. Whatever number was selected it would not have pleased everyone. We have received complaints that we didn't sell with a limit of six per person.
Several people who queued said they saw "council big-wigs", "council officials" or "big names of the town" going into the Spa for tickets and bypassing the queue. Other people have told the Free Press that East Riding of Yorkshire Council staff secured their tickets at least 24 hours before they went on sale to the public. How does the council react?
Staff were not allowed to purchase tickets in advance and no council staff bypassed the queue.
It was alleged afterwards that one well-known individual (who does NOT work for the council) paid his employees to stand in the queue to buy tickets in their own name and pass these on to their employer.
Source: www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk
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