5 Tips for Ensuring You Secure Those Must-Have Gig & Festival Tickets

Fusion Festival tickets 2011 Not securing tickets from official vendors for popular and highly anticipated gigs and festivals on the day that they are released can see a person having to pay up to double their original cost on eBay or websites such as Viagogo. Paying over the odds is also guaranteed for those planning to buy theirs from a ticket tout outside of the venue of the day of the event.
Here then, are five tips which can aid you in your quest to secure event tickets at their face value...

Log On To Ticket Vendor Websites Early

Tickets for that killer gig might be due to go on sale at 9am on-the-dot but you should have your computer and the respective ticket website loaded up at least 45 minutes before this time. It is not unheard of that tickets will sell out in a matter of minutes; 150,000 tickets available for The Stone Roses two reunion gigs at Heaton Park (UK) in June next year sold out in just 14 minutes. Meanwhile, September’s iHeartRadio music festival in Las Vegas - featuring acts such acts such as Lady Gaga, Kelly Clarkson and The Black Eyed Peas – sold out in less than 10 minutes.
Concert tickets are sold on a first come first served basis. Joining the purchase queue even a few minutes after they are released could see you lose out.

Open Several Tabs for the Same Ticket Website at Once

Another reason for ensuring that you log on early is that it is not unheard of that ticket vending websites will crash due to a high amount of visitor traffic – this happened to the Reading Festival and Ticketmaster websites (UK) back in 2009. For the same reason, ‘You are in the Queue’ pages can time out inadvertently and this will see you having to restart the entire purchasing process.
Opening several identical tabs at once in your browser can improve your chances of securing tickets but this method is a double edged sword considering that it has likely played some part in ticket websites crashing over the years. But hey; sometimes you have to play dirty to guarantee that you will get to see your favourite band play!

Get Online and On the Phone at the Same Time

You can double your chances of securing gig tickets by using the internet and a phone at the same time. I recommended using a phone with an inbuilt loudspeaker to make this multitasking as easy as possible. If you get to the online checkout stage before getting through to an operator on the phone, simply hang up. If the opposite occurs, simply close your web browser tab/s.
Just be careful not to buy twice the amount of tickets you require - especially if you don’t have enough money to cover this eventuality in your bank account!

Get Your Friends Involved in the Ticket Buying Action

Obviously, the more friends you have using their PCs and/or phones to contact the vendor; the more likely that tickets will be secured. Admittedly though, this is only for those groups of friends with a bit of spare capital behind them – if you can only cover the cost of your own ticket on the day of release, this is probably not the method for you.
If you happen to end up with too many tickets as a result of this tip, fret not for they can always be resold. Many would take the opportunity to make themselves some extra money by listing these extra, highly desired tickets on auction website eBay but if you have been stung by ticket touts in the past, you know that selling them at their face value is much kinder to music fans. ScarletMist.com is one ethical ticket website where music fans can list their unwanted tickets at face value.

Have Important Information To Hand

Purchasing tickets for a gig or festival will no doubt see you obliged to hand over information such as numbers from credit cards, your email address and your home/mobile telephone number. You might already have this information stored in your PayPal account (which some tickets sites will accept as a payment method) but you need to make sure you know your account password - I know I am regularly changing mine for security reasons, which – alongside my poor memory – can occasionally see me struggling to log in!
Similarly; debit cards issued by some banks/building societies require additional password entering before the last step of online checkout. Be sure to know this password off by heart too, for incorrect password entering can delay you and see others secure their tickets before you can – if at all!

The author of this guest post – K.C – has bought so many tickets for rock gigs and metal festivals in her time that she is sure that she will one day require a credit card for those with bad credit!

Popular Posts