With Prince‘s Australian Piano & A Microphone tour going on sale today, ticket-sellers have faced “massive” demand — so massive that thousands of Prince fans have slammed Ticketek and Ticketmaster after missing out on tickets.
Ticketek, who are selling tickets to Prince’s two Sydney Opera House shows, have copped flack from punters who claim to have been kicked from online queues or left empty-handed after waiting in queues for long amounts of time.
Speaking about such posts, Ticketek Australia Managing Director Cameron Hoy tells Music Feeds the company’s systems aren’t to blame for fans missing out on tickets.
“The only issue today was that there were thousands more fans than tickets available,” Mr Hoy says. “There was categorically no system issue with Ticktek’s website today. It’s been up and running and totally fine all day.
“We have a system that can handle over 20,000 concurrent transactions and we only had 1,500 tickets allocated to us. So if there’s over 200,000 people trying to get in to buy 1,500 tickets, inevitably there are people who are going to miss out.”
Mr Hoy says that Prince’s strict ticket guidelines — which limits the number of tickets per customer and only issues tickets at the event — have been followed and haven’t caused any issues with Ticketek’s system.
Ticketmaster, who are selling tickets to all of Prince’s other upcoming Aussie shows, has also been slammed by punters on social media, with some claiming to have been given more expensive tickets than the ones they’d asked for.
Music Feeds has contacted Ticketmaster for comment.
As for tickets which are still available, Ticketek still has ‘A Reserve’ tickets available for the two Sydney Opera House shows at the time of writing, while Ticketmaster has similarly priced tickets available at select shows.
Prince’s Australian Piano & A Microphone tour was announced last week, and is set to kick off in Melbourne on 16th February. The tour is expected to see Prince perform special versions of his hits alongside rarely performed B-sides and even some never-before-heard material.
Catch all the dates and ticket details, below.
UPDATE 10/02/16: Prince’s Australian Piano & A Microphone tour has sold out, with Prince taking to Twitter to slam ticket scalpers.
UPDATE 12/02/16: Prince has released new tickets to his Australian Piano & A Microphone tour, opening up new seats behind the stage at his two Sydney Opera House shows. Catch updated tour and ticket details, below.
UPDATE 12/02/16, 1.02pm: Prince has now added a Perth show to his upcoming Australian tour. See the updated tour details below.
Watch: Prince – Breakfast Can Wait
https://youtu.be/GHbyNrGXpAA
Prince Piano & A Microphone Australian Tour 2016
Perth Show
Tickets to Prince’s Perth show go on sale 12pm (WST) tomorrow, Saturday February 13th
Thursday, 25th February
Perth Arena, Perth
Tickets: Ticketek
East Coast Dates
New tickets to Prince’s Sydney Opera House shows go on sale 12pm today
Tuesday, 16th February (2 shows) — SOLD OUT
State Theatre, Melbourne
Tickets: Arts Centre Melbourne, or Ticketmaster
Wednesday, 17th February (2 shows) — SOLD OUT
State Theatre, Melbourne
Tickets: Arts Centre Melbourne, or Ticketmaster
Saturday, 20th February (2 shows) — NEW TICKETS RELEASED
Sydney Opera House, Sydney
Tickets: Sydney Opera House or Ticketek
Sunday, 21st, February (2 shows) — SOLD OUT
State Theatre, Sydney
Tickets: Ticketmaster
Wednesday 24th February — SOLD OUT
ASB Theatre, Auckland
Tickets: Ticketmaster
SPECIAL TICKETING ARRANGEMENTS:
Ticket purchases for the show will be limited to two (2) tickets per person via the venues and ticketing companies noted above. No tickets will be distributed. At the time of purchase, the purchaser’s name will be recorded and a corresponding receipt issued. Physical tickets will only be available for collection from noon on the night of the concert. Photo ID will be required to match the name previously advised and individuals will be wrist-banded before entering the auditorium.