O-Day, the day of sale of tickets for Oasis' reunion tour concerts, started this morning with a bang (in numbers) and a lot of inconvenience (for users).
It is estimated that more than a million people have queued online to try to buy tickets for concerts at Wembley Stadium. Some concerts, such as the one in Dublin, are sold out, “but more tickets may go on sale later”, and it is possible that other concerts to be held at the same venues will be announced.
Much like what happened with Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, many have complained about the inability to access the Ticketmaster site. “Error 503 (Service Unavailable)” is the message that many have found due to the number of accesses to the server.
A short story #Oasis25 #Ticketmaster pic.twitter.com/1IikgbqsAD
— Damn (@asgy1990) August 31, 2024
Other users have complained that the system mistook them for bots and rejected the transaction, including British MP Zarah Sultana. Others say they have been left in line for hours without ever being allowed to purchase.
“As expected, Oasis are incredibly popular. We are processing orders as quickly as possible,” Ticketmaster wrote. “Fans are advised to hold their place in the queue, ensure they are using only one tab, clear cookies and do not use any VPN software on their device.”
Three hour wait for Oasis tickets and @TicketmasterUK crashes pic.twitter.com/H9BSXXTSCM
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) August 31, 2024
Despite Oasis’s claim that tickets sold for more than the official price will be cancelled, tickets have appeared on secondary ticketing sites for up to thousands of pounds. Viagogo has noted that “reselling is legal in the UK.” Oasis and Ticketmaster insist: “Tickets appearing on other secondary ticketing sites are either counterfeit or will be cancelled by the organisers.”
Many fans complained that Ticketmaster would use dynamic pricing. Used for example in the United States for Bruce Springsteen, it provides that the price can dynamically increase in relation to demand. And so some standing places renamed In Demand Standing were not put on sale at around 150 pounds as expected, but at 350 or 400 pounds,