Tickets for Oasis went on general sale at 8am on Saturday morning but anyone hoping to secure themselves standing room or even a seat in Croke Park next summer simply by showing up on time is likely to have been disappointed.
Seconds after 8am, there were hundreds of thousands of people waiting in a virtual line with some users reporting that as soon as the sale window opened, the systems crashed with their place in the queue being replaced with messages such as: “Error 503 backend.max_conn.”
But even those who were given seamless entry from the waiting room faced crushing disappointment with the vast majority a long, long way from the front.
Such is the popularity of the band – and the hype surrounding the reunion after almost 20 years – that more than 500,000 people had logged on to try to buy tickets within 10 minutes of the sale starting.
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One of the reasons highlighted by fans for the high demand for the Croke Park dates was the fact that the Irish sale opened a full hour before tickets went on sale for the concerts in Britain.
Concert promoters MCD did not explain why that decision was reached and also declined when contacted by The Irish Times to say how many tickets would be up for grabs as part of the general sale.
However the likelihood is that a great many of the 160,000 tickets were already snapped up by thousands of people who took part in a three-hour presale on Friday evening.
And with most of those in the market for tickets likely to buy either two or four, the chances of anyone who had more than 20,000 people ahead of them being able to buy tickets at a price that could be considered any way affordable seemed remote.
Affordability was definitely an issue with many fans shocked by some of the prices being charged. The cost of a large number of tickets was substantially higher than the initial price announced.
In advance of the presale beginning, MCD said that ticket prices were starting “from €86.50″ not including booking fees, but with the Ticketmaster service charge included, the cost of a standing ticket to see the band came in at €176.75 with the price of many seats in the stands coming in at just more than €200.
And that was just the starting point when it came to prices.
As was the case for both Taylor Swift and Coldplay this summer, there were much higher prices attached to some tickets with some that came with an invite to a “pre-show party and exhibition fan package” selling for almost €550 and others that came with access to some merchandise selling for more than €400.
Even as the general sale continued, prices climbed with one user who made it to the ticket buying stage charged more than €400 for a standing ticket in what appeared to be an example of a “dynamic pricing model” which sees in-demand tickets soaring.
Within 30 minutes of the sale starting rumours circulated on social media that all the tickets were gone however, at 8.35am, Ticketmaster told fans that “the queue for Oasis is moving along as fans checkout. Tickets are still available for both dates so please hold your place in line”.
While that may have been true, the tickets that were left were at the very high end.
Fans shared their experiences with The Irish Times and those experiences could best be described as mixed.
“We were 33,000 and got in just now,” said Yvonne Fahy shortly before 9am. “There are only €400+ tickets left.”
“It’s an absolute sh*tshow,” posted Brendan McDonald. “Loads of people I know unable to get on to the site in the first place. It took me 2 mins and by then there were 330k ahead of me. It’s the antithesis of Oasis Rock n roll! Bring back queuing outside HMV for a few hours, that was great craic.”
John Brophy said he “made it all the way to buy tickets. Only tickets left were high price premium. Tried to select anyway and – there seems to be a connection problem – sent back to queue.”
Joan Byrne’s daughter “got to the point of being processed for tickets and then the site crashed with that back end message”.
By contrast, Cillian Mac Bradaigh was one of the lucky ones and he got tickets on the presale “and found that it worked quite smoothly for a change”.
George Thomson described the idea of putting the Irish tickets on sale first as “a brutal idea”. “A pool of 160k tickets devoured by bots. In less than an hour, 1.5m tickets will hit the UK market while our share has been already hoovered up. Really disappointed from someone in the queue since 7.15am,” he said.
Laura Buckley “started at 1,700 in the queue, which has never happened me before! I got as far as picking my tickets and then the journey ended!! It’s the hope that kills you”.
With the tickets selling fast it was inevitable that social media platforms would be flooded with people offering tickets for sale.
Fans should be aware that high profile concerts such as this one are a magnet for criminals and many of the “tickets” on offer are nonexistent with the chances of being scammed extremely high.
[ The Irish Times view on 1990s nostalgia: don’t look back in angerOpens in new window ]
The proliferation of offers also prompted the Oasis website to issue a warning. “We have noticed people attempting to sell tickets on the secondary market since the start of the presale. Please note, tickets can ONLY be resold, at face value, via Ticketmaster and Twickets,” the post read.
“Tickets sold in breach of the terms and conditions will be cancelled by the promoters.”
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