SINGAPORE: All tickets to Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams Tour in Singapore were sold out less than two hours after public sale began on Monday (Nov 21).
However, organiser Live Nation Lushington said in a Facebook post on Monday that it is in talks with the artiste production team and Singapore licensing authorities to release “a little more inventory” in the next few days to “cope with the very significant demand”.
Tickets were previously set aside for Citibank cardholders and Live Nation Lushington’s mailing list subscribers. This was the third and final batch of the 40,000 Coldplay concert tickets released for sale.
More tickets could be offered for sale by Wednesday or Thursday, it said. “This will be announced via our official Facebook, Twitter, website and Sports Hub main ticketing site, as well as through media outlets,” it wrote.
Responding to queries from Channel NewsAsia, Live Nation Lushington explained that it is hoping to ascertain if any additional inventory can be added to either the pitch standing or seated areas in approximately the next 48 hours, once the final production sight lines are cleared.
“The staging and sound delay towers had some adjustments in the past few days, and hopefully this will allow a small release of additional tickets,” it said.
Live Nation Lushington added that close to 20,000 unique users had tried to dial in or access the ticketing website during the two pre-sales and on Monday’s public sale in particular. The organiser described the response as “never before seen” and added that hundreds of walk-in patrons also queued, some overnight, at the Indoor Stadium’s main box office and SingPost outlets.
“Within 10 minutes of the public sale, all ticket inventory had either been snapped up or held in online shopping carts while customers completed their payment transactions,” the organiser said. “This left thousands in the queue system awaiting the release of any incomplete purchases.”
A Coldplay fan told Channel NewsAsia of her unsuccessful attempt to buy the tickets online. Rachael De Foe said she missed out on getting the tickets despite trying from the moment they went on sale at exactly 10am.
A screengrab of the Sports Hub ticketing website that was temporarily unavailable. (Photo courtesy of Rachael De Foe)
“I think the domain couldn’t handle the number of site visitors so it crashed a couple of times. On top of that, the virtual waiting rooms were just a dead end. I know of others who waited a full hour, only to be greeted with a ‘tickets unavailable’ sign,” she added.
Live Nation Lushington, however, clarified that the ticketing system “did not crash”, but simply could not open up inventory to those waiting in the queue system as the tickets were either being transacted or held pending payment clearance.
Meanwhile, the 22-year-old associate consultant suggested that going forward, organisers could perhaps limit the amount of tickets concert-goers are allowed to purchase, for fairer treatment.
“My friends and I were only looking for three to four tickets for a small group but couldn’t even manage that,” she said. “I also understand that the tickets are in high demand, but re-selling sites should discourage others from selling tickets second-hand at double to triple the price. It simply isn’t fair to other fans who simply want to enjoy the band.”
Live Nation Lushington also reiterated that it will continue to put a stop to those reselling Coldplay tickets at inflated prices. The tickets, originally priced at S$78 to S$298, are selling for as much as S$850 for a pair of S$268 tickets on mobile classifieds app Carousell.
A screengrab showing a pair of S$268 tickets being resold for S$850. (Screen capture courtesy of Rachael De Foe)
“We have since voided a number of tickets found on the resale market as this contravenes our term and conditions of sale,” it said. “We would like to urge all fans to refrain from purchasing tickets through unauthorised resellers as these may have already been voided and holders will be denied access to the venue.”
Coldplay will play at the National Stadium on Apr 1 next year.
