Some Elton John fans are singing the blues
SAINT JOHN - Elton John fans scrambled Saturday to snap up the last remaining tickets for the singer's first tour of Atlantic Canada, waiting in line for hours and overloading online ticketing systems.
Tickets for a Sept. 30 show at Harbour Station arena in Saint John were the last to go on sale out of the singer's six upcoming concerts on the East Coast and the arena's ticketing web page was quickly overwhelmed.
"We received 2.5 million hits within the first hour," said Mike Caddell, the arena's general manager.
"With Halifax and Moncton selling out, we were the only ones left in Atlantic Canada. We've been getting calls from Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and right across the country."
A Sept. 28 show in Moncton sold out in a little more than an hour Saturday morning, as did shows slated for Halifax and St. John's, N.L., after tickets went on sale in each city on Friday.
On Saturday, fans who lined up at the Harbour Station box office at 8 a.m. reported they waited about five hours to get tickets, that went on sale at 10 a.m.
Ticket prices for the New Brunswick shows range from $109 to $163 each, after taxes and service charges.
Shortly after the Harbour Station tickets went on sale, a local radio station started receiving a steady number of calls from people frustrated they weren't able to buy tickets online.
Caddell said Harbour Station's online ticketing system was designed to handle about 150 requests at a time, and the huge demand inundated the system. Because of that, Caddell said he didn't expect the show to sell out until about 6 p.m. on Saturday.
"Everything has been bottlenecked," he said.
A similar problem arose in Halifax on Friday, prompting fans to abandon their computers and head for the box office instead.
In Newfoundland, both the Rogers and Aliant telephone services experienced disruptions on Friday after a flurry of callers trying to buy tickets for St. John's shows temporarily clogged the lines.
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I was one of those people who tried unsuccessfully to get tickets. I'll pass on paying scalper's prices and just hope that they all get stuck with tickets they can't sell.
Come on people get a grip. If you can't pay your bills you shouldn't be going to any concert no matter who or what it is
good luck to the scalpers/crooks
Granted scalper prices are too high to pay, but some people are willing to do that, especially for a 1-off event. I'm just glad I got the regular prices and considering the legacy of the artist involved, I do not regret the 210-ish$'s for the 2 tickets (total) I paid.
Do they actually think that 2.5 million people were trying? The whole population of the Maritimes is just under 2.5 million. It's a cop out, and a weak explanation at best. It should have been pre-warned to the public that they had an obsolete system, and it would most likely crash. Knowing that, I would have gladly waited in line.
Perhaps everyone should call Mike Caddell and ask for his tickets. He hasn't even made a genuine apology to the public, other than some poorly written dribble on the Harbour Station website. " Harbour Station would like to thank patrons for their patience during this unpresedented on sale event" Notice they spelled unprecedented incorrectly.