Fans of Chappell Roan who have had wicked dreams of seeing her perform in Tennessee had to face the intense queues of Ticketmaster.
The pop sensation's performance at Bonnaroo over the summer was moved at the last minute to a bigger stage due to large crowd demands, making it clear that Tennesseans loved the Midwest Princess.
When it was announced that the singer would be adding an additional tour date in Franklin at FirstBank Amphitheater, fans were ecstatic. However, that excitement quickly turned to frustration as Ticketmaster sold out of tickets extremely quickly. When the queue opened for all customers at 10 a.m., there were over 50,000 people in the queue.
“I tried to do the first-time [pre-sale] but I watched them all get bought up," Emily Allyn, of Chattanooga, said. "I didn’t get to buy the re-release because I’d already bought some from a scalper on StubHub for like $300 a ticket, and I figured there was no way to get my money back on that to just use it, but I was essentially in the nosebleeds of the concert. The girls next to me I met and talked with paid like $50 on original tickets."
Many fans were left disappointed, especially once it was revealed that most of the tickets were purchased by bots and scalpers. In a social media post, Chappell Roan announced that she would be cancelling tickets purchased by scalpers and releasing more tickets for the FirstBank performance.
“This is the best solution that makes sense to me right now and my team, and I know it’s confusing and it’s so annoying, but I genuinely am so pissed about the scalper situation and think that people actually deserve to get to my show," Roan said in part on Instagram. "This is a larger issue. We’re dealing with it, but thank you for understanding. And I cannot wait to see people who deserve to be here, it means everything to me.”
Fans had hope again, and the limited tickets were released on Sep. 5. This re-release became a lucky day for those able to secure tickets like Carol Jimenez from Charlotte, North Carolina.
“I was number 44,092 in the queue for the original sale and gave up hope," Jimenez said. "When Chappell posted on her story they were cancelling scalper tickets, I entered my information fully expecting to not be selected. Since I only selected one ticket, that probably increased my chances of being selected. I was chosen and my ticket was literally $75 in section 303."
Though not everyone was lucky enough to get tickets. Since Ticketmaster was trying to delete as many bots as possible, real tickets got mixed up in the cancellation. Additionally, several online reseller websites such as StubHub and SeatGeek were selling tickets that didn’t even exist.
Paulina Avalos, a resident of Memphis, bought tickets for her and her friend from Jackson, Mississippi, just after the show was sold out, paying nearly $600 for the pair. Despite confirming with SeatGeek in September that the tickets were legitimate, the reseller had still neglected to give Avalos her tickets the night before the concert.
The reseller gave her several different times of the day to message if she had not received her tickets and still nothing ever came. When she was finally able to talk to someone on the phone, they told her they were working on getting replacement tickets. Overall, she was offered three different tickets, which she accepted each time, and still never heard back. Around 20 minutes into the show, they finally got a hold of a supervisor who told them they could not find tickets in their price range.
”They offered me a refund and a 150 percent promo code on SeatGeek, " Avalos said. “To which I told them, 'no, I didn’t want any of that; I wanted tickets.' But they gave it to me anyway, and we finally gave up 50 minutes into the show.”
Those lucky few who were able to attend, though, seem to have nothing but positive things to say.
“The concert was incredible," Jimenez said. "It was my first time at this venue, and we all couldn’t get over how great her vocals sounded in the old stone quarry and how there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. It was so special to hear her sing 'Pink Pony Club' in Tennessee, which she said she wrote the song for.
"Although I’m not from Tennessee, I know how important that show was for the queer community there, and Chappell does too. She is so incredibly talented and the exact pop star so many of us have been waiting for."
It’s clear that the major ticket sellers and resellers have a lot of work to do when it comes to making sure people are getting their tickets. Chappell Roan is not the first, and at this rate will not be the last, artist that fans will struggle to buy tickets for.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.