Touts’ entertainment

Another festival sells out in record time, and all the tickets end up on eBay; this time it’s the turn of Scots music festival T in the Park, which sold out in an hour. As I write this, one pair of tickets is going for £1,020.

I hate ticket touts for several reasons (and not because I wanted to go to T in the Park; it’s not my thing). Their actions don’t just make it considerably more difficult for people to get tickets - there are never enough tickets to go round, and I don’t fancy being the harassed parent of a kid who absolutely, positively has to go to a gig where the only remaining tickets are on eBay - but they also encourage promoters to put prices up.

By swamping ticket phone lines and helping gigs sell out even faster than normal they help create a market for scum such as the ticket agencies who advertise sold-out tickets they don’t actually have, and in the long term, their actions mean that tickets will become non-transferable, so if for whatever reason you’ve bought tickets to a gig and can’t go, tough luck. And of course, there are plenty of touts who don’t seem to have a moral problem with making insane profits from charity concerts either.

May HM Customs and Excise give them all the financial rubber-glove treatment.

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