Eurovision fans who missed out on tickets are furious because they are already being resold for as much as £12,000.
Tickets for the event, which will take place in May at the 11,000-seat Liverpool Arena, were predictably in great demand, with Grand Final seats selling out in less than 30 minutes on Tuesday.
Despite the fact that there were nine events to select from, all tickets were sold out within 90 minutes.
Tickets for the semi-final events ranged from £30 to £290, with the grand final shows costing between £80 and £380.
But, some people have lost no time in trying to sell their tickets to the concert on sites like viagogo for thousands of dollars more than what they paid for them.
One vendor is presently seeking £10,057 for a single Grand Final ticket that includes a VIP pass, while another is asking £3,500 for a basic admission standing ticket.
Rylan Clark, one of the hosts, took to social media to criticise people’s greed.
‘To the people selling Eurovision tickets at RIDICULOUS resale prices that aren’t proper fans – p****,’ he posted on Twitter.
Several other fans expressed similar sentiments after missing out on tickets.
‘Outrageous. Resale tickets are already available, and at ridiculous prices,’ one person wrote on Twitter.
But, viagogo has stated that tickets at this exorbitant rates are unlikely to sell.
‘Viagogo is a regulated marketplace and we want fans to have the options and flexibility they deserve for buying and selling tickets to live events,’ a spokesperson said in a statement to Metro.co.uk.
‘It’s important to stress that prices can change and are not necessarily an indication of what a fan will spend.
‘Tickets listed at eye-catching, high levels rarely, if ever, sell. Having just gone on sale, demand for a Eurovision ticket is high, but last year some tickets for the event sold on viagogo for as little as £26.’
They added: ‘We encourage fans to keep monitoring our site for different options.’
A Eurovision statement also stated it has ‘turned off’ Ticketmaster’s ticket transfer feature, which lets purchasers of tickets to transfer their tickets into the names of others, in order to ‘limit the opportunity to resale tickets at inflated rates’.
‘Purchasers who wish to resell their tickets can do so at face value through Ticketmaster’s Fan to Fan Resale platform,’ the statement to ITV said.
‘Any tickets proven to be breaching terms and conditions of sale can be invalidated.’
Several individuals had previously remarked that the costs were too exorbitant to attend before the tickets went on sale, especially given the continuing cost of living issue.
The Eurovision Song Contest airs Saturday, May 13 on BBC One.
Source My Celebrity Life.
