Dublin shows sell out within minutes of going on saleOver 550,000 join queue for Croke Park gigsTicketmaster website crashes and fans report error messagesOasis issue fresh warning to fans over reselling websitesBut reports say two more Irish gigs may be announced
During the scramble for tickets on Saturday, the outlet’s “in demand” prices saw some standing tickets go on sale from £350 (€415).
Fans were scrambling to secure their place at the band’s first tour since their abrupt split in 2009, which includes two now sold-out nights at Croke Park.
About 1.4 million tickets were sold for the 17 outdoor concerts in the UK and Ireland next July and August.
The Dublin gigs are on August 16 and 17 – and more could follow.
The Irish Sun is reporting that Oasis are to play two more nights at Croke Park next summer, claiming that the band are “very likely” to play the venue on August 23 and 24 as well as the already announced shows.
At one stage, the ticketmaster.ie website showed over 550,000 users in the queue as fans on laptops, iPads and phones joined the search.
Those in the queue for the London gigs at Wembley Stadium reported more than one million people ahead of them.
Some reported issues affecting the website as the sale started at 8am, branding the situation ‘a joke’.
The difficulties have prompted Dublin Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty to call for an investigation into Ticketmaster by the Republic’s Competition and Consumer Commission (CCPC) due to the pricing structure and advertising of the gigs.
“When ticket prices were advertised earlier this week, standing tickets in Croke Park were €86.50 plus booking fees, but when many people eventually got through the online queue this morning, they were faced with the exact same ticket at a price of €415.50,” she said.
“That’s not transparent advertising and certainly not fair to consumers.
“The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) has sections included specifically to ensure large platforms that control aspects of the digital economy don’t just make up their own rules that are unfair for consumers.
“I think Ticketmaster’s ‘in-demand’ pricing structure certainly needs investigating in this context.”
The company said these ‘in demand’ standing tickets, which were on sale for €415 each, were “market-based” prices, while many criticised the pricing as “gouging”.
In response to queries from the Irish Independent about how prices for ‘in-demand’ tickets are set, Ticketmaster shared a link to their website explaining that ‘platinum’ or ‘in demand’ tickets are “market-based”.
“Promoters and artists set ticket prices. Prices can either be fixed or market-based,” it said. “Market-based tickets are labelled as ‘platinum’ or ‘in demand’.”
Despite the price, fans do not receive anything else with their ticket and it is not part of a package.
“There is so much demand that advantage has been taken of people’s support,” said Consumers’ Association of Ireland chair Michael Kilcoyne, adding that such prices continue as consumers, often anxious to see acts they may have been waiting for decades to see perform, are willing to pay them.
He said regulations or controls on ticket or hotel pricing are “a matter for Government and the issue should be raised with TDs and those canvassing in the upcoming election.
“Consumers should weigh up in their mind whether it represents value for what it costs and act accordingly.”
There has already been anger at tickets appearing on resale sites at hugely inflated fees. One ticket for Oasis’s show at Wembley Stadium in London on July 26 was priced at over £6,000.
Screengrab taken from the ticketmaster.co.uk website at 8.30 of the message of the queue to get onto their website.
The Gallaghers announced on Tuesday that they had put their acrimonious split behind them, confirming the band’s long-awaited reunion by saying: “The great wait is over.”
Noel, 57, quit the group on August 28 2009, saying he “simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer”, and the brothers have made negative comments about each other for more than a decade.
But their comeback sparked a stampede for tickets, with fans joining the rush on Saturday morning.
Among those successful was Eamonn Magill (44), a boxing referee from north Belfast.
“Honestly, I can’t believe it. I feel really lucky,” he said today.
“I’ve been an Oasis fan from the first time I head Supersonic 30 years ago and they played the Limelight in 1994. The only difference is that back then the tickets were less than £7.
“I was shocked when they split in 2009, but I’ve still followed Liam and Noel through their band Beady Eye and High Flying Birds even though it wasn’t the same.
“I was up early today to get online for tickets and even though the site went down a few times I still managed to get two tickets.
“I’m going to Croke with my mate Gavin whose also an Oasis nut. It’ll be a nice present as he’s turning 50 and still has his Oasis posters from when he was a kid.”
But other fans reported problems on the ticketmaster.ie page for the two shows at Dublin’s Croke Park, which went on sale at 8am.
Instead of a page opening to buy tickets, an error number was displayed, which usually indicates a webpage is unable to handle any more connections.
A long-time fan trying for tickets to see Oasis in Dublin next year said he feels “frustration” and “anger” after he was kicked out of the Ticketmaster queue.
Scott McLean, 28, logged into his account on the ticket-selling website at 7.30am on Saturday ahead of Irish sales opening at 8am.
He was in a queue of 20,000 for around 30 minutes before selecting four tickets to see the band’s show at Croke Park.
However, his browser began buffering for half an hour as he tried to make the purchase, prompting him to contact the Ticketmaster customer service account on X, formerly Twitter, for advice.
“I followed their advice, cleared my cookies and cache on my browser and then it kicked me out completely. It just came up to that error screen after I followed their guidance,” the business analyst from Belfast said.
“I had to rejoin the queue and I ended up about 700,000 places worse off after following their guidance.”
He said he feels “frustration and anger, not much more than that”, adding: “It’s just tickets for a concert after all, but I really wanted to go.”
Another banded the Ticketmaster queuing system as “a joke”.
“A venue that holds 70k people has a queue for over 450k. It is unlikely people will just be buying one. So that’s at least 900k tickets needed. How does that make any sense? Just close the queue,” the fed-up fan said.
“And that’s not to mention the queue to get into the website itself. Dire.”
Another, who did get tickets, said it was “frustrating”.
“It was absolutely no surprise that the Ticketmaster website couldn’t handle the volume of traffic on Saturday morning given the number of people who wanted to go to these gigs. It’s a frustrating experience,” he said.
“We were lucky to get tickets in the pre-sale, but even that should have been limited to people who had previously been on Liam or Noel’s mailing lists.
“There has been no effort made to ensure fans get tickets over bandwagon-jumpers.”
Ticketmaster’s website called for patience from fans, posting a message which read: “As expected Oasis is incredibly popular. We’re processing orders as quickly as possible so please keep your place in line.”
In a separate statement, the company said the queue was “moving along”, reporting millions of people were accessing their website.
A similar code was visible at gigsinscotland.com/artist/oasis as Scottish fans had difficulties getting onto the website for the Edinburgh shows.
The tickets.seetickets.com/tour/oasis weblink, where fans could book for several UK shows, also appeared unavailable.
A message said: “Our website is very busy! We have lots of people looking for tickets and you are being held on this page until a space becomes available. This page will refresh automatically.”
On Friday evening the band issued a warning after unofficial reselling websites listed tickets obtained in the pre-sale ballot for thousands of pounds.
A post to the band’s X page said: “We have noticed people attempting to sell tickets on the secondary market since the start of the pre-sale.
“Please note, tickets can ONLY be resold, at face value, via @Ticketmaster and @Twickets.
“Tickets sold in breach of the terms and conditions will be cancelled by the promoters.”
Tickets are officially being sold via Ticketmaster, GigsAndTours, and See Tickets, however, the band’s reunion concert tickets have also been relisted on ticket exchange and reselling websites for thousands of pounds.
Some Oasis tickets for Wembley Stadium were listed on Viagogo for up to £5,909 while some tickets at the London venue, listed under “Hospitality Club”, were on sale for £10,578 on StubHub.
The StubHub website says all Oasis tickets “come with our FanProtect 100% guarantee for secure purchasing.”
Before the announcement for the UK shows, Irish promoter MCD said on its website that the price of both of the two Croke Park gigs in Dublin will start at 86.50 euros (£72.75) without booking fees.
Viagogo and StubHub along with the official ticket sellers have been approached for comment.
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