Someone created a petition for Phish to bring back Tickets-by-Mail. While I know that they laid off pretty much their entire organization when they broke up in 2004 (and probably a bunch more when they went on hiatus in 2000), the tickets-by-mail ticket lottery was far and away the best method of ensuring that scalpers were not getting their hands on tickets. It required actual footwork to get your tickets ordered and prevented people from getting on a computer and putting in a bunch of orders from the comforts of their home or office.
I understand Phish’s relationship with MusicToday and how they use them for all their merchandise and ticket sales now. However, this argument has been brought up time and time again beginning when they first switched to the electronic request system.
My response on the petition:
I got complete shut-out of getting tickets for the summer tour. First, my “request” for pre-order tickets wasn’t fulfilled (even though I’m sure thousands of scalpers got their tickets). Then, thanks to Livenation’s amateurish website that can’t handle any increases in traffic, I wasn’t able to buy tickets on either of the on-sale days for the summer tour.
My ONLY option now, if I want to see Phish at all this year, is to buy through a scalper or ticket broker, paying well above face value.
I had entered the pre-sale lottery for redrocks, and SPAC, and got declined for both. I then tried to get red rocks tickets through ticketmaster and they sold out in 5 min. When trying to get these tickets I was given the opprounity to enter the verification code 15-20 times. Every time I had entered the code (perfectly) the website had told me that I had entered it wrong or that there was an error and to try again. This had happened to all of my freinds and was a re-occuring probrelm when I tried to get tickets for darien lake and spac. For redrocks Me and 3 other freinds were forced to buy scalped red rocks tickets from a broker off craigslist that wouldnt accept pay pal. we paid $320 a tic for 4-day passes. I hope they are real. Also The ticket broker told me that his company had purchaced a batch of 100 pre-sale tickets!!! did any one else get tickets? I dont know of any one.
Sincerely,
true Phish Phan
A lot of people had the same experience as you. Today, for the Hartford tickets, one guy on Twitter (@strangedesign) kept getting logged out everytime he attempted to get tickets.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster need to step up. I hope someone looks into the Ticketmaster/TicketsNow affiliation and that the gov’t prevents Ticketmaster and Live Nation from merging.
It’s just sad the way things have changed. I used to prefer mail order, because I had a chance. AS SOON as Red Rocks was announced, I went to all the broker sites just to see how corrupt the system was. After March, I knew brokers would have these tickets before I ever did. You know what… I only found one site that had Red Rocks tickets posted. So I believed. Obviously I was denied my lottery tickets. I have had 2 friends that actually GOT lottery tickets, one for Hampton, 1 for late summer tour. By the time the lottery was over and tickets were about to go on sale…boom, the new scalpers list a bunch of tickets on their websites. I overpaid for 3 nights at Red Rocks, actually I paid 300%. Luckily I got some face value tickets for SAC,Darien, and the GORGE… but I’m flying back to my old home in Colorado not really knowing if I have a real tickets or I just got raped twice. ( Once by cost.)
Sadly, I like Phish’s music, and I’ve been following them since Great Woods 1994 where they last played Gamehenge, I went the following day. Sigh. All things in life change, and the inevitable corruption of getting a Phish ticket is just another example of how we all seemed doomed to screw each other over for a buck. Take these Red Rocks tickets for example. Normally, I wouldn’t like it, but I’d be alright if I had to pay… say even double the price for something like that. I paid 300 percent! Where’s that money going? Not someone who’s a fan. Probably some douche who can’t stand Phish. I’m a 5’9″, 120 pound, skinny guy, and I’d feel I had a better chance at getting a Phish ticket if I had to fist fight “the ROCK” than using the current system. At least it’d be fair then. It doesn’t pay to have even a brief glimmer of hope when it comes to expecting Phish tickets. I posted last week on Twitter that I’m convinced the Phish ticket lottery is an elaborate scam. They only have around 100 tickets per show…and they hype it up to drive the cost of ticket sales up. The sad thing is that I had to work my ass off to get all the tickets I got, and I’ll be paying them off 3 weeks from now when I get laid off, fun. If I manage to score a mansfield ticket I’ll hit that too, just to hit my measly 50 concerts and probably retire… because there’s no way hard working middle class Americans can afford seeing Phish anymore…at least that’s how it seems. I happen to live in Vermont and people here are starting to see more of the greed and less of the love… I’m one of them. To those of us who got gouged for Phish tickets….DURING A RECESSION NO LESS…. we’re stupid. I’d do it again too, that’s the sad thing.
I hate to say it, Ian, but buying tickets from scalpers is what keeps them doing what they do.
The situation sucks. I got shut out of Red Rocks myself, but I refuse to pay more than face value for a ticket. Sure, if I have to buy from someone else, I will, but only face value plus fees.
The Phish community needs to join together to fight the scalpers and the only way to do that is to hit them where it hurts the most… the wallet. Do not, under any circumstances, no matter how much you WANT to go to a show, buy a ticket for more than face value.
Old school Colorado phish fan here. Sick and tired of all the greedy Wilson’s whom are selling tickets at unreal pathletic prices! I remember the days when it was simple to get a phish ticket, are those days truley over. All I am asking for is a pair of Red Rock tickets for any night show.