Politics/Frontlines: 26 Jan 2007
The Hot Press Newsdesk

Tout Of Order

Hot Press readers are angered by the number of Arcade Fire tickets that fell into the wrong hands.

Eoghan O’Mahony, a Dublin gig goer, has been waging a one-man campaign against touting.

“I’ve been in contact with the Director of Consumer Affairs office, but to no avail – they told me that touting is a hazy subject and isn’t totally illegal,” he recounts. “This is rubbish though, as I’ve seen people arrested on numerous occasions outside Lansdowne Road for this exact thing. I’ve also written to the Department of Justice, the Competition Authority and the companies involved – but the responses have been few and far between. I really feel that my government has let me and the tax-paying law-abiding public down, in a major way. It’s a chronic problem that has gotten worse over the past 18 months.”

He has written specifically to MCD, to Ticketmaster and to eBay.

“There is no doubt in my mind,” he says in a strongly worded letter, “that dozens of touts and their pals were lined up on the aforementioned morning to snap up most of these tickets online before most average law-abiding, tax-paying citizens even got a look in.”

Untill now, the campaign seemed to be falling on deaf ears.

“I’ve tried to get people to stop buying off online touts by setting up fake eBay items for sale, but eBay keep deleting my info!. The obvious solution to this totally unfair and unjust scenario would be to have a maximum of four tickets purchasable at all times, and a ticketless reference number scheme (where your ref. number is attached to an ID while entering a concert) would resolve all of these issues.”

However, there will be some cause for celebration in the latest development, with Ticketmaster taking action and MCD adopting a tougher stance.

OTHER VOICES
Lorna McCudden
“I got up extra early the morning that the Arcade Fire tickets went on sale and was gutted when I didn’t get tickets as they’re my favourite band. I definitely agree that the number of tickets should be limited to 2 and that the people who have registered the band in their ‘favourite bands’ to get ticket alerts prior to any gigs should be prioritised.”

Jason Furlong
“There is no way I would pay over face value no matter how bad I wanted to see a band. It maintains a cycle which ruins it for everyone. If the band care about genuine fans, surely they have the power to do something about this?”

Brian O’Neill
“Just wanted to send a mail to you about how annoyed I am with the whole Ticketmaster/Arcade Fire shambles. I was there at 9am trying online but no luck. The fact that so many tickets are now on sale on eBay is incredibly annoying.”