Sales glitches once again a source of anguish as 80,000 tickets go in three hours
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The big story about ticket sales for the August appearance in Helsinki by Madonna, her first-ever date in Finland, was not so much that the 80,000 tickets sold out in a matter of hours.
That was to be expected, given the frenzied advance drumming of the spectacle in all media, but once again there were a number of glitches to leave a good many people who went to a lot of trouble without tickets, or at least without the tickets their efforts might have warranted.
Akseli Koskinen of Helsinki was one example. He stood in a queue outside the Lippupiste outlet at the Bio Rex cinema from 5:15 a.m., and was third in line.
He imagined this would be enough to ensure tickets in the front-of-stage area in Section A (4,000 tickets on sale).
This was true for the two people in front of him, but Koskela was stupefyingly unlucky.
At 9:04 when he got to the ticket window, the system crashed.
A few minutes later, when normal service was restored, all places in A had gone.
Things were made even worse for him by the fact that some acquaintances had managed to pick up the sought-after tickets (which for some obscure reason cost only 20 euros more than a place at the back) randomly via the Net long after they were supposed to be sold out, or had even got them from outlets of R-Kiosk, who were not supposed to be selling the top-rated tickets at all.
“I queued for four hours and got two tickets in Section C.”
Tickets for the gig, the biggest single concert ever staged in Finland, went on sale via the Internet, sales outlets, phone centres, and R-Kiosks from 9:00.
The online and phone services were log-jammed almost immediately, with the piquant added touch that some callers were actually connected not to a sales clerk but to other ticket-hunting callers.
The R-Kiosks had problems getting connected to the Lippupiste online service.
For example the Munkkiniemi R-Kiosk did not sell a single ticket all morning.
Furthermore, despite advance announcements to the contrary, the kiosks only had the EUR 99 standard tickets in Section C for sale.
In any event, all 80,000 tickets had been taken up by midday, in spite of an upper limit of six tickets per person.
Some tickets did then return to the pool after lunch when it was discovered that some people had booked more than the allowed number, but by the evening even these had gone.
On the Internet message boards, the problems were naturally a hot topic, particularly as they followed on from similar mayhem when tickets for a Bruce Springsteen concert in Tampere went on sale a few weeks ago.
Some queried the pricing policy: other venues on the tour have admittedly been a good deal more expensive than Helsinki, but have also observed a greater differential in prices for the “VIP” places.
Others pointed to the Madonna hysteria generated by the media in the past week and more, but it is probably a fact that in Finland - and maybe elsewhere - sheer size sells, and many will be going along in August as much for the experience of taking part in a big spectacle as for any musical considerations.
Those who tried and failed to get tickets can do it all again (hopefully with better luck) next week, as tickets for a Metallica gig in Pori on July 25th will come on sale via Lippupalvelu on February 16th.
In that case, as in all the other “hot-ticket” events in the past, the real diehard fans will probably have bought their tickets in advance through fanclub pre-sale arrangements or the promoters’ own VIP clubs - arguably the only sensible way to go about it.
Tickets for the Madonna concert went on sale - at a hefty premium - on some online auction sites on Monday morning. Some listings were posted less than an hour after the ticket office opened, suggesting either extreme alacrity or that the tickets had been purchased in advance.
More on this subject:
 Madonna concert in August may close off airspace over Jätkäsaari
Previously in HS International Edition:
Rush for Springsteen ticket sales causes online system to crash (27.1.2009)
Helsingin Sanomat
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