Many fans had paid more than £200 a ticket and traveled from far away to see Foo Fighters live, only to be turned away from the show
September 21. 2017
When a show of a Foo Fighters’ scale takes place (especially in a city like London), we are not talking about 20-dollar tickets, the amount in question can be up to £200 and even bigger. Add to that a few hundreds to reach the capital of the UK if you had traveled from elsewhere to catch your favorite band live. And now picture yourself being turned away at the door of the concert venue! Foo Fighters show at the O2 in London two days ago saw hundreds fans with tickets being refused entry, The Evening Standard reports.
Fans were denied entry due to “failing to present a photo ID which matched their booking,” writes NME. But hey, all of the tickets from O2 partner, StubHub only had the seller’s name on it, not of those who did the booking, so what do you do? Well, at this particular show you would have been left behind the closed door with your hundred-pound ticket!
Moreover, according to fans and some media sources, the venue announced on Twitter you had to have a matching name on the ID and the ticket only one day before the show. Naturally, outraged fans complained a lot and the issue grew to the scale at which the concert agent’s and the venue holders decided to temper justice with mercy and let the ticketholders without a matching name on the ticket enter as well. But those were the most persistent ones. Others, having seen the shocking news on Twitter or denied at the door, had already left the venue by the time the issue was “resolved”.
As an example, The Evening Standard has published a story of a couple that had spent £420 on two tickets through Stubhub and were turned away from O2 club. They also had an email from StubHub that read it was absolutely “fine to see someone else’s name on the tickets.”
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Though ticketholders claim they had not received any notification that the purchaser’s ID had to be presented and had to match the personality of the concert-goer, the venue insists having made this information available prior to the show. The statement reads that “fans that bought tickets through our official box offices had to agree that they were buying named tickets prior to purchase. This was not a ‘last minute’ decision but was clear from the outset.” So what seemed to be a problem of the names on the ticket and an ID confirming it turns out to be a bigger issue of Foo Fighters’ tickets being spread through illegitimate ticket websites? What did hundreds of fans have to do with it?
.@foofighters hit the tent tomorrow!
Doors: 18:30@idlesband: 19:30
Foo Fighters: 20:30
Finish: 23:00
Please remember your form of ID pic.twitter.com/0GMyNCFtt1— The O2 (@TheO2) September 18, 2017
Fans demanded an explanation from Dave Grohl and co., so the band members had talks with promoter SJM and The O2 team and published the following statement:
“Foo Fighters, SJM and The O2 are frustrated and saddened that despite their best efforts tickets for last night’s show at the O2 fell into the hands of unscrupulous secondary ticket agencies… Unfortunately, this meant a small number of fans purchasing bogus tickets from these unscrupulous outlets did not get into the sold out show… Foo Fighters, The O2 and SJM strongly advise and sincerely hope that in the future ALL fans buy tickets only from legitimate sites to ensure they are not defrauded out of their hard earned money.”
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So what is it about after all? Is it all about not matching IDs or serious ticket fraud from unauthorized ticket offices which must be investigated by the band management and concert organizers? And if it’s the latter, how could hundreds of loyal fans robbed of their money be turned away? And how to tell a legitimate source from websites committing fraud?
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