Foo Fighters release statement after hundreds of fans were turned away from London show
At the Foo Fighters concert at the O2 in London last night, hundreds of fans were turned away in a ticket mix-up that left fans—many of which had paid more than £200 a ticket and traveled hundreds of miles for the show—without entry to the venue, as The Evening Standard explains.
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The show was said to be sold out, but hundreds of fans were denied entry to the show for “failing to present a photo ID which matched their booking,” as NME explains. After complaints from fans who had traveled and paid much to attend the gig, security did allow ticketholders without an ID to enter. However, many who had been refused had already left the gig, NME reports.
In one instance that The Evening Standard shared, a couple had spent £420 on two tickets through Stubhub, only to be refused entry, showing the news source a picture of an email from StubHub that read: “It’s fine to see someone else’s name on the tickets.”
Fans claim they had not heard about this prior to the gig, however, the venue explains that the information had been shared. For, “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,” the statement reads.
Read the statement, jointly released from the Foo Fighters, promoter SJM and The O2 venue below:
“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.”
How do you think venues can ensure safe resale of tickets—and prevent situations like this from happening again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
