Oasis fans can avoid forking out potentially thousands of pounds if they keep their cool and don’t click tout sites in anger when tour tickets are released.
Touts sometimes use bots to jump online queues and evade restrictions put in place by the likes of Ticketmaster – the official seller for Oasis – to prevent tickets being harvested on a widespread scale.
It is feared that ticket prices on resale sites could reach the £4,728 charged for Taylor Swift’s recent Wembley shows, since UK Oasis fans will also be competing against a global audience.
But heightened precautions to weed out online touts should ensure fans get a fair chance to see the Gallagher brothers reunited, experts said.
Reg Walker, a ticket security consultant, said: “They have taken all the right steps. Fans who pre-registered for advance sales had to answer a security question about the band, that helps stop bots.
“Tickets are limited to four per purchase and they are only available from three official ticket sites including Ticketmaster. Those sites will be looking for evidence of suspicious transactions like the use of multiple identities. The promoters have let everyone know any tout tickets they find will be cancelled at entry.”
For the UK tour dates, tickets go on sale from 9am on Saturday 31 August and will be available from www.ticketmaster.co.uk, www.gigsandtours.com and www.seetickets.com. Dublin tickets will be available from 8am on the same day from www.ticketmaster.ie.
Fans left hanging in a Ticketmaster queue should be patient.
“Secondary sites will buy the words ‘Oasis tickets’ to get to the top of the Google search engine to lure frustrated fans,” Mr Walker said. “Ask yourself, is it realistic that there would be hundreds of tickets instantly for sale on Viagogo immediately upon release?”
More tickets will become available nearer next summer’s shows. “There are fan exchanges on Ticketmaster and Twickets where you don’t need to pay inflated prices. People will find they can’t go or want to swap dates. Promoters often release more tickets when they see the scale of an artist’s production and they are already adding extra shows.”
Adam Webb, of anti-tout pressure group FanFair Alliance, said: “The tout sites feed off people’s fear of missing out. A lot of people make expensive mistakes by clicking through because they think it’s the only way they can get tickets. There will be other opportunities to buy though so fans should not panic.”
Mr Webb said Glastonbury had cracked the problem of touted tickets by banning resales and requiring a photo ID which must match the ticket-holder. However other festivals, unable to employ such labour-intensive checks, remain vulnerable to touts.
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