Oasis Dublin gigs sold out as fans left frustrated by queues and dynamic pricing
Tickets for the band's two Dublin gigs in Croke Park went live on Ticketmaster at 8 am, while tickets for the band's 15 UK shows in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cardiff are set to go on general sale at 9 am.
The Oasis reunion concerts due to take place in Croke Park next August have sold out.
A message posted on the Ticketmaster website at 1.23pm on Saturday said, "UPDATE: There are currently no tickets available. Please check back later as more may be released."
Fans had reported issues from early on Saturday morning, including lengthy queues and dynamic pricing, which had caused in-demand tickets to soar in cost.
The reunion tour includes two shows in Croke Park next August, as well as concerns in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. The shows in Britain went on sale an hour after the Irish ones, potentially helping to fuel the demand for the Dublin shows.
From 8am on Ticketmaster, fans encountered issues. Instead of a page opening to buy tickets, an error number was displayed, which usually indicates a webpage is unable to handle any more connections. Hundreds of thousands of fans are still queuing for tickets, as they attempt to secure their spot at Croker.
More than 500,000 people eventually joined the queues, with huge demand evident for the band's reunion for the first time since 2009. A three-hour pre-sale on Friday night also saw a portion of tickets snapped up in advance of the general sale.
A long-time fan trying for tickets to see Oasis in Dublin said he feels “frustration” and “anger” after he was kicked out of the Ticketmaster queue.
Scott McLean, 28, logged into his account on the ticket-selling website at 7.30am on Saturday ahead of Irish sales opening at 8am.
He was in a queue of 20,000 for around 30 minutes before selecting four tickets to see the band’s show at Croke Park.
However, his browser began buffering for half an hour as he tried to make the purchase, prompting him to contact the Ticketmaster customer service account on X, formerly Twitter, for advice.
“I followed their advice, cleared my cookies and cache on my browser and then it kicked me out completely. It just came up to that error screen after I followed their guidance,” the business analyst from Belfast told the PA news agency.
“I had to rejoin the queue and I ended up about 700,000 places worse off after following their guidance.”
He said he feels “frustration and anger, not much more than that”, adding: “It’s just tickets for a concert after all, but I really wanted to go.”
Promoter MCD said on its website that the price of tickets for both of the two Croke Park gigs in Dublin would start at €86.50 without booking fees.
However, social media users reported on Saturday morning the lower-priced tickets were unavailable after waiting in queues for tickets on Ticketmaster and were instead offered tickets for demand standing tickets which cost over €400.
Dublin Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty has called for an investigation into Ticketmaster by the Competition and Consumer Commission (CCPC) due to the pricing structure and advertising of the gigs.
"When ticket prices were advertised earlier this week, standing tickets in Croke Park were €86.50 plus booking fees, but when many people eventually got through the online queue this morning, they were faced with the exact same ticket at a price of €415.50,” she said.
"That’s not transparent advertising and certainly not fair to consumers.
“The EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) has sections included specifically to ensure large platforms that control aspects of the digital economy don’t just make up their own rules that are unfair for consumers. I think Ticketmaster’s ‘in-demand’ pricing structure certainly needs investigating in this context.
“Every ticket for these gigs was always going to be ‘in-demand’ so slapping an extra label and €300 on some standing tickets is just extortionate.”
Ms Doherty said there is “more than enough evidence” in the aftermath of the Oasis sale to further investigate the pricing and advertising of larger gigs and added that she will be writing to the European Commission to ask them to examine their role at an EU level.
An error code was also visible at gigsinscotland.com/artist/oasis as Scottish fans had difficulties getting onto the website for the Edinburgh shows.
The website tickets.seetickets.com/tour/oasis, where you can book for several UK shows, also appeared unavailable.
A message said: “Our website is very busy! We have lots of people looking for tickets and you are being held on this page until a space becomes available. This page will refresh automatically.”
UK tickets went on general sale at 9am through Gigs and Tours, ticketmaster.co.uk, gigsinscotland.com and seetickets.com.
Similar issues were seen on Manchester-based promoter SJM Concerts’ website Gigs and Tours is unable to load since around 8.10am.
It displays messages saying: “service unavailable” and “the service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later”.
Standing tickets at Wembley will cost fans £151.25, with the same tickets in Cardiff and Edinburgh slightly cheaper at £150 and £151 respectively.
In the band’s home city of Manchester, tickets start from £148.50, with only standing available alongside several hospitality and luxury packages.
On Friday evening, the band issued a warning after unofficial reselling websites listed tickets obtained from the early sale for thousands of pounds.
A post to the band’s X page said: “We have noticed people attempting to sell tickets on the secondary market since the start of the pre-sale.
“Please note, tickets can ONLY be resold, at face value, via @Ticketmaster and @Twickets.
“Tickets sold in breach of the terms and conditions will be cancelled by the promoters.”
Tickets are officially being sold via Ticketmaster, GigsAndTours, and See Tickets, however, the band’s reunion concert tickets have also been relisted on ticket exchange and reselling websites for thousands of pounds.
Oasis tickets for Wembley Stadium were listed on Viagogo for up to £5,909 while some tickets at the London venue, listed under “Hospitality Club” were on sale for £10,578 on StubHub on Friday evening.
Ticket reseller Viagogo has defended having Oasis tickets on sale for inflated prices on its platform as a “legal” practice following the band warning concertgoers that passes bought outside of the official websites Ticketmaster and Twickets will be cancelled.
Cris Miller, Viagogo global managing director, said in a statement to the PA news agency: “This is a dream event anticipated by millions worldwide.
“Our number-one tip for fans using secondary marketplaces is to continue to check prices outside of the first few weeks of sale.
“Demand will be at its peak when tickets hit the on-sale but it’s not a normal reflection of what tickets can and will go for. Just this summer tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in the UK sold on our platform for as low as £80.
“In the case of Oasis – a highly anticipated event – we saw the primary sites struggling to manage demand even before the on-sale, and site crashes.
“We know fans are frustrated with the process and we know there is a better way. We continue to support industry collaboration to ensure the entire ticketing market works for fans and the live entertainment industry.
“Resale is legal in the UK and fans are always protected by our guarantee that they will receive their tickets in time for the event or their money back.”
The StubHub website says all Oasis tickets “come with our FanProtect 100% guarantee for secure purchasing.” Lisa Webb, consumer law expert at Which?, said: “We’d strongly advise against buying any of the resale tickets currently popping up online at inflated prices.
“Not only is there a chance that some of these listings could be scam attempts, but even legitimate tickets could be cancelled, rendering them invalid, if they are sold outside of the official resale platforms or at above face value.”
StubHub have been approached for comment.
