If there were teething problems with Taylor Swift tickets, Ticketmaster got a root canal for Coldplay
Coldplay play Croke Park in Dublin on August 29 and 30, and September 1, 2024. Picture: Mads Claus Rasmussen/AFP via Getty Images
When you try your best but you don’t succeed, it’s usually someone else’s fault.
That will be the viewpoint of thousands upon thousands of Coldplay fans after the presale for their Croke Park concerts next summer went disastrously.
The general sale is still to come on Friday for those still hoping to bag whatever tickets are left, but it was an all-too-familiar foe which will get the blame — Ticketmaster.
Having successfully survived what is now being called ‘The Great War for Taylor Swift tickets of July 2023’, I was once again ready to be stationed on the battlefield, awaiting the call to arms with a presale-code in my hand on Tuesday morning.
Having staggered the on-sale times for Swift’s gigs, I and many others were expecting a similar situation for Chris Martin and his pals.
No such luck.
Instead, the ‘lobby’ that you have to go in to before even getting into the queue opened at 9.45.
Here’s the issue: neither Ticketmaster nor MCD, the concert organisers, told anyone. Cue absolute pandemonium as people battled to even get a spot in the queue.
If Ticketmaster had teething problems with Taylor Swift tickets last week, they were getting a full session of root canal treatment with Coldplay.
They attempted to stem the bleeding, responding to users on Twitter saying the site was “busy at the moment due to several high-demand events”.
In fact, they even went on the offensive, saying the site had not “crashed”, despite the clear ‘the site is unreachable’ message that was being sent to many people trying to get in.
After furious refreshing, it took until just after 10.20am get into the queue — at which point I found myself in the mid-30,000 range of the queue.
In other words, ahead of others who had managed to get in at 10am — when tickets were meant to have gone on sale.
With a full hour gone, I had managed to reach the point of 18,106 in the queue.
Down the number on the screen trickled, until it started getting steadily faster — which as any veteran of a Ticketmaster disaster knows is usually a bad sign.
Either people were being kicked out, or they had gotten in and realised that tickets were sold out.
It’s the hope that kills you.
While waiting, I checked at 11.30am what the queue was like for Friday’s show — just the 212,000 waiting for tickets for a stadium with a third of that capacity.
I did reach the top of the Thursday queue at 11.46am — only to be told there were none available.
However, as mentioned above, I’m a veteran of Ticketmaster fiascos. I know while there were none available when I first got in, the foolish thing to do would be to just throw my hat at the whole thing immediately.
So began 10 minutes of repeatedly clicking ‘find tickets’, in the knowledge that the exact same tactic had worked for securing Taylor Swift tickets just days ago.
Clocks struck midday and boom — there they were.
Two standing tickets, in my basket and soon, in my hands. .
A third date was announced seconds later, causing lots of people to jump the queue to try secure Sunday tickets.
Call it — but that wasn’t a worry for me anymore.
I had got what I wanted, not what I needed. But so many others had just one request for Ticketmaster: .
- Coldplay play Croke Park in Dublin on August 29 and 30, September 1 and September 2, 2024. General tickets go on sale on Friday at 10am via Ticketmaster.
