He’s “vehemently opposed to the unethical practices” that they pursue.
Ed Sheeran has said that he’s “deeply concerned” about touts and secondary ticketing sites that are charging extortionate prices for tickets to his gigs.
Much like the process to buy tickets for U2 and Coldplay’s upcoming concerts, thousands of people were ultimately left frustrated as they were unable to get tickets for any of Sheeran’s two nights at the 3Arena.
Given Sheeran’s popularity, demand was always going to be sky high but the main issue of frustration for music fans was the fact that within moments of the tickets going on sale, various secondary ticketing websites had already snapped them up and were selling them at massively inflated prices.
While people are entitled to do whatever they like with their money, Sheeran has urged his fans not to buy tickets from these touts.
A spokesperson for the singer said:“We are vehemently opposed to the unethical practices that occur in the secondary market. We have written to each of our partners, be them promoters, venues or ticketing companies detailing the way in which we expect tickets to be sold: direct to fans. We have also partnered with a company called Twickets which is a site aimed at the ethical resale of tickets, which allows fans to swap tickets at face value or less; we are pushing them as the official resale partner and a safe place for fans to swap tickets.
“We are aware and deeply concerned about the websites in question and have urged all fans not to engage with them in order to avoid being ripped off with higher prices or, potentially, counterfeit tickets. Once again, we urge all fans to only purchase tickets through official vendors.”
To prevent further incidents like this, Fine Gael TD Noel Rock has crafted an anti-touting bill that he hopes will be debated soon.
Elsewhere, Sheeran’s manager, Stuart Camp, has given fans a small bit of hope.
When asked about whether or not the Grammy Award winner would return for another Irish gig, he said “not in that same period but we will be back on this album run.”
We will wait and see.
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