DON'T GET LOCKED OUT BY 'SOLD OUT' FESTIVAL TICKETS
A few weeks ago Electric Forest tickets went on sale, and within the first few hours were gone entirely, much to the irritation of thousands of people who had wanted to have their shot at going to this amazing event in the summer. Scrolling through the comments on the Electric Forrest Instagram after the sell out was incredibly illuminating. There were hundreds of comments left by people who were unable to get a ticket, and one thing was obvious: they were pissed. Many were frustrated that loyalty codes (an Electric Forrest program which gives previous attendees early and preferential access to tickets) had resulted in most of the packages being sold out before they were even general available for the public. Others were upset that they had been unable to even pay for the tickets because their paycheck wasn’t due until later in the week (tickets went on sale midweek, so nowhere near a standard pay-day). A final complaint that seemed to be that there was a concern that scalpers had bought the already limited number of tickets in bulk, leaving very few for fans who wanted to go. Insomniac and Electric Forrest didn’t really respond to many of the messages, but it got me thinking about how important it is to have a strategy so that you don’t get stuck without a ticket. So that being said, I want to take a moment to talk about how to avoid getting hit with the ‘sold out’ notification.
I feel like this should go without saying, but I am going to say it anyway: DON’T ASSUME THEY WON’T SELL OUT. Back in October, I had quite a few friends fall prey to the idea that they had time to buy Escape Psycho Circus tickets because there was ‘no way they would sell out.’ Well, they did, and my friends missed out on a killer event because they thought they could wait until the last minute and there would still be tickets available. I was under no illusions that Electric Forrest tickets would sell out quickly, after all, they had reduced the length of the event from one weekend to two, meaning that there was going to be no room for overflow. However, there were still some people in the comments who were angry because they had thought they could wait. Don’t be like those people. Never assume that the tickets will still be around when you get yourself together. It’s kind of depressing, but it helps to go into with a starvation mindset. Just assume that if you don’t get them now, they will be gone forever and you will never have a chance at them again. It’s highly motivational.
The second piece of advice that I can give you is to SET A NOTIFICATION ON YOUR CALENDAR. One of the easiest things to do is to forget that tickets are going on sale. Even if it is a show that you are excited about, it is easy for life to get in the way and leave you too distracted to remember that tickets are going on sale. The easiest way to prevent yourself from not getting tickets because you completely forgot is to leave a notification in your calendar on your phone. If you have an iPhone, when you add something to your calendar your phone will continue to give you notifications up until the day or so before, so you won’t be able to forget. You will also see it anytime you open the notification panel, so you can continuously have it on your radar.
The evening before SET AN ALARM on your phone. I always set the alarm about fifteen to thirty minutes before the tickets go on sale so that if it is early in the morning or at an odd time of day, I have a few minutes to get to my laptop and open up the ticket sales window. It also ensures that if you forgot to put it in your calendar that you have some warning about the sale. I wouldn’t advise setting the alarm for the exact time of the sale, because in situations like Electric Forrest every second counts.
Next, it is important that you HAVE YOUR SHIT TOGETHER at least fifteen minutes before the tickets go on sale. By this I mean you should have your device on, window to purchase open, and form of payment ready to go and within easy reach. Most purchasing sites will time out your window within ten minutes if you don’t start making your purchase. The last thing you want to happen is losing your chance at tickets because you didn’t have your credit card near you when you needed it. It should go without saying, but also make sure you have decent battery life. For Electric Forrest you had to wait in a digital ‘line’ even after you had clicked ‘purchase tickets.’ If you had no battery and needed to wait fifteen minutes, it was pretty much over even if you had everything else you needed.
It is essential that you KNOW WHAT YOU WANT before the tickets go on sale. Some festivals, especially camping ones, have an incredibly wide range of options available and if you don’t have your shit together, you could lose time just because you had no idea what package you wanted in advance. If there are lots of different options, take the time to decide your favorite before tickets go on sale. At the same time, I would also suggest that you have a backup plan. The original package I wanted for Electric Forrest was sold out long before I ever got the chance to purchase my tickets, which left me scrambling to make a last minute decision on a new package. Having three options: a favorite, a runner-up, and the last resort is an excellent idea if you want to attend a festival in high demand.
Finally, you need to HAVE YOUR PAYMENT IN ORDER. Now if you are someone who lives paycheck to paycheck and thus can’t afford to drop a thousand plus dollars in one go, thankfully payment plans are on offer from pretty much every major festival now, so all you need is to make sure you have the cash on hand to pay the initial fee. That being said festival ticket sales dates are announced a few weeks in advance so if you need to start stockpiling paychecks, do it. Set notifications in your calendar so that you know how much you need to set aside and by when. Don’t put yourself in a position where a sale is on an odd day, and you are locked out because your payday is at the end of the week, or even happens the next week after the sale.
Now even with all of these tips, it is possible that you just won’t be able to get ahold of tickets when they go on sale. It is a lot less likely if you follow all of these steps because it gives you so many fail-safes to fall back on, but if it does happen then you can check ticket exchanges closer to the event. Now, this is an option which deserves and will get its’ own post in time, but the biggest things to keep in mind if you buy re-sale tickets is to make sure you are getting official tickets and not fakes sold by scalpers. There are a few festivals that have official ticket exchange sites and some apps that help to manage re-sale so that you can make sure you aren’t getting scammed. Just make sure that you are getting your tickets from a trusted source and not falling prey to fakes.
Having tickets sell out before you get a chance to buy them is very upsetting, especially if it was for an event you were excited about. It can happen to everyone, but if you start to follow some of these guidelines I can guarantee that it will happen to you a lot less. After all, one of the biggest advantages you can give yourself in life is being prepared. Most people don’t have their lives together, so by just taking a few little steps to at least have yours together when it comes to getting tickets; you are one-hundred times more likely to snag a few of those tickets before they sell out.
