Splendour Site Meltdown

The Splendour In The Grass festival’s attempts to stop scalpers this year might be working – but not without dramas.

The Secret Service-Village Sounds two-day July event in Byron Bay eliminated ticket agencies this year, telling fans they could only buy on the festival’s Web site.

Those who bought tix had to provide names and addresses, which will be ID’d at the gate.

But the Web site went into meltdown when it got 2.8 million hits for the 17,500-capacity event. Frustrated fans complained it took them four hours to get processed. Within 24 hours, all tickets sold out.

At press time, no tix have surfaced on eBay. Other festival and tour promoters revealed they are closely watching to see if they should adopt the policy, which Splendour borrowed from U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival.

– Bryan Jones