Parked Promoter Meets Curious Cop

In an amusing situation, T In The Park festival promoter Geoff Ellis was questioned about his association with GetMeTickets by a patrol man who was called in to solve some car problems. He was upset about missing a U2 concert in Dublin thanks to the ticket broker.

“He recognized either my name or the company name from the info he had on his computer and then asked if DF Concerts has any dealings with the company,” Ellis explained.

“He told me that he and his wife had booked a hotel and flown to Dublin for a U2 show, but the trip was ruined when GetMeTickets let them down on the day.

“I told him that we had nothing to do with them at all,” a statement the patrol man seems to have believed because he did get Ellis’ car started.

Working with Ticketmaster, the Glasgow-based concert and festival organiser, who campaigns on behalf of the Concert Promoters’ Association to outlaw touting, has just clawed back about 2,000 tickets bought by potential touts.

Each applicant is entitled to a couple of tickets and the U.S.-based ticketing giant has the technology to detect when two or more applications look to have come from the same source.

“It’s great news for us that there is now a system in place to help identify and eliminate touts,” Ellis said before repeating the regular warning that fans shouldn’t buy from unofficial sources.

Apart from making life harder for the touts, the organisers of the 75,000-capacity event at Balado were told that it’s also a huge boost to the local economy.

A new study, the first of its kind for Scotland’s tourism industry, has revealed that the overall value of T In The Park has increased to £18 million.

Scottish Enterprise, Perth & Kinross Council and DF Concerts funded an in-depth independent report on the 2005 event that shows it’s worth £7.3 million to Scotland, plus another £10.7 million worth of positive media coverage.

This year the site will be surrounded by what’s being described as a “fortress fence,” another deterrent against people crashing the party without paying.

Many of the fans who continue to buy from secondary ticket suppliers are still suffering from the compulsory liquidation of GetMeTickets, which was shut down by the Department Of Trade And Industry in February.

According to newspaper reports, hundreds of concertgoers are out of pocket after the London-based Internet trader took their money and failed to deliver the tickets.

The Trinity Mirror-owned icCoventry Web site said Bon Jovi fans have lost as much as £109 each after buying tickets for the local Ricoh Arena.

The news and entertainment site said Sarah Lissaman, Emily Mead, Vicki Partridge and her brother Chris paid £109 each for “Gold Circle” tickets to the June 7th show.

“I was really looking forward to seeing them,” Lissaman explained. “When I found out the company had gone into liquidation it’s not printable what I said, I just couldn’t believe it had happened.”

Now she has the choice of shelling out for another ticket or missing the show.

The friends, who booked their tickets in October, said the gold circle tickets should have guaranteed them seats close to the stage.

They said they only realized there was a problem when they went online to find out when they would receive their tickets.

– John Gammon