On Your Marks For Hyde Park

Tickets for first of two Rolling Stones shows in Hyde Park sold out in minutes, and a second show has been announced for July 13. But there’s been a bit of a backlash over how at least the first show was marketed.

Some of the 65,000 fans wanting to be there July 6 paid hundreds of pounds for a place at the front of the crowd, only to find they’ll still need to run faster than £95 ticket holders to get there. 

Apparently the fuss blew up after VIP ticket holders saw a statement issued by the band on Twitter which said “tier three” ticket holders, who paid £95, will also be able to get to the front.

AEG Live advertised £299 (or “tier one”) tickets as being “directly in front of the stage,” but withdrew that description as Rob Hallett, AEG’s president of international touring, told the Daily Telegraph “the band wanted the regular ticketholders to be right at the front of the stage staring at the whites of their eyes, not 200 yards away.”

“The people who have coughed up for hospitality packages will get looked after in a way they have never known before,” Hallett added.

Later, site plans on Ticketmaster’s and Viagogo’s websites showed the general admission area reaching to the front of the stage, with a “gold circle” for the VIP ticket holders to the side of them.

It’s believed this site plan didn’t emanate from AEG Live.

“If ticket purchasers are unhappy they have the option of downgrading to Tier 3 or receiving a full refund,” Hallett told Pollstar.

The Telegraph also reported that tickets for the show – part of the band’s 50 And Counting tour – were available on secondary seller Viagogo’s website for between £180 and £12,000.

Basic standing tickets were selling on eBay, the online auction site, for up to £300, more than three times their face value.

More exclusive tickets were on sale for £1,399 a pair. Two of which included access to the “unwind” backstage bar were being offered for £1,495.

Tickets went on sale to the public at large at 9 a.m. April 5, after some were released early to customers of Barclaycard, the concert’s sponsor, and local residents in Westminster.