Double The Coldplay In Singapore

The first Coldplay show, set for April 1, sold out within two hours. More than 1,500 people started lining up at the National Stadium box office Nov. 24, according to Channel News Asia. In all, 100,000 tickets have now been sold for both shows, making them instant sellouts. More standing tickets were added to the April 1 show, as well as “restricted view seats” for both concerts. Consequently, scalping kicked in immediately.

The local CNBC affiliate reports that Coldplay tickets on the secondary market were going for as much as 3,000 percent their face value. Something like 20,000 unique users tried to buy tickets online and, naturally, many couldn’t get through, so they went to the ticket marketplace Viagogo, where S$78 ($55) tickets were going for S$700 ($491) and the S$298 VIP package was selling for between S$1,350 and S$9,912.

Live Nation Lushington warned fans against buying such tickets, saying they may be voided. The promoter stated that “Coldplay’s management was aware of the situation,” however, it did not respond to CNBC’s request for an explanation of how it would crack down on resellers.

The Straits Times mentioned a BBC report that said Live Nation Italy had admitted it gave tickets directly to a resale ticket site, but Live Nation Lushington denied it has ever done such a thing. There is no law in Singapore against scalping, though sometimes venues institute their own rules. Coldplay also announced an added show at Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok.