Tag: Mojo

  • Crazy pre-sales result in crazy records

    I spoke too soon in my previous post. I said: “This means the crazy situation arises that tickets for a festival like Lowlands held at the end of August 2011, might likely be sold out already before half December“. I got it wrong. When 45000 tickets went on sale today at 11:00, they were sold out in 2 hours (Dutch source). The regular tickets at least, not all of the 10000 special discount tickets are sold out, but those are only for people who have a special pass. Last year it took 8 days and by then a few names playing were already known. Not a single name has been confirmed yet for 2011.

    I will be there, by the way, I made it in time. Each year I keep thinking I should buy a few extra tickets to sell to those who were late But if I see the online auction sites where people are already trying to sell extra tickets for €400 to €1000 even (original prices were €155), I’m glad I don’t. I don’t want to be one of those sleazy scalpers. Besides, with todays digital tickets there’s way too much risk that if you buy a ticket from an unreliable source, it’s going to be an invalid ticket.

  • Crazy concert pre-sales in the Netherlands

    The current Dutch government is going to increase the VAT-tax rate (in Dutch: BTW) for performing arts in the Netherlands from 6 to 19%, starting 2011. As a result of this, there have been many protests. One of the more prominent protesters, concert organiser Mojo Concerts has been very vocal about opposing this. And for good reason cause this would mean their ticket prices (already very high) might sky-rocket some more. They have taken matters into their own hands and announced they will start pre-sales for their bigger festivals (Pinkpop, Lowlands, the Zwarte Cross) in 2010 already to evade the increase, knowing full-well the tickets will sell out before 2011.

    This means the crazy situation arises that tickets for a festival like Lowlands held at the end of August 2011, might likely be sold out already before half December , since the tickets go on sale this Friday the 26th. The tickets for the 2010 edition sold out in 8 days in the pre-sales. Mind you,when those sold out, only a handful of artists had been confirmed. This Friday, not a single name has been confirmed yet.

    What prompted me to post this entry might be an even more astounding record. Singer-song writer Ane Brun announced on her Facebook page that tickets for her concert in Amsterdam will go on sale on the 27th of November … for a concert on the 18th of October 2011. That’s a little under 11 months in advance. There is no mention on whether this is related to the tax rise, but my gut instinct says it is. Will any venue break the record by starting pre-sales for a concert in December 2011?