Many Irish fans have been left disappointed this Saturday, with the rush for Oasis tickets generating an incredible demand on Ticketmaster.
The iconic Britpop band announced a sensational reunion this week, 15 years after the infamous falling out between Gallagher brothers Liam and Noel had led to the group suddenly disbanding shortly before a 2009 Paris gig.
A run of massive gigs was announced across the UK and Ireland for next summer, with two nights in Croke Park the final European stop for the reformed band.
Oasis' reunion instantly became one of the most hotly-anticipated gigs of all-time, and demand for tickets was inevitably going to be immense.
However, fans were left incredulous on Saturday morning, as ticket prices soared and many were shown error messages after spending hours in the Ticketmaster queues.
READ HERE: Noel Gallagher Tells Of How He Scored A Point In Croke Park As A Teenager
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Fans miss out on Oasis tickets on mad Saturday morning
Tickets for Oasis' two nights in Croke Park went on sale at 8am on Saturday morning, one hour earlier than the tickets for their concerts in London, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
Concerns had been raised by some fans that this would lead to fans from the UK swarming the Dublin sales in hopes of snapping up a ticket. Regardless, demand was set to be enormous, and that was what transpired.
The technical issues with the Ticketmaster site, however, were an unwelcome surprise for those who set their early morning Saturday alarms.
Many fans reported waiting patiently in the dreaded Ticketmaster queue, only to be ejected once they had reached the top of the queue. Others reported receiving error messages once they finally arrived at the page for purchasing tickets.
In the spirit of siblings getting along, I tried to get my brother an #Oasis ticket this morning. Was #326 at 8.13am. Got through at 8.16am and got an error message. 🫠
Haven’t even been able to get a queue number again.
How are Ticketmaster not prepared for this? 🙄 pic.twitter.com/lb7l1u5GtF— Stephanie Finnegan (@StephanieFinneg) August 31, 2024
These issues were not unique to Irish fans, with similar issues being reported for the band's run of UK dates.
Don’t you just love @TicketmasterUK - joined queue well early, got to front and error message. Got the queue back again then the second message 😩😡 pic.twitter.com/87eTLnEFxo
— Prof Martin Attrill 🦀 (@mjattrill) August 31, 2024
Another unwelcome surprise for those hoping to catch Oasis' long-awaited reunion was the staggering ticket prices that became apparent for the lucky few who managed to get to the top of the queue.
Ticketmaster had advertised €86.50 as the starting price for tickets for Dublin, though the lowest price many could spot on the site on Saturday morning was closer to €100 for a selection of seated tickets.
Another hugely controversial aspect of the ticket sale saw some "In Demand" standing tickets become available for €400 for the Croke Park gigs. Standing tickets had originally been priced at upwards of €170.
Similar tickets appeared on the UK site, with the explanation given reading, "The Event Organiser has priced these tickets according to their market value. Tickets do not include VIP packages. Availability and pricing are subject to change."
Many fans expressed understandable outrage at this rush pricing on social media.
That feeling when you wait in a queue for four hours only to be told the price of the ticket has risen from £148 to... £355??? Because they're 'in demand'. How is this not illegal? @Ticketmaster @TicketmasterUK @oasis #Oasis #Ticketmaster pic.twitter.com/jdmXWUkuBz
— Helen Barnett (@HelenFBarnett) August 31, 2024
"In demand standing ticket" is just a standard standing ticket except double the price.
No difference between Ticketmaster and touts.#OasisDublin pic.twitter.com/IcfX715wEJ— Darragh Moriarty (@darragh_mor) August 31, 2024
Outrageous you’re trying to sell them to me at £355, £200 more than face value tho??? Cos they’re ~in demand~ @TicketmasterUK @TicketmasterCS so greedy!!!! Hate u https://t.co/bAj9TrvKb2 pic.twitter.com/WRnEW1p1WF
— Hool ✨ (@hoolahoopz) August 31, 2024
After 105 minutes in the queue: only tickets left for Oasis on Sunday are "official platinum tickets" (€490.50) and "in demand standing tickets" (€415.50). Neither has any VIP element: it's literally just Ticketmaster incorporating tout pricing into the 'face value' proposition
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) August 31, 2024
Just @Ticketmaster raising the price of regular standing tickets for @oasis and re-naming them ‘in demand standing tickets’. They’re just as bad as the touts.#Ticketmaster #Oasis pic.twitter.com/L5xI4CCmBX
— Ollie Wale (@OllieWale) August 31, 2024
Demand remained immensely high well into the afternoon. This author checked the Ticketmaster page at 12:30pm, finding 537,753 eager fans ahead of him in the queue, over four hours after tickets for the two Oasis gigs at Croke Park had initially gone on sale.
It's safe to say that the outrageous antics on Ticketmaster have put a dampener on many Irish fans' excitement for Oasis' reunion, with serious questions to be asked of the farcical process.
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