Sold out in minutes, cancelled in droves: 50,000 Oasis fans face ticketing nightmare

4 weeks ago 10

The highly-anticipated Oasis reunion tour has been embroiled in a ticket scalping controversy that could see over 50,000 fans miss out come 2025.

With the tour marking the first performance from Liam and Noel Gallagher since 2009, the general release sale in August saw 10 million fans from 158 countries attempt to secure the 1.4 million tickets available.

That overwhelming demand led to rapid sellouts (the Australian leg sold out in 90 minutes), and issues with ticket resales after thousands of tickets appeared on secondary market platforms at inflated prices.

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For example, beleaguered secondary ticket market platform Viagogo — the company known as a thorn in the music industry’s side due to fraudulent sales — listed some tickets for as much as $A21,705.

Oasis’ concert promoters, Live Nation and SJM, have taken decisive action, cancelling the over 50,000 tickets that appeared on unauthorised resale platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub.

“These terms and conditions were successfully put in place to take action against secondary ticketing companies reselling tickets for huge profit,” a spokesperson told the BBC.

Oasis reunion tickets on the Oasis live 25 website

Live Nation and SJM have urged fans to exclusively purchase resale tickets from authorised resellers, such as Ticketmaster and Twickets.

Viagogo has also spoken out.

The company’s business development executive Matt Drew said only 2 per cent of Oasis tickets were on Viagogo and StubHub.

Viagogo has said it will continue selling tickets for the Oasis tour as it claims to be compliant with legal regulations.

Ticket holders of the now cancelled tickets have been advised to check with their ticket agent reseller, as well as Ticketmaster, and keep an eye on their email for any updates or notifications regarding ticket cancellations.

The 50,000 upset Oasis fans — who make up 4 per cent of the overall ticket holders — highlight a significant issue in the live concert industry as a whole.

Following Ticketmaster reportedly blocking 250 million suspicious activities during the first day of ticket sales, the reunion tour faced criticism for its use of “dynamic pricing” in the UK.

Dynamic pricing is a process in which ticket prices fluctuate in real time based on supply and demand, in a bid to maximise revenue.

Oasis’ use of dynamic pricing meant some fans paid more than $A700 for tickets initially priced at $A308. The band later confirmed they wouldn’t use dynamic pricing for the North American leg of the tour for next August and September.

More than that, the Oasis reunion tour serves as yet another case study in the ongoing battle against ticket scalping and the complexities of managing high-demand events in an age of highly sophisticated digital fraudsters.

The Australian leg of the tour, produced by Live Nation, will feature Oasis playing three shows at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium and two shows at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.

Oasis remains a huge draw in the streaming era, with over 26 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, and nearly 12.5 billion streams to date across all platforms.