We’re tired of seeing horror stories of scalpers and opportunists taking advantage of desperate fans at every gig, from today’s pop idols like Ed Sheeran, to veterans like Midnight Oil – but the prices on StubHub last night were just a little bit crazier than usual, with one listing in particular standing out among the rest.
Rapper Drake and his record label OVO Sound threw their eighth annual OVO Fest in Toronto, with everyone from J Cole to Drake himself performing, and there were of course a lot of resale tickets being flogged at ridiculous markups right up to the start of the event, which had sold out previously in a minute flat.
Just browsing through the listings would show single tickets with asking prices of over $1000 USD – a pretty significant premium over the single-day starting prices of under $100 – but as The Fader noted, one very hopeful listing was really just taking the piss out of the way scalpers are operating these days.
A pair of tix for the lower level of the Budweiser Stage were being listed for $100,000 each, and while they’re pretty decent seats, there’s no way they’re worth four figures let alone six.
It’s not clear whether the seller was genuinely hoping to capitalise on the sort of music fans who spent similarly insane amounts for the ‘luxury’ Bahamian disaster Fyre Festival, was making a commentary about how stupid ticket resales can get, or was just gloating in front of desperate fans.
Either way, it’s just a perfect summary of everything wrong with concert ticketing right now.
Looking for last-minute tickets for #OVOFest tonight? StubHub sure seems “reasonable”… pic.twitter.com/1EeC8iTDuG
— James Lewis (@JLewisCTV) August 7, 2017
So… I’m just online checking #OVOFest ticket prices and… pic.twitter.com/Z3vRja1tlD
— PK (@PeterKash) August 7, 2017