Fans divided by final Oasis ticket ballot: “Not a mess like the first time” or “shambolic from start to finish”

14 September, 2024

Oasis

Oasis fans are once again divided in their reaction to the private ballot sale for the remaining Wembley Stadium reunion shows.

Ahead of today’s (September 14) sale, the band clarified how the process would work in a post yesterday. Fans who signed into their Ticketmaster UK accounts on August 31 – the dates tickets originally went on sale – and joined a queue but didn’t manage to buy a ticket were able to register for a ballot, which was used to send codes to a select number of fans.

“Fans selected in the private ballot have now been contacted with on-sale information and the code for the ticket sale,” the band send said on X/Twitter.

Following the previous dynamic pricing controversy, a representative for Oasis confirmed to the Metro that there is a ticket price cap for the extra London dates, which means dynamic pricing won’t be an issue for fans hoping to get lucky in today’s private sale.

Everyone who successfully got a code was entered into staggered sales, which began this morning at 8:30am – 11am, and will continue between 1pm – 3:30pm and 5:30pm-7pm.

“Codes were sent via the email address associated with their Ticketmaster account and ballot registration,” they continued. “Demand for these shows is unprecedented. A code does not guarantee tickets. Tickets will be sold on a first come first serve basis.”

With the first wave now well underway, fans have walked away with mixed fortunes. While some have been successful this time round, many others weren’t – and were enraged to find that almost as soon as tickets went up on Ticketmaster, they were already on resale sites for over £1,000 each.

At the time of writing, the highest price for a ticket on Viagogo was £1,630.

You can check out fan reactions from social media below.

Today’s sale comes after an unprecedented demand for the Britpop legends’ comeback tour next summer, which involved fans being held in online queues for hours (with many being kicked out of line with Ticketmaster’s systems, believing them to be ticket tout bots). A press release later confirmed that over 10million fans from 158 countries attempted to get tickets, meaning ticket platforms had struggled to cope with the demand in traffic.

In addition, there was controversy over price hikes associated with dynamic pricing, leading to hundreds of fans complaining to the Advertising Standards Agency (with investigations suggested by the UK government and the European Commission).

Politicians like Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy also weighed in, calling for a review of the policy and secondary ticket sites. Similarly, Twickets announced a U-turn on their stance – capping their booking fee at a maximum of £25 per ticket – while Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust (MVT), used the scramble as a way to highlight the struggles faced by grassroots venues.

The Gallagher brothers subsequently distanced themselves from the price hikes and announced last week that tickets for two more Wembley Stadium gigs in September 2025 would be sold today, via “a special invitation-only ballot ticket sale strategy” to fans who were unsuccessful in getting tickets the first time around.

Amid this mornings sale, Liam Gallagher – who recently returned to Twitter/X to joke about the ticket controversy by saying: “Oasis are back, I hear their attitude STINKS” – hasn’t yet commented.

He did, however, rehash the line to poke fun at footage of Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro fighting onstage during a Jane’s Addiction show – replying to a tweet of the incident and writing: “There attitude stinks.”

Elsewhere on the app, he addressed rumours that Richard Ashcroft could support Oasis on their reunion tour next year, and responded to rumours they would be joining Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl.

 

The post Fans divided by final Oasis ticket ballot: “Not a mess like the first time” or “shambolic from start to finish” appeared first on NME.