Paramore’s Hayley Williams calls out Ticketmaster on stage in Cardiff

16 April, 2023

Hayley Williams of Paramore

Paramore‘s Hayley Williams became the latest artist to address current issues with Ticketmaster and the cost of concert tickets.

The ticketing giant has been in the headlines frequently in the past few months for its controversial “surge pricing” scheme that was introduced last year, which inflates ticket prices based on demand.

As Paramore continued their UK tour with the second show of the run in Cardiff last night (April 15), Williams discussed the problem as she thanked fans for coming.

“I wanna say one more time how special it is that you’ve all made it tonight,” she told the crowd. “We don’t take it lightly, we know, honestly, especially now, it’s a huge sacrifice to come to a show because Ticketmaster need to get their shit together. We’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves too because we were like, ‘People are spending money that they don’t have to come and hang out with us and we better give them something that’s worth that’. We just love you so much.”

Ticketmaster recently came under fire for its handling over the ticket sales of The Cure’s North American tour. The band had opted out of surge pricing to keep costs for fans down, but ticket buyers reported that the fees Ticketmaster were charging were higher than the ticket price itself.

Frontman Robert Smith said he was “sickened” by their actions and later revealed that he had spoken to the ticketing system to issue small refunds to fans who had purchased tickets.

Neil Young has also weighed in on the debacle, writing on his website: “It’s over. The old days are gone. I get letters blaming me for $3,000 tickets for a benefit I am doing. That money does not go to me or the benefit.”

A group of Taylor Swift fans also filed a class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster for its handling of the ‘Eras’ tour pre-sale, which saw thousands of fans reporting lengthy wait times, website outages, and hyper-inflated prices on resale sites (including Ticketmaster’s own). The ticketing company later admitted it buckled under the “historically unprecedented demand” they faced from Swift’s fans before cancelling the general sale.

Another class action lawsuit was filed against the company by a Canadian law firm over the price of Drake tickets. LPC Avocat Inc. accused Ticketmaster of price gouging, arguing in the suit that the ticketing giant “intentionally misleads consumers for their own financial gain.”

Paramore’s long-awaited UK and Ireland tour kicked off in Dublin on Thursday (April 13), which notably featured Williams performing an acoustic cover of The Cranberries‘ ‘Dreams’.

The tour continues with a show in Glasgow on Monday (April 17), followed by dates in Manchester, London and Birmingham. You can see the full itinerary here, with remaining tickets to all the shows available here. Support comes from Bloc Party and Rozi Plain.

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