Industry News

Foo Fighters blame resellers for O2 ticket chaos

The Foo Fighters and their promoters have defended the ticketing process that saw hundreds of fans turned away from their O2 gig on Tuesday.

Many Foo Fighters fans were told they could not enter the London venue as they failed to provide photo ID that matched their tickets.

The band, fronted by Dave Grohl, has since released a statement reminding fans in the future to only purchase tickets from “legitimate sites to ensure they are not defrauded out of their hard-earned money.”

The 20,000-venue was reportedly sold-out for the one-off show, and punters that were turned away claimed they were not warned that a photo ID was required.

In response to this, promoters SJM said: “Fans that bought tickets through our official box offices had to agree that they were buying named tickets prior to purchase. This was not a ‘last minute’ decision but was clear from the outset. We did this to prevent tickets being re-sold at extortionate prices. The vast majority of fans understood and adhered to this.”

Despite this mix-up, security eventually allowed those without matching ID into The O2, though many who had been refused entry had already left.

“Foo Fighters, SJM and The O2 are frustrated and saddened that despite their best efforts tickets for last night’s show at the O2 fell into the hands of unscrupulous secondary ticket agencies,” said the band in a statement.

Foo Fighters added: “Unfortunately, this meant a small number of fans purchasing bogus tickets from these unscrupulous outlets did not get into the sold out show… Foo Fighters, The O2 and SJM strongly advise and sincerely hope that in the future ALL fans buy tickets only from legitimate sites to ensure they are not defrauded out of their hard earned money.”

SJM added: “As event organisers of last night’s concert, we implemented a policy from onsale to limit secondary reselling of tickets. The only official outlets were the venue box office and SEE Tickets and all purchasers were clearly informed that ID checks would be in place on entry.”

Meanwhile, venue The O2 added: “Some ticket holders who arrived without ID or who had bought through secondary sites were unfortunately left disappointed.”

Image: Ed Vill