Two-time Best Major European Festival, Artist’s Favourite Festival and Line-up of the Year winner at European Festival Awards… Yes, we are talking about the renowned Sziget Festival hosted in Budapest, Hungary every August.
As a result of the mind-blowing headliner list of the 2018 Festival, 5 day passes were already sold out by mid-May. The festival was already running on full capacity for several days as Shawn Mendes took to the the Main Stage for an amazing live show. By the time it has closed, some 500,000 visitors had joined the Love Revolution over seven days on the Island of Freedom in the heart of Hungary’s amazing capital, Budapest.
EARLY SELLOUT = MORE RESALE ISSUES
Sziget selling out months before the event is not a one-off. It happens every year but as a result ticket resale is a topic the organisers are increasingly concerned with. Challenges such as unofficial resale channels, professional touts and e-tickets being sold multiple times – as well as counterfeit tickets – cause a lot of headaches year on year, often negatively impacting the festival-goer experience and Sziget’s brand profile.
This year Sziget partnered with Budapest-based fan-to-fan resale marketplace Tickething.com in order to take more control of their resale challenges. Tickething created a transparent and fair resale marketplace for fans by making sure that the seller’s online profile is transparently shown, their mobile numbers and social media profiles are verified and the face value of the listed tickets are always transparently presented. Additionally, the company is using AI technology to detect and prevent fraudulent transactions.
“Mobile numbers and social media profiles are verified and the face value of the listed tickets are always transparently presented”
Tickething launched its Control your secondary market! campaign earlier this year, inviting event organisers, promoters and members of the primary market to join its plug-and-play API solution that can be connected to any primary ticketing system and allows rights owners to control and set their own rules. Price-capping and quantity limitations as well as servicing the secure resale of personalised tickets are all features offered free of charge through Tickething’s solution.
OFFERING FANS THE CHOICE
Once an event or primary ticketing platform joins the resale API, the system automatically ensures that tickets cannot be sold multiple times. The original tickets become invalidated and the buyers always receive a brand new ticket with a unique barcode. Resale of personalised tickets work the same way, with the additional benefit that organisers have even more control over the resale channel and prices of the secondary market in case they join Tickething’s API.
Tickething already has multiple partnerships in their local market with showcases for secure resale of personalised tickets, collaborations with primary ticketing platforms like TIXA Hungary, as well as festivals like Sziget or Balaton Sound.
GET IN TOUCH
The team is now inviting partners from the European event industry to join their strategy on creating a controlled, transparent and safe fan-to-fan marketplace that ensures that resale is controlled by rights owners and not professional ticket touts.
If you like more details, reach out to the Tickething team via: partnerships@tickething.com
Photo credit: Sziget Festival
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