Fans Turned Away At Black Keys Concert Due To Third-Party Tickets

Third-party ticket vendors really put a damper on seeing your favorite artists live! This past year I found out two of my favorite artists had formed a band and were playing in Cleveland. It’s already rare that some of my choice artists decide to stop in Ohio in the first place, so the fact they were coming to Cleveland was a real treat for me! The one problem was getting the tickets. Within less than 1 minute, all the tickets were sold out. My excitement had immediately hit a brick wall. Knowing this was a scarce event, I scoured the internet to see if any were available. The good news: they were available. The bad news: they were about three times the price. This is why the Black Keys had started turning people away from a recent show.

At a show in Los Angeles, staff at the Wiltern began turning away fans who had bought tickets. The same day as the show, the band had implemented a non-transferable policy on tickets. This means only tickets sold through their authorized sellers were valid for entrance. If you had bought tickets from a friend or a third-party ticket vendor, such as StubHub, you were turned back at the door. Immediate backlash from fans manifested. Since The Black Keys had been on hiatus for so long, people were spending upwards of $700 for tickets. This devastated many who had dropped so much cash to see a favorite band of theirs. Many were also infuriated at the treatment they had received from staff of the venue.

The Black Keys commented stating that this was their decision. The band stated that this first show was meant for the fan club, and they really wanted to keep ticket prices affordable at $25. It was also a sort of warm-up show for them, which is why they chose a smaller venue. They never wanted fans to have to pay $700 to enjoy their warm-up show.

Do you think they were right to do this to enforce keeping ticket prices down? Do you the timing was bad?