By Claire Corrigan
Kivar Reis was one of the dozens of Ed Sheeran fans to set up camp outside Sports Outlet on Pearse Street for a night in the rain last Wednesday and her efforts paid off when she secured four of the much sought after tickets for Ed Sheeran, who plays Dublin’s 3Arena in April.
Speaking to Topic, Kivar said she couldn’t wait to go to the popular singer’s gig. “I’m going with my mother and my two friends Aideen Dermody and Taylor McCormack. We got the last standing tickets. I feel so fortunate. Loads of people did not get the tickets.”
Ed Sheeran fans had been queuing across the country for hours to get their hands on tickets for his Dublin gig – before it sold out in less than five minutes last Thursday morning at 10.05 with sites in the UK crashing.
To add insult to injury, tickets for his various dates immediately started popping up on resale sites with genuine fans understandably outraged.
Now the singer/songwriter himself has waded into the debate urging his fans not to engage with ticket touts who are trying to sell tickets to his upcoming gigs for up to 10 times their value.
One woman who accompanied her daughter said it was a surprise for the young girl. “She didn’t even know he was coming. She’s his biggest fan and she even had an Ed Sheeran confirmation cake. She loves him,”Jennifer Ahern said, her daughter Holly agreed saying she liked Ed because he was different to many other artists currently in the charts. “I like his music. His music is not just pop and there is an actual story to the song.”
The following morning, the brave fans said they had hardly slept and only managed to get some shuteye by popping into McDonalds. “It was really cold and wet and we only slept for about half an hour.” said one eager ticket-buyer.
Amongst the hype, concert promoters Aiken have strongly advised people not to purchase tickets from any unofficial source or secondary sites. With tickets appearing online for sale at prices up to €1000, Sheeran has said he is “deeply concerned” and is urging fans not to buy tickets at inflated prices.
Dozens of listings appeared on secondary ticketing sites offering the passes at higher prices minutes after they went off sale including Ticketmaster’s sister site Seatwave, which allows customers to re-sell tickets.
“Tickets on ANY secondary sites CANNOT be confirmed as valid tickets,” Peter Aiken said in a statement.“Beware of fraudulent websites and ticket sellers. Purchasing from these sites or secondary sellers can result in huge financial loss and disappointment for fans who could potentially arrive at the venue having been sold counterfeit tickets, only to be refused entry without recourse.”
The controversy comes after a man was accused of selling fraudulent Adele concerts tickets for January and February of last year at locations including Kinnegad.
