(London) Millions of people rushed to buy tickets for Oasis’ comeback tour in the summer of 2025 on Saturday morning, causing crashes on overloaded sales sites to the great disappointment of fans.
Tickets for the 17 concerts of the legendary Britpop band, who announced Tuesday their reformation after 15 years of estrangement between Liam Gallagher and his brother Noel, were available from 9 a.m. local time (4 a.m. Eastern Time) in the United Kingdom and 8 a.m. (3 a.m. Eastern Time) in Ireland on several platforms at once.
Completely overwhelmed, some sites like Gigs and Tours no longer allowed people to join the virtual waiting room for the sale in the hour before opening.
“Please be patient, many people are currently logged into the site to get a ticket,” it read, before the site became completely inaccessible in the morning like several other platforms.
A spokesperson for Ticketmaster UK assured that the site was “working”, with “millions of fans”. […] placed in a virtual “queue”.
But it was so long that only buyers who got up at dawn had a chance to acquire the precious tickets, leaving the others in a waiting room… to access the waiting list, and this for hours.
An AFP journalist, in the last stage of the purchasing process, was about to buy a ticket when he was abruptly sent to the back of the line without explanation, behind nearly 200,000 people.
“Unfortunately, Oasis has already re-disbanded while you were waiting,” quipped one user on the X-rated network, where disappointed buyers have shared their frustration with thousands of humorous twists.
PHOTOS FRED TANNEAU AND TOLGA AKMEN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Liam and Noel Gallagher
Irish fans, meanwhile, have lamented the “absolute madness” of opening tickets for Dublin’s two European dates an hour before the UK ones, posting screenshots of hundreds of thousands of people ahead of them in the queue.
The day before, a few people had been able to buy exclusive tickets after being chosen at random for a pre-sale. And given the enthusiasm, some of them were quick to try to resell them for several thousand pounds.
“Please note that tickets can ONLY be resold at face value via Ticketmaster and Twickets. Tickets sold in breach of the terms and conditions will be voided by the promoters,” Oasis warned on their X account, before reposting another warning on Saturday morning.
Tough competition
Oasis will perform in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Edinburgh and Dublin, and have already added three dates to the 14 originally planned, given the enthusiasm of fans. This represents around 1.4 million tickets, the BBC estimates.
The competition was all the tougher because, in the absence of an international tour, fans from all over the world rushed to buy this sale.
Because even if “preparations are underway to take Oasis Live’25 on other continents later next year,” some doubt the solidity of the truce between the sworn enemies of British rock.
The return of the duo, who split up in 2009 after yet another altercation at the Parisian Rock en Seine festival — involving a broken guitar — was announced on Tuesday.
The reconciliation of the Gallagher brothers, who have been attacking each other on social media and in interviews for 15 years, does not come after “a big revelation” but “a gradual realization that this is the right time,” they explained.
It comes 30 years after the album Definitely Maybereleased on August 29, 1994, which launched Oasis, with Liam as vocalist and Noel as guitarist and composer.
For this tour, which is already shaping up to be historic, the most affordable tickets are around 75 pounds (around 130 Canadian dollars) for the concerts in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff, and around 150 pounds (around 260 Canadian dollars) for those in Manchester, the group’s hometown.
If they succeed, some fans will also be able to afford a 506.25 pound (nearly 900 Canadian dollars) ticket that gives access to a “pre-concert party”, an exhibition and special seats at Wembley Stadium in London.