It only took two hours on Wednesday for the Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) to sell out all of its general admission passes for its 55e edition, unheard of. Just minutes later, hundreds of them were on resale sites or on Marketplace for double or even triple the original price, angering music lovers who couldn’t get their hands on them in time. the Graal.
“WOW, you guys are amazing! […] It’s a record ! Thank you for your enthusiasm again this year! rejoiced the festival team on its social networks on Wednesday afternoon, struck by the speed with which the 125,000 tickets flew away.
At the same time, comments of disappointment and anger from music lovers who couldn’t get a ticket — and saw resale prices skyrocket — began to multiply on the Web.
“You surprise me that there were no more tickets in two hours, they are on the resale sites and Marketplace”, drops, annoyed, Léa Julien. She considered paying a few extra dollars for a pass, but the prices quickly put her off.
While a general admission ticket to attend the 11 days of shows normally costs $140, resale tickets on sites like Billets.ca or 514-billets.com Instead, they charge between $250 and $400. A Gold front stage pass holder is even trying to get $699 for the Green Day show. Others are asking for $899, in the same category, for Foo Fighters or Imagine Dragons.
“It’s out of the question that I pay so much and let people take advantage of the system like that. We will find a plan B for our summer vacation and put it off until next year, ”says the young woman.
A regular at the festival for more than 15 years, Patrick Bergeron also fears having to settle for free shows from the FEQ this year. “I didn’t understand anything,” he says. I logged on in the evening and there was already nothing left, whereas last year it took two weeks to be sold out. »
Resale at full price is not the only problem, he points out. There are also those who rent day passes for $40 or $50. “Renting isn’t new, you do it for the nights you don’t plan to go. But there, many of them have got their hands on a package of tickets that they are renting out for 11 days at a super price. It’s going to be the resale and rental festival this year! he laments.
“It hurts our hearts”
In interview with The duty, the director of communications of the FEQ, Samantha McKinley, indicates that the festival team is making every effort to ensure that the passes end up in the hands of true music fans. A waiting room system has been put in place to respect the principle of “first come, first served”, only one transaction is authorized by credit card, and the number of tickets purchased per transaction is limited to four.
In addition, the team closely monitors the presence of robots that would like to make massive purchases. “This year, few robots have availed themselves of ticket purchases according to us […] we know in particular that the average number of tickets sold per transaction has fallen compared to last year. »
Of course, she does not deny that resale exists. “To see the pricing that gets carried away in resale, it sure hurts our hearts. We are an NPO that works very hard to diversify its income and be able to offer tickets at low prices. […] But our means are limited to prohibit it. Our remedies against resellers are limited. »
The FEQ is funded at 13% by the City of Quebec, the government of Quebec and that of Canada.
Mme McKinley, however, refuses to believe that these resellers alone explain the record time recorded Wednesday to sell the approximately 125,000 passes. “There is a real enthusiasm. We are coming out of the pandemic, people want to be back at festivals. We also received rave reviews about the programming,” she says. The 55e edition of the FEQ will indeed welcome big names such as Foo Fighters, Imagine Dragons, Billy Talent, Lana Del Rey, Weezer, or even Green Day.
Frequent problem
The resale of festival or show tickets at exorbitant prices is a “huge” and increasingly frequent problem in Quebec, according to Eve Paré, director general of the Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de video (ADISQ).
The problem was somewhat resolved in 2012, with the adoption of Bill 25, which allows the Consumer Protection Office (OPC) to act more quickly. According to this law, “no merchant may demand from a consumer, for the sale of a show ticket, a price higher than that announced by the seller authorized by the producer of the show”.
However, most resale sites today describe themselves as intermediaries between individual buyers and sellers. And since the return to normal in the cultural environment, there has been an upsurge in the phenomenon of resale of show tickets, according to Ms.me Ready. “Sometimes there are tickets for double the price for a show that just started and isn’t even sold out yet,” she says.
The ADISQ has also collected several complaints from its members in the past year and entrusted the whole to the OPC. “The investigation is still ongoing, we are waiting, we can’t wait to see the outcome,” she said. Contacted by The dutythe OPC confirms that it is “currently doing several checks on the resale of show tickets”, without giving more details.
“It’s a shame to see tickets being sold for so much. With inflation affecting everyone, it is more important than ever to pay the right price for our tickets to shows,” she says.