If you haven’t got your Splendour in the Grass tickets yet it looks like you might be out of luck. All 17, 500 tickets were snapped up yesterday by enthusiastic fans … or at least the ones who didn’t suffer the online glitches.
Many customers experienced lengthy delays using the ticketing website Qjump, while others got bank error messages when they tried to process their payments.
“Around 70,000 people logged on simultaneously to purchase 17,500 tickets,” Neil Ackland from Qjump told AAP.
“There was an unexpected technical issue with the bank’s payment system and we are contacting any customers that were affected.
“At this point we are working closely with the bank to understand why this occurred. We’d also like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Sounds like a whole lot of excuses to me. The promoters know demand for these tickets is going to be massive, and they simply should have the online infrastructure to cope with it. Last year there were dramas when OzTix managed things. Now it seems like more of the same.
But event organisers have defended Qjump and said they’re pleased with the site’s service.
“Qjump have done very well managing our complicated ticketing process with its anti-scalping features and carbon offsetting option,” they said in a statement.
“At this point we are pleased to say there are zero tickets on eBay and a healthy uptake of green tickets. From our end, this is a great result, cheers for your patience and continued support.”
But when the fans aren’t happy, that seems to matter little.
“I can’t believe we’ve been so naive for so long thinking Splendour is some magical festival to be enjoyed and put on for lovers of music,” said one music fan known as Sneal. “No, it’s been created by the sadists who think it’s funny to put 30-odd-thousand people through hell!”
Ouch. At the end, if people have attempted to buy tickets all day and still couldn’t get them, I think it’s safe to say there’s a problem. Splendour organisers aren’t going to win any fans by burying their heads in the sand.
If you received an error message at any point you should log a help request at http://help.qjump.com.au and a representative from Qjump will be in touch. I think you’d be well within your rights to yell and scream at them once they do make contact.
Big name acts like Devo, Wolfmother, The Living End, The Wombats, and Pnau will hit Byron Bay’s Belongil Fields on August 2 and 3 for this year’s festival.
Did you try to buy Splendour tickets? I’d love to hear about your experiences!
Image source: Bradii @ Flickr
