Tickets for Ed Sheeran’s Dublin concerts in April sold out shortly after going on sale on Thursday morning.
Fans who failed to secure a ticket first time around could turn to a reselling website owned by Ticketmaster, but will likely have to pay high prices.
Visitors to the website Seatwave, which allows people to sell tickets at many multiples of face value, were greeted on Thursday morning with a holding message reading: “Due to a massive demand for tickets, you’re being held in a queue. . . hang in there.”
nothing more annoying than when u go to buy tickets but everyone who buys them & sells them for 10x price gets there before u @edsheeran
— Abbie Turner (@_abbturner) February 2, 2017
Tickets for the 3 Arena concerts were available for as much as 10 times their face value on Wednesday despite not going officially on sale until the following morning.
More than 150 tickets for the two gigs were available on reseller website viagogo.ie with prices ranging from just under €300 to more than €700.
There were two separate pre-sales of the tickets - the first of which started on Tuesday on the singer’s website. Those tickets sold out in less than 20 minutes while a second advance-sale on the Three website on Wednesday morning also proved hugely popular, selling out in less than 12 minutes.
Earlier this week, the Minister for Communications Denis Naughten said he planned to recommend to Cabinet that it supports a Private Members’ Bill outlawing ticket touting.
A Private Members’ Bill, drafted by Fine Gael TD Noel Rock and Independent TD Stephen Donnelly, would ban the resale of tickets for above face value, with the exception of tickets which are auctioned for charity.
On Thursday morning many disappointed fans expressed their frustration on Twitter. "So disappointed. . . Please add another date for Dublin," wrote one. "What a joke and a waste of time trying to buy Ed Sheeran tickets. Touts seems to have them all," said another.
