News October 13, 2017

CMC Rocks QLD tickets offered on resale site for $3,000

UPDATE: CMC Rocks’ promoter Rob Potts Entertainment Edge has issued the below statement to TIO.

CMC Rocks QLD 2018 is completely sold out, but there may be tickets that become available closer to the event.

Please note, we cannot guarantee entry to the festival unless tickets are purchased from Moshtix, which is the only authorised ticket seller for this event.

Fans should be aware that any tickets purchased from an unauthorised ticket seller may be voided and the ticket holder may be denied entry to the festival. All CMC Rocks QLD tickets carry the name of the ticket holder which must match against photo ID upon entry. We do not support anyone selling tickets at inflated prices.

Due to overwhelming demand, we will be launching an official ticket resale facility with Moshtix should current ticket holders decide they can no longer attend. Sign up to the waitlist here to receive more information as it becomes available.

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Tickets for CMC Rocks QLD festival were immediately sold with a 500% markup after they were released on Monday (October 9).

The country music festival staple announced big-name acts like Kelsea Ballerini, Luke Bryan and Darius Rucker would headline the 10th Anniversary event next March. The four-day event sold out in record time, reaching its 18,000 capacity within an hour of going on sale at 9am.

Preying on Australia’s feverish love for the genre, one ticket holder swiftly put his two tickets up on Gumtree for $1,500 each – a 500% increase on the $299 three-day passes.

Sadly, the two tickets have been purchased:

gumtree cmc rocks tickets

But it should come as no surprise as Gumtree currently has over 45 listings of fans seeking CMC Rocks tickets, including one listing from a person willing to pay $22,000 for two three-day passes, and two other from fans happy to fork out $5,000.

TIO has reached out to CMC Rocks’ promoter Rob Potts Entertainment Edge for a comment. Media can expect an official response later today.

Ticket scalping is one of the biggest issues facing Australia’s music scene

Music fans are continually preyed upon by operators who often use ticket bots to purchase tickets in bulk, or by people looking to make a quick buck.

Thankfully, ticket scalping will become illegal if a new proposal by the NSW state government becomes law, with Minister for Better Regulation Matt Kean announcing a potential reform to the Fair Trading Act that will prevent people from reselling tickets at exorbitant markups.

As reported in TIO on Monday, the law would prevent tickets from being sold above cost price, and mean that additional transaction fees would be capped at 10% of the total price.

Other amendments would outlaw ticket bots that purchase tickets in bulk, and promoters will need to make public how many tickets are on sale for any gig.

On Tuesday, Danny Hannaford, Managing Director at fan-to-fan resale platform Twickets Australia, delved into why Tickets should be viewed as a licence, not a commodity. Read his opinion piece here.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.