News November 26, 2018

Gang Of Youths call on fans to help ‘eradicate’ Viagogo in Australia

Gang Of Youths have become the latest artist to call out the shameful practices of controversial ticket reseller Viagogo.

You don’t have to go very far to see just how angry music fans are with Viagogo. Earlier this year, The Rubens called out the service, noting how their “dodgy profiteering” was harming the live music industry.

“We REALLY hate Viagogo,” the band explained in a post on Facebook. “They exist to rip you off, take your hard earned cash, and let scalpers take advantage of all aspects of a show they have nothing to do with.”

“We’ve been getting some messages lately that have really got us pissed off. A whole bunch of people out there have paid $222 for a ticket that is $76. This is thanks to Viagogo and their dodgy profiteering. This is completely wrong, and we have no idea how this is still legal. Fuck Viagogo.”

While Viagogo again made headlines over the weekend after a German court forbade the resale of Rammstein tickets on the site, Gang Of Youths have now added their voice to the growing chorus of disdain.

Taking to Instagram earlier today, Gang Of Youths posted an image of a t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Fuck Viagogo”, and asked fans to share their negative experiences with the controversial site.

“As many of you have encountered, Viagogo has become one of the most disgraceful and disruptive scams our live industry has faced in recent years,” the band began. “Viagogo impacts promoters, managers, venues, ticket agencies and most importantly artists and their fans.”

“A number of different bodies over the past 12 months have been talking to both State and Federal Government regarding this issue. There is an opportunity to help eradicate this business from Australia.”

“We are calling for as many examples of how this fraudulent operation has affected your business, additionally, we are encouraging artists to also post on their socials so fans can reply with real-life examples of how they have been affected by Viagogo.”

“We intend to give this documentation to the Opposition Party to form part of their campaign pledge to have this site closed down. ”

Gang Of Youths closed out their post by asking fans to send examples of how Viagogo has effected them to [email protected] by Wednesday.

This is of course a rather timely effort by the group, with a new bill being introduced into WA Parliament this week which intends to make ticket scalping illegal in the western state.

“Our legislation goes further in that it will capture a broad number of events where organisers have put a restriction on the reselling of tickets — not just declared events,” explained Commerce and Industrial Relations Minister Bill Johnston.

“(The new laws) will apply to most outdoor concerts, most of the events at RAC Arena and the large events like AFL matches at Optus Stadium. This is to protect those large events that are often sold out.”

“Some people buy a ticket to an event and can’t go for legitimate reasons. So you don’t want them to be trapped, wasting their money,” he continued. “But you don’t want to encourage ticket scalpers who try and make a business out of buying and selling tickets.”