Rhythm and Vines partners with Tixel for ticket resales: exclusive

Rhythm and Vines, the popular and long-running New Zealand festival brand, is tackling ticket scammers and scalpers through a new partnership with resale specialist Tixel, TIO can exclusively reveal.

The arrangement should help protect festival fans from buying dodgy stubs and it’s a boon for Tixel, a Melbourne-based startup which presented to the industry at Bigsound 2017 and now boasts support from key ticket vendors on both sides of the Tasman.

Headed up by its CEO Zac Leigh, CFO Jason Webb, and CTO Denis Mysenko, Tixel is in the business of facilitating legitimate ticket sales for concerts, festivals and live events.

Through its platform, all tickets are scanned to exclude fakes and the ticket prices are capped to stop scalping. Once purchased, the buyer receives a new ticket with their name on it.

Following its big reveal at Bigsound, Tixel reportedly secured integrations with various platforms, including the conference and showcase event’s presenting partner, Oztix.

Tixel — a “happy place for tickets”

Now, Tixel integrates with Rhythm and Vines’ ticketing system (Eventbrite), in a “great example of how collaboration and great tech can solve an age-old problem,” the tech firm’s CEO Zac Leigh says in a statement.

“I believe the solution we have now is the best in the market,” notes R&H Festival Producer and Marketing Director Kyle Bell. “Not only does Tixel protect our fans, they also make resale easy for our team to manage. The only thing left to do now is educate and create awareness around not purchasing tickets from strangers (or even friends in some cases).”

Earlier this year, Live Nation bought a controlling interest in Rhythm and Vines, which was founded in 2003 by University of Otago friends Hamish Pinkham, Tom Gibson, and Andrew Witters and has grown into an annual three-day party. This year’s fest kicks off Dec. 28 at Waiohika Estate in the coastal town Gisborne.

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