Splendour gets slammed over “joke” resale fees, responds to criticism
Splendour In The Grass have defended their decision to increase ticket resale prices after being slammed by angry festival-goers.
The admin fee for sellers has risen from $20 in 2017 to $30 (which is 10% of the ticket price) on top of the loss of their original booking fee.
This makes the process five times more expensive than Groovin The Moo’s, who charge a low $6 for resale through Moshtix. Groovin also has no resale admin fee for purchasers.
In contrast, Falls Festival has no resale facility. Tickets to the sold-out Lorne and Byron shows were advertised on Viagogo for more than 10 times the original price.
Splendour director Jess Ducrou defended the resale facility as an anti-scalping measure, telling triple j’s Hack yesterday afternoon that the resale facility is “minimal” and covers administration costs.
“There are hard costs associated with being able to offer the resale facility,” said Ducrou.
“I know there’s suggestions that we’re making a bunch of money out of this, and yes we’re a business and we do need to make money from the event, but we’re definitely not retiring off this resale.”
But punters were not placated.
Callers complained of the unfair jack-up of fees for buyers and sellers who chose to use the official resale facility.
Brad from the Central Coast called the process a “joke”.
“I think something definitely needs to be changed about the process because they’re basically scamming everyone that wants to go to Splendour,” Brad told Hack.
Ducrou warns that without their official resale facility, punters risk costly alternatives.
“There’s incredible demand for tickets. If we didn’t have the resale facility in place, we would find them on the market for thousands and thousands of dollars,” she explained.
Jacked-up prices on Splendour ticket have already flooded Viagogo and Gumtree.
For more info, visit the resale site here.