Ed Sheeran’s latest tour is being targeted by ticket touts, forcing North East fans to pay prices almost eight times higher than face value.
Tickets for his sold-out Newcastle gig at the Metro Radio Arena had a face value of £77, but secondary websites such as StubHub and Viagogo are reselling tickets for as much as £600, leaving fans angered and disappointed.
Emily Cooksey, from Sunderland, was left disheartened after the Newcastle date sold out, and she was unable to afford secondary website prices.
“It’s just unfair that these touts can get hold of tickets and genuine fans can’t, and not everyone can afford to pay hundreds for a ticket,” she said.
“£77 is expensive enough, but for people to be selling them for hundreds of pounds is just ridiculous.”
However other fans were forced to pay the inflated prices.
Lisa Sweeney, from Lanarkshire, Scotland, paid £529 for two tickets to see Ed perform, although she agrees that the issue of ticket touts is a serious one that needs to be addressed.
“It should be illegal. Many fans just won’t be able to afford it because of these greedy touts,” she said.
“I was lucky enough that I was in a position at that time to afford the inflated prices. I wasn’t happy about paying it but felt I had no choice.”
Lisa also feels that companies aren’t doing enough to prevent touts from reselling tickets.
“The company that I paid the inflated prices to was Getmein, which is a Ticketmaster company, so Ticketmaster could easily stop this by only allowing resale at the original price.”
Companies such as Twickets, a website allowing fans to buy and sell tickets at no more than face value, are teaming up with Ed Sheeran to protect his concerts and tickets from touts.