Riot Fest 2018 - September 14-16 - Douglas Park, Chicago Tour • Page 95

That e-mail definitely makes it sound like the TicketFly situation has been taking up a large chunk of their time. But I'm also wondering if ticket sales may have been slow, anyway, and offering up the cheaper tickets is a way to help push ticket sales a bit while not eating their proverbial hat.

Either way -- great to know that the issues seem to be outside sources, and not a lack of a third headliner being secured or whatever!

Looking forward to the next month and a half or so to see how this all plays out!

 

Yea that's true. Plus offering tickets for cheap next year basically guarantees a base audience next year. I just don't think we should be alarmed as fans I guess is more what I mean.

 

Excited for Thursday but I really hope we get the rest of the lineup/daily lineups next week. We're nearing a month out soon and usually by that time we have everything

 

I don't think the festival is in any sort of trouble (otherwise they wouldn't be doing this), but I think this year may just be a little "off" compared to the last few. And this can only help in terms of filling the park out.

 

Wait what’s on Thursday?

 

They reached the settlement last week, they rolled out this info today with the album plays coming on Thursday... It feels like they're moving full steam ahead.

I wouldn't be surprised if the album play announcement also has them announcing the date for the final wave of artists coming the following week.

 

Full album play announce

 

I thought Thursday was playing :(

 

If there was a War All the Time set, I would die.

 

Do I cop a three day pass with a possible move out of Chicago impending? Hmmmm.

 

You probably wouldn't have much trouble reselling it for at least close to what you paid if it comes to that, considering how cheap it is right now.

 

I jumped on a three day pass when I saw the cheaper price. Guess I'll be visiting Chicago in September.

 

I just got a new job last week and UGH I’M SO TEMPTED TO GET A WEEKEND PASS. I DON’T KNOW HOW I’D EVEN MAKE IT OUT TO CHICAGO BUT UGH I WANNA GO

 

true, but money is tight-ish at the moment and a splurge like this probably wouldn't be able to happen until the 1st of the month when i get paid. sigh. i hate getting paid monthly.

 

I used to have the same pay schedule and it should be illegal.

 

to be fair, my boss who gets paid significantly more than i do (as a CFO probably will always be compared to a lowly research analyst) also follows the same pay schedule. it's great for budgeting, but it makes splurging later in the month difficult as all hell unless you plan for it.

but yeah, gimme a bi-weekly pay schedule over this any day.

 

I want to go but I know I can’t get off work all three days

 

Call me a cynic, but I don't believe they would be doing this unless there was serious concern over this years festival.

They have cut almost 40% from ticket prices, and will be giving away (what I assume to be) several thousand day tickets free of charge. If sales were as strong as usual would they really have the capacity to do this?
I honestly see this as an attempt to salvage this years event and get a respectable number through the gate. Let's not forget that this additional footfall will also generate additional revenue via bar / merchandise sales etc...

And those $99 tickets for next years festival - I notice that sales end November 1st 2018. This should boost the bank balance and generate a nice amount of interest by the time they need to pay out should next years event go ahead.

Don't get me wrong I love Riot Fest and really hope that it works out for them this year, but I think today's announcement is nothing but a smokescreen. If the festival has issues with their preferred sales outlet would they not switch to another? Instead Ticketfly/Eventbrite will now be taking a nice cut from the booking fees on these additional sales!!

 

You're not being cynical. You're seeing through the bullshit like I did the instant I read the email. Ticketfly going down didn't impact Riot Fest as much as the venues for Lollapalooza's after shows. They hurt more as a result of this than Riot Fest ever did. The lineup is fine, not great as in previous years, and I know a number of people who have been dropping out of going to Riot Fest over the years because of any number of reasons (location is a pain to get to, lineup isn't their thing, price keeps going up, festival burnout...). We've already seen them have to downsize the other cities (yes, they used promoters in those cities to put them on but still, they fronted some cash for that). They have to be struggling.

As great as the free one-day ticket and the discounted tickets for 2019 are for people who already have passes, they're choosing to discount sales after already telling you that early bird were the cheapest they would ever be, burning any trust that people have had in them. And they're not giving refunding the difference. That right there tells you that they're short on funds. They can print as many one-day tickets as they want up to capacity and not pay any processing fees to a ticket outlet on them because they're comping them. I would be reluctant to ever give money to Riot Fest again if I was a 2018 early bird ticket holder...

I want Riot Fest to succeed. I really do. But I'm like you and seeing this for what it's worth and it's not a great sign.

 

I went to the Chicago date for WATT and it was totally worth it.

 

These contracts have SLAs and other language that explains what Riot Fest can and can't do when something like that happens to Ticketfly. It hasn't been nearly as time consuming as you'd think.

 

Locking in a $100 price for 2019 would be cool but there’s no way I can commit a year in advance.

 

This seems a little overdramatic. I'm not doubting a part of this decision is poor ticket sales. But how did they burn their trust? How much more were early bird tickets? I can't imagine much more than $120? And whether the decision is driven truly from poor sales, from the ticket settlement, or (most likely) a combo of both - it was an unforeseen circumstance. Whether their solution works for you personally or not, you can't argue they at least acknowledged that it would be unfair to the people who previously purchased tickets to just put them on sale and not compensate those people, and they made a real attempt to make it right. That buys them more goodwill, in my opinion.

 

Eh, just because a contract outlines procedures for a breach does not at all mean there's no disputes once a breach occurs. That there's a settlement in place is a huge tell that there's been lawyers involved here.

Also to add to the broader point - even with a contract in place between Ticketfly/Riot, Riot is still sitting in the open with potential vicarious liability as a result of the breach. Trying to settle with fans beforehand to quell potential lawsuits is also likely a huge part of this move.

 

Pulled the trigger on my 2019 ticket.