Isle of Wight Festival tickets were for the last two days being offered, by an official source, for £100 off their face value, with less than a week to go until the event starts.
The Huffington Post offered a deal (now closed) with Viagogo, selling full weekend camping tickets for only £85 – £100 off their £185 face value (confusingly Viagogo said it was a £90 discount).
Normally when prices are highest
In past years this is the week when prices on the second market are the highest, as those who haven’t bought tickets fight to get them to join their friends at the Festival.
With these official-source prices dropped so substantially, it’s leading to speculation that ticket sales for this year’s event aren’t going as well as previous years.
Those who have made money in past years by buying tickets early and selling them look to be disappointed this year, as will the ticket touts who hang around the junction of Hillside and Fairlee Road every year.
IW Festival site still saying £185
The price remains listed at £185 on the IW Festival Website, or £197.50 after you pay the booking fee of their official partner, Ticketmaster.
Viagogo exposed by Ch4 Dispatches
In February 2012 Channel 4’s Dispatches TV programme, ‘The Great Ticket Scandal‘, exposed questionable practices where it was alleged that event promoters actually sold their own official ticket through ticket exchanges like Viagogo.
IW Festival avoided direct question
Following the programmes transmission, we contacted IW Festival (V Festival had been mentioned in the programme, but IW Fest hadn’t, so we were curious).
We asked a spokesperson for Isle of Wight Festival, “Do Isle of Wight festival have any business dealings or provide any allocation to Viagogo, Seatwave?”. They chose – twice – to avoid directly answering our question, instead replying, “Festivalgoers who wish to attend the Isle of Wight Festival can buy tickets via the official site.”
Today we see that Viagogo are now listed on the IW Festival site as the ‘Official ticket market place’.
Your thoughts?
If you paid full price for your tickets, what are you thoughts on this week’s £100 price reduction?
