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Coldplay ticket chaos

Cape Town – In scenes that mirrored those seen when U2 tickets went on sale in October last year, Coldplay fans were left cursing ticket retailer Computicket as their systems failed to accommodate the huge demand for tickets of the UK band's tour of South Africa.

Promoter Big Concerts announced on Monday that tickets would go on sale at retailers and on Computicket's website at 09:00 on Thursday. But as 09:00 came and went, many fans found that they were either unable to access the website or were stuck in long queues at Shoprite and Checkers stores around the country due to system crashes.

Service fail


"Computicket is totally frozen - says you can't buy tickets for Coldplay yet. As a ticket vendor it is completely useless! #ColdplaySA," wrote @Beatalet on Twitter.

At 09:20 @deirds1 tweeted: "ok so #computicket isn't handling the load and ticket sales have only been up for 2 minutes....."

@6000 shared this news for Cape Town fans at 09:36 via Twitter: "Waterfront computicket telling ppl to go away & come back at lunchtime."

@charlysbakery could not hide their frustration with the process and tweeted: "Wow #Computicket crashing as you open for tickets for #Coldplay must be a new record even for you #sevicefail"

Big Concerts later released a statement on Facebook asking fans to "Please be patient and keep trying guys... the load is EXTREMELY high... we have over 50 000 people trying to get offers on our website alone!"

Golden Circle sold out

But it was little comfort to fans who continued to wrestle with Computicket's online system, with most reporting that they were either unable to log onto the website or had secured their tickets before the payment system crashed and their booking was lost.

An hour after tickets went on sale, reports came through that all Golden Circle tickets (at R665 each) for the Cape Town and Johannesburg concerts had sold out. As the hours passed, it appeared that the waiting had paid off with some reporting that they had had better luck in the supermarket queues than those who opted to buy via the website. 

Ticket prices range from R265 and R565 for seated areas, R415-R440 for general admission and R665 for the coveted Golden Circle area. Coldplay are set to play the Cape Town Stadium on October 5 and the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on October 8.

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