(Denver, CO) – Yesterday, I asked the question, “Will GABF tickets sell out on Thursday?” That turned out to be pretty foolish.
The Brewers Association reported at 10:44am MST that an estimated 40,000+ tickets for this year’s Great American Beer Festival, available today for the first time to the general public at 10am MST, had officially sold out. To put it into perspective, last year’s tickets took a week to sell out and tickets for 2007′s event sold out the week of the event.
Thursday had its fair share of issues with some saying that they couldn’t order tickets despite being logged into Ticketmaster right as the sale began. There are some people furious with the ticketing giant once again, compounding dissent that already existed after Tuesday’s issues.
See how it all unfolded:
August 2, 2012 12:03 pm
In the moments after the sale went live, a number of new tickets hit eBay with some listings at $700 for two pair.
The event, the largest of its kind in America, will take place on October 11-13, 2012, in Denver. The three-day festival features 500 breweries and more than 2,000 beers.
I’m sure 1000′s of tickets went to ticket brokers!
The person that is selling their members only tickets for $450 for the Saturday session is a piece of shit and its a shame they are part of the AHA.
JB: Certainly… actually “Boulder Tickets” already has some listings up.
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Also “Ticket King MN” has some… some that have already ended at that (purchased already?)
That “member’s only” ticket would be a dicey purchase. Could have been a non-member purchase (that was done through the mobile site) and gets revoked.
49,000 Great American Beer Festival tickets sell out in record time?
Brewers and journalists do not have tickets. The beer judges and the 3,000+ volunteers do not buy tickets.
@dave A majority of secondary ticketing websites i.e. (Tickets Now, Ticket Liquidator, Ace Tickets, Ticket Kin MN and Boulder Tickets among 100′s more) all pretty much show and have access to the same inventory through a couple of national wholesale exchanges – the only real difference between the companies are their markups and customer service.
Excellent point, Dave. I’ll change it to 40,000+.
@JB: Interesting… didn’t realize there were national wholesale exchanges for these ticket brokers.
One would think that even if you were an AHA member, that ticket sales would be limited to a certain number per person. If that was the case, I don’t think we would be seeing these ticket brokers in the game. (maybe I’m wrong?). Ticketmaster may have had some back door agreement with other brokers. Personally, I think the GABF high-ups need to rethink their procedures and make the beer festival about beer and not ticket sales to the highest bidder. As always, GREED wins again
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Great-American-Beer-Festival-GABF-Saturday-Members-Only-Session-/221089876598?pt=US_Tickets_all_in_one&hash=item3379fbca76
Please tell me this is fake!!!!!!!!!!
Holy crap. Nice find. Posting…
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