On the heels of the announcement that The Tragically Hip lead singer Gord Downie has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the Canadian band is putting on its final tour, and to say tickets are hard to come by is an understatement.
Earlier this week, both American Express cardholders and members of the Tragically Hip fan club had the opportunity to purchase presale tickets through Ticketmaster, but those sold out within minutes.
READ MORE: Honouring the Tragically Hip’s best music
Immediately after the presale tickets were gone, tickets appeared on the reselling site Stubhub, selling for $1,500 a pair.
On Friday, general ticket sales began on Ticketmaster, and it was the same old song: thousands of tickets gone in mere minutes. Fans were not pleased, especially when some managed to get through the queue to discover the only seats available were platinums or floors running for over $1,000 a pop.
On Stubhub, hundreds of tickets were immediately available for every tour stop, starting at $199.00 for balcony seating.
There’s even a Change.org petition to get Canada’s Attorney General to look into Ticketmaster’s selling practices.
The petition states:
On June 3rd, 2016, fans of The Tragically Hip were ready, at 10:00am, hoping to get tickets for a meaningful last tour by the band.
Immediately afterward, social networks were ablaze with frustration and disbelief. Massive amounts of fans were not able to get any tickets. This would be understandable if there were also posts about getting tickets, as the lucky few would have shared, but there weren’t any.
Immediately after 10am struck, resale websites had tickets ready for sale at ridiculous prices. Stubhub was a big example of this. There’s something seriously wrong with this. Ticketmaster has a monopoly, and they’re abusing it to gouge fans.
The website should be held accountable for this, and their sales practices should be thoroughly investigated.
READ MORE: The Tragically Hip summer 2016 tour: Band announces Man Machine Poem dates
The Man Machine Poem Tour starts on July 22 in Victoria, B.C., and runs through to Aug. 20, where the band will play its final show in their hometown of Kingston.
Here are the tour dates:
July 22 – Victoria, BC
July 24 – Vancouver, BC
July 28 – Edmonton, AB
July 26 – Vancouver, BC
July 30 – Edmonton, AB
August 1 – Calgary, AB
August 3 – Calgary, AB
August 5 – Winnipeg, MB
August 8 – London, ON
August 10 – Toronto, ON
August 12 – Toronto, ON
August 14 – Toronto, ON
August 16 – Hamilton, ON
August 18 – Ottawa, ON
August 20 – Kingston, ON
Original face value ranged from $56 to $166 each, with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Sunnybrook Foundation.