Ticketmaster’s TicketWeb among portals selling access to cancelled concerts
Published April 22, 2020 at 9:09 pm
TORONTO — Live concerts are cancelled in most parts of the country for the foreseeable future, yet Ticketmaster and other Canadian ticket portals have continued to sell access to upcoming events that aren’t happening.
Several dozen concerts, including a DJ set with Andrew Rayel originally slated for Friday at Toronto’s Toybox Nightclub, are still available to purchase on Ticketweb, a portal owned by Ticketmaster.
And concerts once booked throughout May at the PNE Forum in Vancouver were listed by non-profit retailer Ticketleader until the organizer was contacted by The Canadian Press on Wednesday.
Those PNE shows, which included a Kaytranada concert previously scheduled for May 9, have now been marked “postponed” until an undetermined date by Ticketleader.
The lack of action by ticketsellers illustrates a divide between provincial bans of large public gatherings and how the concert industry is handing the fallout of COVID-19.
Ticketmaster has already faced backlash for its decision to decline refunds on tickets for events cancelled or postponed by the COVID-19 crisis. The company said this week it plans to launch a refund program “on a rolling basis, for all events impacted by COVID-19,” which begins on May 1.
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A representative for Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the shows are still listed on Ticketweb, or its reseller platform Stubhub, with no information about postponement.
Shelley Frost, president of Ticketleader, which is owned by Pacific National Exhibition, said the company is working with concert promoters to secure rescheduled shows. She said that’s why Ticketleader continued to make the events available to purchase, even though there was no certainty when — or if — they would go forward.
The British Columbia government has prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people in one place until at least May 30.
“Promoters have requested that people are still allowed to buy tickets for the show, regardless of what the date is,” Frost said shortly before Ticketleader updated its website to note the May 9 postponement.
“What we’ve said in the meantime… is that we’re going to take the ability to continue purchasing tickets down, at least through May 30.”
Frost said Ticketleader would honour refunds if ticketholders made the request.
“There is absolutely no intent to try and hold money unnecessarily,” she added.
“It’s just that events are moving very quickly. And we are an interim between the promoters, the talent and the ticket holder.”
David Friend, The Canadian Press
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