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Resellers have plenty of ACL tickets
Big-name acts such as Arcade Fire, Coldplay, Kanye West and Stevie Wonder have fans clamoring for passes to the Austin City Limits Music Festival.
Zilker Park can hold around 75,000 people each day, but that’s still not enough room to accommodate everyone who wants to attend. This year’s lineup was announced Tuesday, and within minutes fans were hitting the Web and contacting resellers to buy and sell tickets to the fest, which runs Sept. 16-18.
Passes for Sunday — when performers include Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes and Broken Social Scene — were all that remained early Wednesday at aclfestival.com, the festival’s official website.
“They always go pretty quick,” said Amy Carpenter with Austin-based Ticket City. “We’re seeing big demand for three-day passes and Friday passes in particular.”
Supply varies day by day, Carpenter says, with tickets selling almost as soon as they arrive.
On Craigslist, more than 200 people were offering to buy and sell passes at prices two times face value — or more. Three-day tickets that initially sold for $165 and $185 were priced as high $400, while one-day passes for Friday and Saturday that sold hours earlier for $90 were being offered to buyers for up to $200.
Demand should remain steady right up to the start of the festival, according to Carpenter.
“There are a few types of buyers,” she said. “There are people who know they’re going to go every single year and want tickets right away, and there are those who want to wait until a little closer to the fest to consider the lineup and see what the weather’s like.”
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Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: ACL 2011
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By jimmi
May 18, 2011 12:35 PM | Link to this
Hottest lineup ever? That’s a matter of perspective. Those Craigslist prices will steadily decline come September
By Patientia rara virtus
May 18, 2011 12:43 PM | Link to this
I have been to the festival without tickets for the last several years. I have ALWAYS found wristbands and individual day tickets for sale from scalpers for less than face value in almost every instance. One Friday two years ago I paid full face value for a daily ticket. My point is, chill. We have a vibrant scalper’s market in Austin. Richie Riches buy bunches of tickets, and are scared off by the bohemian crowd and they decide to leave and sell their tickets to scalpers for about 1/3 of their face value.
Be patient; you will get in for less if you forget about tickets until the music starts.
By K
May 18, 2011 12:54 PM | Link to this
How are prices on Craigslist so high? 3 day passes are going for $280-300 on eBay/Stubhub.
By Cool
May 18, 2011 12:59 PM | Link to this
Glad we got 4 of the 50$ souvenir tickets.
By Mick
May 18, 2011 2:28 PM | Link to this
Word of advice from someone who has worked with Austin City Limits Fest/Front Gate tickets in the past: Buy a legitimate ticket from Front Gate Tickets! Do NOT buy an ACL ticket from a third party that you do not know! I can’t tell you how many people I witness just break down and cry because the ticket they purchased from someone on Craigslist was counterfeit!!! The scammers use the “sold out desperation” that makes some people lose their common sense! Tickets can be counterfeited! Most common are the “Print Pass” tickets! The way this works is someone buys a legitimate Print Pass ticket and makes hundreds of photocopies! First person (usually the purchaser) who gets to the Festival and gets the bar code scanned gets in!…after that, any ticket scanned with the same bar code is out of luck! Or they purchase a legit Print Pass and change the bar code and make counterfeit copies to sell so as to not backtrack the real one to them! Second typical counterfeit ticket is a real looking ticket (with hologram!) that has popped up in recent years! These are well done counterfeit tickets (not as many as the Print Pass…but still out there!) Usually a well funded gang that hits Sporting Events, Concerts, and other high traffic events! (one such group was caught last year by Houston police who stumbled on the ACL counterfeits even though they were after a Sporting counterfeit group!) So what I’m getting at is…DO NOT BUY A TICKET FROM CRAIGSLIST OR A RANDOM DUDE ON THE STREET CORNER!!!! If you feel you need to do this then the person selling this should have no problem meeting you at the ACL Box Office on the festival grounds and having it scanned right in front of you before you do business! Just remember…if it’s too good to be true…it ain’t! Buyer Beware and all that! Like the person above said…there usually are a lot of legitimate tickets for sell out there! Just use your common sense! Buy from a friend or someone you can get in touch with (make sure there is some sort of working phone, address, email, that you can use to get in touch with the person in case something funny occurs or to turn over to Police in case it’s counterfeit!) Yes, Austin Police are usually on hand at the festival to hand out complaint forms at the Festival Box Office for counterfeiting! (Yes, it has been that bad in the past few years!) Again, I know you really want to see Arcade Fire…just don’t lose your common sense to the good looks of Win Butler! Enjoy the Festival! It’s looking like it’s gonna be a good one! Good luck! ;)
By Bubba_fett
May 18, 2011 3:41 PM | Link to this
Wheee! Another chance to stand around with a bunch of dusty trust fund babies watching bands play for 45 minutes a set and pay $12 for a chicken wrap! Austin is sooooo weird!
By AnimuX
May 18, 2011 3:55 PM | Link to this
Word of advice from someone who has attended the Austin City Limits festival.
The event is over-hyped and it’s not like you get “better seats” by paying more and more year after year.
It’s too crowded and way too expensive.
Do yourself a favor. Don’t bother with ACL. Find a small venue and enjoy a performance where you don’t have to be wedged into a sweaty crowd that blocks your view of every stage.
By Patientia rara virtus
May 18, 2011 4:08 PM | Link to this
Here’s what you do: use your common sense to figure out which of the scalpers are legitimate, and which are fraternity guys trying to scam someone for a joke. The primary scalpers that are legitimate park themselves just inside the eastern-most gate of the park, coming off Barton Springs Road, and they are quite open about what they are doing, and they are not moving around a lot. If you got a bad ticket from one of those guys, just tell him. But the good scalpers won’t sell bad tickets because you know where to find them. I’ve bought wristbands at three ACL Fests, all on Friday afternoon, all from same scalper who is always there, always selling for less than face value, and has never conned me. I don’t know his name but he’s a big Latino from San Antonio, always wearing an oversized white T with big bright neon airbrush printing, “I BUY & SELL TICKETS” written in a graffiti style. You can’t miss him, he’s always there, and he will take care of you.
By Got in free last year on Sunday
May 18, 2011 4:29 PM | Link to this
I plan on a repeat performance again this year. Hint: It helps to look like some ACL fest goer’s father or grandfather. I could pass for either.
By FairWeatherRocker
May 18, 2011 4:49 PM | Link to this
Good luck. It’s gonna be real hot this year out there.
By ACL ticket scam
May 18, 2011 4:59 PM | Link to this
Resellers have plenty of ACL tickets because the general public can’t get their hands on them when they go on sale. They sell out because resellers buy them up immediately and then turn around and them at jacked up prices. It’s nothing but organized and sanctioned ticket scalping and it’s been going on for years now. Nobody at ACL or FrontGate cares because they get money whether they’re sold in an honest way or not.
By OldBlowhard
May 18, 2011 5:14 PM | Link to this
I say let’s bill these ticket scalpers and the traveling shows for the local public schools, the city, the county, and the hospital district’s budgets. I’m tired of serving this lifetime sentence of exorbitant property taxes to pay for hordes of free-riders to come through here multiple times every year and turn the town into a pigpen. Hell, if the cops did their job during these high-rolling events, we’d be grabbing enough luxury vehicles and cash for dope-crimes forfeiture to give local homeowners a tax holiday.
By Booo
May 18, 2011 6:26 PM | Link to this
It’s obvious why they wait to release the lineup until the tickets sell out.