The Sundance Festival is the festival in North America to get your film into or to patron, but buying a ticket online could cost you a lot of money and a useless ticket thanks to the tough stance the festival is now taking on ticket scalping. The kind folks over at yahoo.com give us this:
Sundance officials say they are scanning the online auction site and cracking down on ticket sales. Reselling tickets online is prohibited. Two tickets to the first screening of “Waitress,” staring Keri Russell, sold for $385 on Saturday afternoon. About half an hour later, a second pair of “Waitress” tickets went for $255. Sundance officials warn that tickets resold online can be remotely deactivated before the film’s showing.
“We’ve contacted those sellers and informed them of our policy and what actions we are taking,” said Patrick Hubley, festival spokesman.
The tickets that have been for sale recently are actually locals tickets that are not offered to the public thus the draw. Funny that the courtesy that Sundance extends to the locals is getting used with all of the a money grubbing ways that most people associate with festivals. Sundance is trying to keep relations good with the townsfolk and they just want to make a buck. Makes me laugh. Keeping the locals happy isn’t easy as it used to be.
Bottom line is that when people start making money off festival tickets and the festival isn’t getting any money, it has to stop. Luckily there is a bit of a paper trail that festivals can follow on the internet and the scalper can get caught and slapped with a fine amd an unusable ticket.
I remember a time when the scalper just got slapped period, bet they don’t miss those good old days.
