Holiday price for TBF sold out in less than one day???!!! What the He**??!!!

[HuckinFappy]

rning percentage of the  population of Town Park will decline until nobody remembers Rum Balls, the Fashion show, or Potluck?  Will the sanctity of "traditional camps" be lost?  in other words, has it come to this?
 

Or the Bloody Mary's.........

My understanding is that nobody can remember those later that day already!   

[HuckinFappy]

Maybe an "All Banjo" festival would work?   

Four days of Edgar Meyer.  Just Edgar Meyer.

I'd be in heaven.  Everybody else might get a little bored.

With Bela singing?

Don't forget a repeat of the 2008 Ryan Adams set!!!

But he has to skip the acoustic songs, and turn it up just a *little* louder

[BluegrassDustin]

I realize there isn't really anything I/we can say to make you all feel better.

We were floored yesterday by the sheer demand. We had almost 4x the number of UNIQUE visitors to the website. (not scalpers with duplicate IP's running some kind of "program" to get tickets).

People made money last year on tickets. Some people are going to try that again this year. Honestly, I don't see that many tickets out there in the hands of "scalpers". I see a couple of folks claiming they have tons and tons of tickets, but no proof of ownership.

I can promise you that I lose sleep over how to keep the tickets in the hands of Festivarian's and out of the scalpers hands. There is no way to do that entirely until people don't pay inflated prices and the scalpers stop buying.

Is the cat out of the bag? Who knows. Is this a social media feeding frenzy? Possibly.

One fact remains, Telluride will be awesome. There will only be 10k people, and we'll keep evolving to TRY and give you the best festival experience you've ever had....every year.

[swander99]

One fact remains, Telluride will be awesome. There will only be 10k people, and we'll keep evolving to TRY and give you the best festival experience you've ever had....every year. 

         

[Debbiefromtucson]

My understanding is that nobody can remember those later that day already!   


 I hope you mean that they are too much fun rather than they are forgettable...   

[Mark of Bloomington]

Thank you Dustin.  I appreciate your response and empathize with your quandary.

[FaceOnMars]

Here's an idea that just occurred to me for 2013 TBF Holiday Priced Ticket sales.  I do not know how pragmatic this may be, but what if the Holiday Priced Tickets were sold by "Will Call" only?  That would force the Purchaser of Record to actually show up at the Festival and claim his ticket(s).  Just a thought.  Like I said this may be a logistcal nightmare, but I feel it would be a fair work around for the TRUE FESTAVARIANS.

I believe upward of 3/4 of all tickets for the Phish shows in Telluride were will call and required the ticket holder to be present and have the credit card used for purchase to pick up their tickets.  As far as I remember, there wasn't a logistical nightmare for the most part.  I'm not sure what they did as far as making allowances for transfers and such, but I do know there are ways.  I'd say go ahead and make the vast majority of tix will call only ... not just holiday tix.  Build in a fee of a couple buck to allow for TBF to deal with transfers and such.

Personally, I don't like will call unless it's necessary due to timing or is substantially less $ vs. delivery ... since it kind of ropes you in moreso.  Leftover Salmon is playing at the Sheridan Opera house in March ... which is will call only ... which wasn't my first preference at the time given that the rumor mill has SCI playing WC in Broomfield on that weekend, but if you look closely at the SOH website, they have a procedure for transferring a will call ticket.  It's somewhat involved, so it's a bit of a PITA, but it probably deters scalpers & allows for a pathway for people to change their plans.  To make the long story short:   I'm totally willing to live with the will call hassle if it extracts scalpers from the equation!

[BluegrassOZ]

Well put response Dustin.

Phoebe and I came to Telluride for the first time last year, despite wanting to for at least a decade.  We made the trip all the way from Australia.  We had friends that wanted to come but couldn't get tickets.  We had such a great time and met so many wonderful people that we are planning to come back in 2012.  This time we bought our own tickets ASAP along with a few extras for our friends.  So I can totally see how ticket demand could increase this rapidly and sell this fast.  With only 10,000 tickets.... I am surprised there are tickets still left.  Even at the full price of  $195+$60 for camping, this is the best value ticket I know of for 4 days of incredible music and camping. (to compare.... the Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival in Australia is $495 for a 5 day ticket and another $280 for 5 days of camping)

The key point here is that most of these tickets are not going to scalpers, they are going to genuine patrons.   And there are still tickets left.  Anyone who really wants to go to Telluride or has been planning to go to Telluride can still get tickets right now.  And if it's too early for people to commit... well.... planet bluegrass is the only organisation I can think of that offers refunds.  So getting tickets now is risk free. (Town Park tickets are  a different issue)

Dustin, I think you are doing a brilliant job with TBF. You should sleep well at night.

Cheers Jason

[Sunnyand70]

Thanks for the response Dustin.

I was a little surprised at the servers to be honest because I had a feeling all along the demand would be really high after last year's TBF.  I never really thought I'd end up feeling lucky to get high school camping after an hour of trying to get my credit card accepted.

As for the scalpers that do exist, I'd totally support will call only for all tickets. I actually, accidentally, chose "mail" for my camping tickets and was basically afraid to make a change to my cart at that point! It seems will call would be the way we could all sleep better somehow.

[Mark of Bloomington]

Will Call

This will be my wife's and my tenth consectutive TBF.  We drive from southern Indiana and have never used Will Call until this coming year.  Last year as we were driving west on I-70 just out side of St. Louis, MO, it dawned on me that I had forgot to bring our tickets.  Driving back to Bloomington and back would have added six plus hours to our day.  Luckily our neighbors have a key to our house and I was able to tell them exactly where the tickets were.   We get to Telluride a couple of days early and we had our tickets on Tuesday.  After that near fiasco last year, I think I will use Will Call from now on.  I'm getting older and can not remember minor details like tickets anymore.  Do any of you know what kind of ID Planet Bluegrass requires to claim your tickets from Will Call?

[ShatteredArm]

Will Call

This will be my wife's and my tenth consectutive TBF.  We drive from southern Indiana and have never used Will Call until this coming year.  Last year as we were driving west on I-70 just out side of St. Louis, MO, it dawned on me that I had forgot to bring our tickets.  Driving back to Bloomington and back would have added six plus hours to our day.  Luckily our neighbors have a key to our house and I was able to tell them exactly where the tickets were.   We get to Telluride a couple of days early and we had our tickets on Tuesday.  After that near fiasco last year, I think I will use Will Call from now on.  I'm getting older and can not remember minor details like tickets anymore.  Do any of you know what kind of ID Planet Bluegrass requires to claim your tickets from Will Call?

I think you just need a valid photo ID and the CC used to purchase them.  I did will call this year (after driving 30 minutes and realizing I had forgotten my ticket the previous year), and I don't recall it being much of a hassle.

[landshark]

Will Call

This will be my wife's and my tenth consectutive TBF.  We drive from southern Indiana and have never used Will Call until this coming year.  Last year as we were driving west on I-70 just out side of St. Louis, MO, it dawned on me that I had forgot to bring our tickets.  Driving back to Bloomington and back would have added six plus hours to our day.  Luckily our neighbors have a key to our house and I was able to tell them exactly where the tickets were.   We get to Telluride a couple of days early and we had our tickets on Tuesday.  After that near fiasco last year, I think I will use Will Call from now on.  I'm getting older and can not remember minor details like tickets anymore.  Do any of you know what kind of ID Planet Bluegrass requires to claim your tickets from Will Call?

A drivers ID. Easy way to stay on track-will call. I use it every fest. One year I held all the tickets for 5 months, passed them out before fest and ON THE WAY walkin to fest one of our party dropped their ticket in the dark street. We all searched for an hour on hands and knees. I did finally find it. But will call is the way to go.

[Skubes]

Dustin, I think you are doing a brilliant job with TBF. You should sleep well at night.

I'm with BluegrassOZ on this one.  Who has ever heard of a company offering ticket refunds for anything?  No "convenience" charges, a genuine interest in the community they serve and the environment...PBG fosters something I haven't seen anywhere else.  Not trying to blow smoke up anyone's you-know-what, but it's true.   

[landshark]

Dustin, I think you are doing a brilliant job with TBF. You should sleep well at night.

I'm with BluegrassOZ on this one.  Who has ever heard of a company offering ticket refunds for anythning?  No "convenicnce" charges, a genuine interest in the community they serve and the environment...PBG fosters something I haven't seen anywhere else.  Not trying to blow smoke up anyone's you-know-what, but it's true.   

SHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh see right there, THATS the problem! This has been a very well known fact and secret for years. But if you keep tellin folks then we'll NEVER get tickets again!
Such a great happening and such good folks. Very organized and the best Fest ever, anywhere! I agree!

[HuckinFappy]

Such a great happening and such good folks. Very organized and the best Fest ever, anywhere! I agree!

Can't argue with the truth