Single Day Tickets

[BluegrassBrian]

FOM and HF: Indeed, you're right on your analysis of our online store.  It's served us relatively well for the steady ticket sales we usually see, but it isn't designed to handle large spikes very gracefully.  Our initial thought was to move to a cloud computing model to give us additional resources for spikes like this, but the software itself just won't scale very well.

A newly designed online ticketing site is on top of our list for next fall.  We'll certainly be looking at options like a "waiting room" and other enhancements specific to high-demand tickets.  Kind of exciting, really.  But we've got some festivals to focus on before then...

 Listening to: Deep Dark Woods - "Place I Left Behind"

[BluegrassBrian]

Thanks for everyone's feedback on this.   We'll continue to watch this thread closely, so keep the comments coming...

To clarify on FOM's initial questions about single-days vs 4-day passes...

I'm sure you are getting plenty of requests for 4-day passes, but my suspicion is there will still be a demand for single day tickets ... especially from locals who were used to merchant passes and/or those who are stuck working at least half of the festival and who would like to attend at least a day or two.

Perhaps a similar 5% (or more) allotment of about 75 (to 150) single day tickets per day might help to fill this particular demand.  

...

You'll be able to request single-day tix for any/all days or a "4-day pass" - and the chances of your entry being selected in the lottery are the same.

Our only reason for adding the "bundled" 4-day pass is to give you the option of requesting "4-day pass or nothing." 

The difference between requesting "a pair of single-day tix for each day" vs "4-day pass" is:  if we've already sold-out of a day when your order is randomly selected (say, Saturday is sold-out), the 4-day pass order would get nothing, but the order that requested a pair of single-days for each day would get Thurs/Fri/Sun tickets (but no Saturday).

Hope that helps...

[Hot Sugar]

I think this is probably as close to a perfect solution as we can get at the moment. Yes, there are probably better options, but none that could be implemented in time for single day sales. Granted, I already have my TP pass, so my opinion may be different from those who are still waiting to get tickets.

[Skubes]

Does this mean the FULL line up will be announced by Feb 7th????!!! 

I think the lottery system is a great option, and probably the best one for a quick-fix such as needed now.  But like Hot Sugar, I already have my tix, so perhaps it doesn't mean much from me either.

[BluegrassBrian]

Does this mean the FULL line up will be announced by Feb 7th????!!! 

We'll announce as much of the single-day lineup as we can prior to the lottery.  At this point I don't know how much that will be, but we're pushing hard to have each day's last 3 artists (and a few others) ready to announce by then...

[swander99]

To clarify on FOM's initial questions about single-days vs 4-day passes...

I'm sure you are getting plenty of requests for 4-day passes, but my suspicion is there will still be a demand for single day tickets ...attend at least a day or two....

You'll be able to request single-day tix for any/all days or a "4-day pass" - and the chances of your entry being selected in the lottery are the same.
Our only reason for adding the "bundled" 4-day pass is to give you the option of requesting "4-day pass or nothing." 
Hope that helps...

Is the "bundle" four tix/wristbands, or a four day wristband?  And Hot Sugar is an "Old Timer"? Ouch man...

[BluegrassBrian]

Is the "bundle" four tix/wristbands, or a four day wristband? 

We're planning to make the "bundled" 4-day pass a single 4-day ticket and thus a single 4-day wristband.  That seems like the easiest way to go for everyone.

Thanks for the question.  That definitely needed clarifying...

[Jackalope]

Thanks for the response, I'll keep a look out for more info. 

Have to say, given the circumstances, you guys are responding really well to the situation at hand. :

[FaceOnMars]

Thanks for everyone's feedback on this.   We'll continue to watch this thread closely, so keep the comments coming...

To clarify on FOM's initial questions about single-days vs 4-day passes...

I'm sure you are getting plenty of requests for 4-day passes, but my suspicion is there will still be a demand for single day tickets ... especially from locals who were used to merchant passes and/or those who are stuck working at least half of the festival and who would like to attend at least a day or two.

Perhaps a similar 5% (or more) allotment of about 75 (to 150) single day tickets per day might help to fill this particular demand.  

...

You'll be able to request single-day tix for any/all days or a "4-day pass" - and the chances of your entry being selected in the lottery are the same.

Our only reason for adding the "bundled" 4-day pass is to give you the option of requesting "4-day pass or nothing." 

The difference between requesting "a pair of single-day tix for each day" vs "4-day pass" is:  if we've already sold-out of a day when your order is randomly selected (say, Saturday is sold-out), the 4-day pass order would get nothing, but the order that requested a pair of single-days for each day would get Thurs/Fri/Sun tickets (but no Saturday).

Hope that helps...

Brian, thanks again for the pre-news.   Sorry if I confused anyone earlier, was mostly just trying to relay my personal preference to not see access to individual single day tix (for those who will only be able to make one or two nights) be effectively reduced as a byproduct of bundling tickets on a single lottery entry.    It's just my opinion/leaning & I certainly don't want to dwell on it, especially since I think you've all put together a very reasonable general response to a known server issue & this seems like a very practical way to achieve a good balance.

[BluegrassBrian]

Thanks again for everyone's feedback on this.  We are going to move forward with this online lottery - open from Feb 7-9 (that's 2 weeks from today). 

Here's the official webpage about the lottery on bluegrass.com, which will contain the link to the lottery form while the lottery is open:
   http://www.bluegrass.com/telluride/lottery-singleday/   

We'll continue to monitor this thread. So feel free to share your questions and issues we may not have considered.

[BluegrassBrian]

Pardon my knuckleheadedness, but, unless I’m missing something we’re entering a lottery for random day ticket sales without knowing who’s scheduled to perform and these tickets are non-refundable. Is that correct?

Good question... We clarified this on the lottery web page, but not in this thread...

We're going to announce as much of the single-day lineup as we can prior to the lottery opening on Feb 7.  We're hopeful this will include most of the artists for each individual day, but it's likely we'll still have a few TBAs scattered throughout the lineup.

In the past we've always waited on single-day tickets until we had the complete single-day lineup - for exactly this reason.  But the overwhelming consensus from festivarians calling/emailing us over the past few weeks is that they'd prefer we put tix onsale ASAP rather than wait until we had the final couple artists announced.

We're certainly feeling the pressure to have most things confirmed and ready to announce by Feb 7...   

[Hot Sugar]

  And Hot Sugar is an "Old Timer"? Ouch man...

Damn, I didn't even notice that. I guess that's what happens when you get licked by a real old timer. I was afraid I'd catch something . . .

[Auntie Hope]

  And Hot Sugar is an "Old Timer"? Ouch man...

Damn, I didn't even notice that. I guess that's what happens when you get licked by a real old timer. I was afraid I'd catch something . . .

You did catch something. It's called Festi-Flu. That's a good thing! 

Auntie Hope 

[Hot Sugar]

  And Hot Sugar is an "Old Timer"? Ouch man...

Damn, I didn't even notice that. I guess that's what happens when you get licked by a real old timer. I was afraid I'd catch something . . .

You did catch something. It's called Festi-Flu. That's a good thing! 

Auntie Hope 

Oh, I was diagnosed with that when I was 16.

[swander99]

  Double OUCH, man!  Now I'm all festwitterpated. That really happened?
 The CFrog blur is strong, so numbing, oh so heavy  ......   I'm ready to leave...

 Listening to: BushySamBand mix tape