PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — After selling out concerts across America, goth rockers in the band The Cure have announced they are coming to Portland in May — and they are trying a ticket system to dissuade scalpers from getting seats.
In what has seemingly been a year of Ticketmaster controversies, including the Taylor Swift fiasco leaving a mob of fans unable to achieve their goals of seeing the pop princess live, The Cure, namely lead singer Robert Smith, is trying to put an end to ludicrous ticket prices and outrageous fees.
When The Cure announced their 2023 “Shows of a Lost World” Tour, it came with the caveat that although tickets would be sold by Ticketmaster, they would not be using the online box office’s much-maligned dynamic pricing system which caused heartbreak — and “wallet-break” — for Swifties everywhere.
Instead, tickets were priced firmly according to sections with prices varying by location. Even not taking chances with dynamic pricing, fans were still required to sign up for “verified fan” presales which aimed to get tickets into the hands of fans instead of scalpers.
What seemed like a good idea quickly turned out poorly as many fans took to Twitter to share that they got their tickets, but were also hit with incredibly high ticket fees.
On March 15, in response to the fees, the people’s hero Robert Smith quickly took to Twitter to share his dissatisfaction, and in a string of tweets, all-caps activated, he confronted Ticketmaster.
“I AM AS SICKENED AS YOU ALL ARE BY TODAY’S TICKETMASTER ‘FEES’ DEBACLE. TO BE VERY CLEAR: THE ARTIST HAS NO WAY TO LIMIT THEM,” Smith tweeted. “I HAVE BEEN ASKING HOW THEY ARE JUSTIFIED. IF I GET ANYTHING COHERENT BY WAY OF AN ANSWER I WILL LET YOU ALL KNOW. X”
And he did hear back, tweeting on March 16 that after talking with Ticketmaster they agreed that the fees were “unduly high” and refunds of up to $10 were offered to all fans who purchased tickets during the presales.
With that debacle over and shows sold out across the country it seemed like that was the end, but on April 5 The Cure announced four new shows being added, three being extra nights in cities they were already visiting and one new show in Portland.
Those three extra nights are being handled like previous sales using Ticketmaster’s verified fans system, but Portland’s show is a welcome exception trying out a standard sale with the added caveat that tickets would not be transferable.
Tickets for Portland’s show on May 31 go on sale Friday, April 7 at 10 a.m. on Ticketmaster and Smith shared on Twitter what exactly Portlanders can expect to pay for tickets, once again in all-caps.
“FYI THESE ARE OUR PORTLAND, OR TICKET PRICES – A FEW OF THE FRONT ROWS ARE A BIT MORE EXPENSIVE* (THIS HELPS ‘SUBSIDISE’ THE CHEAPER TICKETS) $130.00 $110.00 $90.00 $70.00 $50.00 $30.00 USD… *FRONT 14 ROWS GO FROM $150.00 UP TO $230.00 (FOR ROW 1)… X,” Smith tweeted.