The Cure is taking serious measures to avoid outrageous ticket prices for their upcoming tour dates. The band, which announced a 30-date run of shows earlier this week, took to social media Friday (March 10) to let fans (and scalpers) know that tickets for their Shows of a Lost World Tour dates will be non-transferable.
“We want the tour to be affordable for all fans, and we have a very wide (and we think very fair) range of pricing at every show,” the message said. “Our ticketing partners have agreed to help us stop scalpers from getting in the way; to help minimise resale and keep prices at face value, tickets for this tour will not be transferable.”
By making the tickets non-transferable, scalpers will be unable to purchase tickets and then resell them for a profit since the original owner will have to be present to enter the venue. For fans who purchase tickets but can’t make it to the event, they will be able to resell the ticket on a face-value ticket exchange.
Three states in the U.S. have outlawed non-transferable tickets, making it illegal for The Cure to uphold the practice for shows in New York, Illinois and Colorado. For those dates, the band encourages fans to only purchase tickets from face-value exchange platforms like Twickets and Cash or Trade.
“Fans should avoid buying tickets that are being resold at inflated prices by scalpers, and the sites that host these scalpers should refrain from reselling tickets for our shows,” the message reads.
The band went on to explain that any tickets listed as of today (March 10) on secondary ticketing sites are not legitimate. Scalpers will post tickets onto secondary ticketing platforms prior to a tour’s on-sale via a practice called speculative ticketing. When a fan pays for the “speculative ticket”, the scalper will acquire a ticket at a lower price once tickets actually go on sale and pocket the difference. The Cure has stated that they will work with Ticketmaster to cancel any tickets obtained via this method.
When the band announced the world tour earlier this week, they established that “there will be no ‘Platinum’ or ‘Dynamically Priced’ tickets on this tour,” which includes stops at Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Moody Center in Austin, Madison Square Garden in New York and State Farm Arena in Atlanta.
Fans looking to secure tickets to The Cure’s 2023 tour should register with Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program. Registration is open through Monday (March 13). After registering, fans will be entered into a lottery system to try to purchase tickets for their preferred date and location.
The Cure’s efforts to combat resale ticketing comes after a season of in-demand tours facing astronomical price increases due to dynamic ticketing and scalpers. Ticketmaster is currently facing government inquiries into its handling of the disastrous Taylor Swift Eras Tour presale, which left many fans outraged when service delays and website crashes (caused in part by bots) prevented many of them from securing tickets.
