During her show in Paris on Sunday, 65 fans with tickets were reportedly denied entry
During Raye‘s This Tour May Contain New Music stop in Paris on Sunday, Feb. 15, 65 ticket holders were reportedly turned away and left stranded outside her concert at Accor Arena.
The singer took to social media on Tuesday to address the Ticketmaster fumble. “I am completely devastated for the 65 ticket holders who were turned down from entering our Paris show on Sunday night,” wrote Raye on Instagram Stories the following Tuesday. “This is completely unacceptable and wrong.”
Raye said she was told there was a “system error” at Ticketmaster, which led to the tickets not being “fully validated when they were purchased.” Despite the issue being “outside of anything I could control,” the artist said she felt “saddened and let down” by the blunder. She added that “everyone affected was refunded and given a voucher from Ticketmaster,” while also offering all 65 people who were denied entry complimentary tickets to any of her future shows and a signed vinyl.
“I know this doesn’t even remotely make up for this mess, but it’s all I can think of in this moment to soften the blow,” she said before ending her note. “My deepest apologies to those of you affected.”
Back in November, Olivia Dean delivered a scathing criticism of Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and AEG over resale ticket prices. “You are providing a disgusting service. The prices at which you’re allowing tickets to be re-sold is vile and completely against our wishes,” she wrote in a social media post at the time. “Live music should be affordable and accessible, and we need to find a new way of making that possible. BE BETTER.”
Dean’s denouncement arrived about two months after the Federal Trade Commission and seven states sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster (the companies merged in 2010) and accused the country’s biggest concert promoter and ticketing website of allowing scalpers to hoover up millions of tickets so they can be resold on Ticketmaster’s own resale platforms at a steep markups to customers.
