After a raft of ticket scam warnings, ‘some might say’ that Oasis’ and Ticketmaster’s ‘masterplan’ will have the biggest impact on fans’ wallets.
Tickets for the Oasis Live ’25 tour went on general sale on Saturday (31 August) at 9am, while tickets for the Dublin gigs went on sale an hour before.
But fans of the ‘90s indie band found that tickets for concerts listed at £148.50 were rebranded as ‘in demand’, with the price more than doubling by the time they reached the front of the virtual queue.
The only place to secure a ticket for the Gallagher brothers reunion shows in Wembley, Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin was via Ticketmaster. Tickets officially went on sale on Saturday morning, with presale access granted to fans who had registered in advance.
Hundreds of thousands of Oasis fans waited for hours in ‘virtual queues’ to get their hands on tickets for the shows. But when they finally got the chance to buy tickets, many were met with prices far higher than face value. Some tickets initially advertised at £148.50 were relabelled as ‘in demand’ tickets and on sale for £355.20.
The ticket price increases were due to a strategy known as ‘dynamic pricing’ which adjusts ticket prices in real-time based on demand. Both Oasis and Ticketmaster would have agreed this strategy before the tickets went on sale.
Dynamic pricing is not new, but its use in the live music industry has become increasingly controversial. While artists and promoters argue that it helps to combat touts and ensure that more money goes directly to the performers, critics claim it prices out real fans.
Social media platforms were flooded with complaints all weekend, with #OasisLive25 trending on X.com for all the wrong reasons.
The official Oasis X account posted that Oasis Live ‘25 tickets could only be resold at face value via Ticketmaster or Twickets, not other secondary ticketing sites, seemingly ignoring the fact that these sites were hiking up prices for the band’s fans.
A consultation into ticket resale websites has already been announced by the government, and will start in the autumn.
Commenting on Oasis, culture secretary Lisa Nandy said she wanted to end “rip-off resales” and added that it was “depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans” from gigs.
Last week saw a raft of scam warnings after the Oasis Live ’25 tour was announced. Fans were warned to watch out for ticket scams and to only buy tickets from Ticketmaster.
