Suggestion for PB

Festivarian Events Telluride Bluegrass Festival
1

I, apparently along with everyone in the entire universe, tried to buy Nightgrass tickets this morning. It was frustrating, to say the least. I had to start over about 7 times after getting farther and farther along. I kept getting “loading” messages. I totally understand that the PB site got hit, really hard, all at once.

Suggestion: sell ALL the Nightgrass tickets by lottery. It was SO easy to fill out the ticket lottery for the FLy and Sheridan shows, and even tho I got totally boned on the deal, at least I didn’t have to spend 30 frustrating minutes screaming at my computer (poor guy, but he’ll get over it).

Even if the tickets don’t sell out on that first day, it would certainly help. And after that big rush, you can put the rest of the unsold tix up on your regular site.

Yeah, I was not happy about getting ZERO Sheridan tickets, but this morning little adventure wasn’t much fun either. Just a suggestion - What do ya think?

2

Were you eventually able to get tickets? I believe they are still on sale (for yonder’s wed kick-off party)

3

i am against all lotteries, even though i got the nightgrass tickets i hoped for…
at least with the wait this morning, you know what you’re getting…

i feel that lotteries just encourage scalping, because people end up with tickets they may not use, and sad as it is, not everyone is as honest as the people on this forum when it comes to selling tickets after the fact…

i vote first come, first serve… and the dedicated will show up, wait in line, and get the tickets that are out there… plus, those who are that dedicated (in my mind) will hold onto to those tickets alot more tightly than the others who end up with extras or unwanted lotto tickets saved for trade…

i know i’ve waited overnight outside venues before for tickets, been shut out and disappointed, but at least i was in the same boat with my fellow music lovers, instead of competeing with a cyberspace lotto and losing… with that said, i’ve also waited for tickets, and had success, and that was as sweet as gold :cheers

4

LOL Dayton- I’m assuming you mean for Nightgrass shows… I’m getting a mental image of us all lining up outside the gates of Town park around Sept and staying until June…LOL

5

I think the nightgrass sales are done as smoothly as they can be. Organizing something like this can’t be easy and moving everything to a lottery doesn’t seem like the answer, in my opinion.

6

I think the Planet should invest more in their eCommerce technology and this will be a done deal.

7

I am not opposed to the Lottery system; however, it goes against the “open-ness” and accessibility that TBGF prides itself on.

Having equal opportunity to purchase tickets via online sales results in frustrating times, but some of that frustration stems from a poor ticketing system that is not robust enough to handle 10,000 people trying to log-on and purchase tickets all at once. Planet Bluegrass should really look into upgrades to the server in anticipation of these high volume events. This happened 3 years ago for Nightgrass 2008 tickets, I had all of them in my basket, went to check out…GONE even though they were in my cart. But the site didn’t crash over…and over…and over again like it did today. Sometimes it is the nature of the beast with coveted nightgrass tickets, but at least we ALL had a chance to purchase…we ALL had the same problems, and once the crash fixed itself (or enough people gave up trying) I was able to get in and get all the tickets I needed…plus extra.

So who has got my YMSB Sheridan tickets to TRADE for ENB or YMSB pre-party???

Hope everyone got what they wanted! See you in JUNE!

8

I agree with this. Just buy/build a system that doesn’t encourage everybody to refresh repeatedly in each of their five browser windows (thereby exacerbating the problem), and the whole process would be much smoother.

9

The server/site crashing you speak of has been an on-going issue with the Planet for some time.

Same thing happened to me a few years back with Nightgrass shows - I don’t know if the issue has ever been directly addressed by the folks at the Planet, but it is frustrating to say the least!

10

PB should make NIghtgrass tickets “will call” only. That would cut down greatly on scalping and then people wouldn’t tie up all the tickets for shows they don’t plan on attending.

11

yeh… you assume correctly, nightgrass shows is what i mean :slight_smile:
and to be real about what i feel in regards to lottery, this could possibly apply to town park tickets too…
a ticket for-sale early bird option, open for maybe 1 hour in september online, first come, first serve for town park tickets could be something to consider… then open up regular sales in march for all the remaining tickets…

or yeh, we’ll just line up outside the post office in september and wait… could be some fun waiting, maybe take turns skiing and waiting with all the other festivarians… :cheers

12

I think a lot of the “speculative purchases” would be curbed by will call only tix - whether it’s a lottery or first come first serve (online). As nostolgic as it may be remembering having to sleep out in line overnight, it’s still a major hassle … much more so vs. the server load issue we experienced this morning.

I spent a few hours in line for Phish @ Telluride & I think the last time before that was for when Dylan first played two nights in Telluride for KOTO’s doo dah (2001?)

13

I’m against the Nightgrass lottery. I entered for all but (1) show, (2) tickets each, and got shut out 100%. So did my GF. At least with today’s fiasco those that were willing to jump right on it at 9am were rewarded. I feel I would have had a better shot at the Sheridan shows if they would have been done the same way.

14

yeh, when phish came back after their hiatus, there was literally a spontaneous campground that erupted a full day before the tickets went on sale on the sidewalk and parking lot of the thomas wolfe auditorium in asheville… it was like a ‘show’ lot with music being played, beers being shared, and everyone hoping to get tickets the next morning. unfortunately i was not one of the lucky ones to get tickets that day, there were alot of people in line… but a friend of mine did, and i was able to get one in the long run :slight_smile:

15

Even though I didn’t get all the tickets I was hoping for, I prefer the lottery because I have a job that interferes with my ability to drop everything and deal with ticket purchases at 9am on a Tuesday. I talked a friend into buying Yonder and Emmitt tix for me this morning. Without her I wouldn’t have tix to either Yonder show. Is the scalping situation really that bad? I mean, I’ll be happy to go to Cornmeal. I love them, actually. But RRE is my first choice. Is it wrong to offer two Cornmeal tix for one RRE? I am essentially offering $15 over price. RRE seems so popular that I’ll likely bring a friend to Cornmeal and have a great time.

Keep the lottery for those of us who have jobs. I like that the system is part lottery and part first served.

16

Listen up my little nephews and nieces. Y’all are looking at this entirely in the wrong direction. You’re looking at Planet Bluegrass. Turn around. Look the other way!

They are all “National Touring Bands” doing Nightgrass. They have fans that follow them from all over the country. Here are three examples of what is actually causing the problem. Take a click and see for yourselves

Mumford & Sons
http://www.mumfordandsons.com/live?list=10

Yonder Mountain String Band
http://www.yondermountain.com/

The Punch Brothers
http://www.punchbrothers.com/tour/

The Nightgrass Shows are on THE TOUR PAGES! YES! ON THE TOUR PAGES!!!
To their credit, Railroad Earth, Cornmeal, The Infamous Stringdusters and Abigail Washburn (and that’s as far as I checked) have not advertised the Nightgrass Shows on their Tour Pages.

SOLUTION :
There are 10,000 Folks at TBF, plus the local population of Telluride, plus the population of the Four Corners area, plus the Promoters… and last but not least, Our Beloved Sponsors. Nightgrass is advertised as the following, and I quote,

"2011 NightGrass Shows
The sun may set and the temperature may drop, but the music doesn’t stop at Telluride Bluegrass… NightGrass is the late-night component of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. "

You are the fans of TBF and these bands. You write to them. You let your voice be heard. You tell them that Nightgrass is not just any other show to be posted on their Tour Pages. You explain that there are already enough butts in the area during FESTIVVVAAALLL!!! to fill the seats at a Nightgrass Show and they need not go trolling the country to fill those seats.

SPEAK UP!

Okay, it’s too late for this year, but next year, as soon as the line-up is announced, take a moment of your time and send all the bands a note on this subject. Then maybe, just maybe, you’ll stand a better chance of getting that dream Nightgrass ticket next year.

Auntie Hope :festivarian2 :green

17

Agreed. Mumford & Sons even posted it on their main page in the “news” section. I’m assuming the notice went out to anyone on their mailing list. Of course, now a few of those who got tickets aren’t going to have a place to stay… One comment on the M&S post complains about how camping is sold out and rooms are an exorbitant price.

I personally feel there are already enough people paying attention to the festival that there isn’t any need for additional advertisement. Kinda goes against the spirit of a festival for people to be rolling in for one band only, and then leaving.

18

So post back to the complainers and tell them to return the tickets to Planet Bluegrass before May… 6th? is it??..

Just an idea. :cheers

Auntie Hope

19

Nightgrass are non-refundable…

but, I have a question… Will all those people that just have a Night grass tix even be able to get into telluride???

20

People are simply saying that the site was slow… causing them to lose tickets they had gotten to, before many others, because of the site crashing/timing out/etc. I highly doubt that every fan of the bands you listed, saw the dates on the sites, and felt the need to rush a site if they had no plans of attending TBF in the first place. I would guess that 99% of the individuals looking to purchase tickets this morning were either those planning to attend or scalpers (all of which would have been there already). This has obviously happened in the past, and there is no reason for everyone not to be able to “speak up” and voice their opinions in what seemed to be all respectful manners.