Some fans’ dreams of meeting up for Pulp’s 2023 reunion have been crushed by the price of tickets listed on resale sites.
Jarvis Cocker’s band will play two shows in Sheffield next July, with fellow local star Richard Hawley supporting for their first gig in over a decade.
Tickets sold out within hours after they went on sale last month, but many are now appearing on resale sites for more than triple the original price. Original prices ranged from £49 to £90. One ticket was listed on Viagogo for £1,905.
Sheffield Wire contacted Viagogo, who have declined to comment.
Judi Borland has been a Pulp fan since discovering Different Class in the nineties, and said: “I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. The money doesn’t go to the band, it just lines the pockets of the ticket sellers.”
Judi was caught out when Pulp last toured and played the Royal Albert Hall for Teenage Cancer Research. Her son booked tickets for her, but didn’t realise he was paying over the odds for a resale ticket.
Judi said: “At the time I was thinking that it would be for charity. The tickets were £27.50 each and I ended up paying £154, and of course none of that extra money went to charity.”
Gemma Green works as a teacher near Sheffield and tried to get tickets, but was busy teaching when they went on sale. She said “By the time I went onto the ticketing site they’d all gone.
“There was a lot of build up for it, I thought ‘great, I’m finally going to see Pulp again and they’re playing in Sheffield which is only 20 minutes away,’ so it was a massive disappointment”
It’s not just the tickets that became more expensive. One fan wrote on Facebook: “I got my hotel at the Utilita Arena for £74. The day the tickets went on sale the room price went up to £200. Rip off!”
During the current financial crisis, many fans will worry that local artists like Pulp won’t be singing along with the ‘common people’ for much longer.
Despite the cost of some tickets, some are still holding out hope of attending in 2023 by getting tickets through fan-to-fan sales or sites such as Twickets, which only allows resale at face value.
