Decatur Beer Festival Tickets Sell Out in 7 Hours
Decatur Metro | September 20, 2010Geez, that was fast.
Last year it took 12 days for the 2010 Decatur Craft Beer Festival to sell out. This year it took 7 hours to sell all 4,000 tickets! I’m not sure what caused the mad rush this year beyond general increasing popularity, but I bet the 12 noon start time didn’t hurt things. This morning it seemed like the whole Twitter world was spitting out reminders every few seconds. I remember a couple years ago, when I was one of a lone few reminding folks of such things.
Regardless, big congrats to the Beer Fest! I think that pink elephant might be a good-luck charm. 
Latest from Decaturish
Holy smokes!
I’d rather be at Kentuck.
Glad I will be at home.
I’m glad you’ll be home too. More beer for me!
I wish that the City of Decatur would have a pre-sale for residents first–after all, it is their city & they should have first crack at the tickets. I remember the good old days when we could just walk up & purchase tickets on the day of the event–then, it was mostly a local event & now that it has expanded, city residents should get a ticket advantage. (PS I am not a city resident)
I like that idea. We always buy tickets right when they go on sale anyway, but this will be the first year in 5, I think, that we’ll miss it. Sadly, we’ll be out of town.
Someone drink some Innis and Gunn for me.
I agree. It must be the elephant.
I think the tickets should be like forever stamps: I wanna buy a bunch so they last me for a few years!
I wonder if scalping is going to be a problem this year.
Not if we wear helmets.
Now THAT was truly funny. Thanks for the laugh, Robbie.
Doh!
mmmmmm. Beeeer.
I am out of town at the moment and tried to get tickets at the first possible opportunity I could, but they were already sold out. I’m so disappointed – this will be the first fime in 9 years I won’t be able to go! Can we hold out any hope that they will release a second batch of available tickets in a few weeks, like they did last year?
All 4000 tickets were released at once. We had to limit it to 2 tix per person to try and reduce the amount of tickets purchased by scammers and scalpers.
Obviously, scammers are the scum of the earth. Anyone who sells fake tickets or who sells the same e-tickets over and over again is a complete waste of space.
But that said….
There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying the tickets just to resell them for a profit. This is America. If people want to invest money in a LEGAL profit-making opportunity, more power to them.
If the organizers have a problem with it, there is a lot more they could do to prevent ticket resales.
Also, how about the $2 service charge per ticket sold. That’s more highway robbery than scalping! Think about it…Ticket Alternative just made $8,000 in 7 hours.
except with this festival it is a fundraiser for non profit organizations in Decatur that apply to receive funds.. kinda makes making your own profit a little …well low are I say sleezy. So Capitalist I disagree.
The organizations get their money from the initial purchase of the tickets, what do they care if they then get resold? With the 2 ticket maximum, it keeps any one person from buying a huge block and then reselling, which is a good move on the part of the festival. If I was out of town this week and couldn’t get my tickets, I sure would be grateful for people selling theirs on Craigslist or wherever.
I have no idea how much each organization gets from the festival but perhaps if they gave the organizations a block of 100 – 200 tickets, instead of cash at the end, the organization could get creative and leverage the tickets to actually raise more funds. I would think that the Community Garden, the MLK Jr. Service Project, the Winnona Park PTA or whoever is a recipient this year could get numerous $50, $60 or $75+ donations as part of a “become a member, get a ticket” campaign or something similar.
You shot down your own argument :
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying the tickets just to resell them for a profit. ”
“Also, how about the $2 service charge per ticket sold. That’s more highway robbery than scalping! Think about it…Ticket Alternative just made $8,000 in 7 hours.”
Ticket Alternative provides a service, and charges for it, you can’t get anymore capitalistic than that.
How is that shooting down my own argument?
My point is that people are complaining about scalpers but not about Ticket Service Charges/Convenience fees which should be built into the ticket prices. There’s a difference between prices being set by supply and demand and charging a fee just for the ability to buy a product.
Think about it: a “convenience” is something that is easier than an alternative. There is typically an increased cost associated with the convenience, e.g. milk might cost more at Walgreens than Kroger. But if there’s only one possibly way to purchase a product direct from the issuer/manufacturer/producer of that product, then a “convenience fee” is basically extortion.
How would you like it if Kroger charged you a $2 cashier charge?
It suffices to say you live in your own world.
And here’s where, like Larry Craig, your stance is a little too wide: Kroger doesn’t charge me two to three times for the opportunity to buy groceries.
Service fees are just another charge–call it capitalism, extortion, highway robbery, or any other over-bloated description– it’s all the same.
You’re not making any sense, Naaman.
Nevertheless, look at how the Masters does things. I’d say the Masters is the gold standard for ticket security. You have to scan your badge when you enter and exit, if you’re caught selling your badge, they revoke your privileges for life, etc. That’s a bit much for the DBF, but it clearly shows that an event has several methods available to severely limit ticket resales.
Also, the services fees charged by TicketMaster et al. are anti-competitive. A very few companies have the market cornered on ticket sales, so the venues/promoters don’t really have much choice but to use one of the big companies. Then, they just charge whatever fee they want because the consumer has no other way of getting the tickets. Sure, that’s pure capitalism, but it’s also anti-competition.
Capitalism without competition is basically a recipe for extortion.
Now, on to the Wine Festival! I’m getting in line now ….
Volunteers already chosen?
The Festival’s site says that they are no longer accepting applications for volunteers.
Charley, in case you already applied, I think Lee Ann has sent out her notifications. At least the people I know who are volunteering have heard from her.
I’m so glad we got ours. I love the beer fest! I think the 2 ticket limit was a little ridiculous. I understand the need to set a limit to reduce scalping but I needed to buy 2 more for another couple who will going with us and couldn’t buy them. Thank goodness I got ahold of my friend so she could get online before they sold out.
Just in case the beerfest organizers are reading, some feedback on the ticketing process this year:
1. Please consider raising the ticket max to 4 or 6. Like AKB, I have friends coming from out of town to boost the Decatur economy and specifically attend the beerfest. I guess I missed any pre-sale info about the 2 ticket limit, but we had to scramble on the order date and it was unnecessary stress.
2. Please work with TicketAlternative so that they don’t have to leave cookies on your computer to process the order. I had slotted to purchase our tix during my lunch hour on my work computer, which does not allow cookies (and Ticketmaster, evil that they are, doesn’t seem to need to do that). Again, more scrambling.
3. I love Mike’s Opinion idea of having some Decatur organizations get a 100 block buy so that they can leverage the tix- double bonus!
Thanks so much for all the organizing, efforts and amazing things the funds do for Decatur!
Capitalist…I am sure you were OK with gas stations charging $5 a gallon when the demand was so high. It is price gouging no matter how you look at it. I am a resident and can’t go because of these so called entrepreneurs that scoop up the tickets and gouge the people that actually want to go events like these and support their city. It’s just wrong!