Tirade at Tattoo ticket touts

BOSSES at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo today hit out at online touts selling tickets for this year's event for up to four times their face value.

Officials said they were "appalled" at some of the "vastly overpriced sums of money" being charged for tickets for the sold- out show.

The Evening News has discovered one website, billed as an "online ticket marketplace", where briefs – costing up to £40 face value – are being offered for up to £200 each.

One angry reader said she had paid more than £470 for four Tattoo tickets on the Get Me In site, after mistaking it for an official vendor.

Alan Smith, sales and marketing manager for the Tattoo, today urged people not to pay over the odds for a ticket.

And he warned that organisers would be looking to cancel any tickets they identify for sale on the internet. He said: "We take a very dim view of online entrepreneurs who sell tickets for vastly overpriced sums of money and are doing everything we can to seek them out.

"We are appalled at some of the prices that are being charged, which are often three or four times more than their face value.

"We have approached the Get Me In website and asked them to consider removing the tickets from sale, but it is very difficult to force them to do so. What we will be doing is targeting any individuals we find who are re-selling them, as this violates our terms and conditions.

"In some cases, if we identify individual sellers, we will be looking to take harsh action, such as cancelling their reservations for the tickets.

"We are keen to see this problem eradicated as it means that genuine fans either lose out on tickets or have to pay unreasonably high prices to get them.

"It is getting to the point where we need government legislation to stop this kind of blatant ticket touting for good."

Tickets for the 2008 Tattoo started appearing on the Get Me In website within hours of the box office opening last December.

Tattoo fan Jane Boyd told the News she had been dismayed to find the tickets she bought had a face value of only £40 and were in somebody else's name.

She said: "I purchased the tickets on December 3, which was the first time they were available.

"I paid £471.63 on my Visa and thought they were expensive. However, as they were in the East Stand and for a late performance, and as I have friends from overseas coming for the occasion, I went ahead.

"After the tickets arrived, I realised the name on the tickets was not mine, but someone else's. The tickets are bona fide, but have a face value each of only £40. It seems to me that this is a very unfair, if not fraudulent, practice just to make money."

No-one from Get Me In was available to comment on the sale of Tattoo tickets on the website.

The Tattoo has previously had problems with people putting tickets up for auction on eBay.

Last summer, the city's festival and events champion, Councillor Steve Cardownie, backed calls for tougher laws to be introduced to stamp out ticket touts.

• www.edintattoo.co.uk