A retired Tayside woman turned away from Tuesday evening’s Stereophonics gig has criticised the show’s promoter.
Julie Adams was given a ticket to the sold-out show by her friends as a “retirement treat”.
The former teacher’s ticket had been purchased via third party site Viagogo.
Having arrived at the Caird Hall early, Julie was devastated to learn she would not be allowed in.
While Julie was aware the show’s promoter, Regular Music, had warned photo identification would be required for Viagogo tickets, the Arbroath woman insists others in the same predicament were allowed into the concert without issue.
Julie said: “I explained this was a gift and was sent to the box office.
“I was honest and asked to have it changed, but the staff at the box office were absolutely rigid, they said no way.
“There were 100 people in the queue with me who had all done a deal with a lady from Regular Music, and they were being allowed in five at a time.
“It was unequally applied because some people were getting in and others weren’t.
“I’d like to know how some were able to get round it and some weren’t.”
The ordeal has left Julie with a “sour taste in her mouth”.
She said: “I would have been quite prepared to pay for my seat all over again, but I ended up at home and in tears by eight o’clock.
“I was going on my own, got dressed up, and was really looking forward to it.
“It was humiliating.”
John Stout, of Regular Music, said: “It was repeatedly stressed that ID matching the name on the tickets would be required for this show and a number of people were refused entry because they could not provide matching ID.
“We do sympathise with fans such as Julie whose tickets were bought through Viagogo and were denied entry. However, the overwhelming majority of tickets for the show ended up in the hands of fans at face value as a result of the measures taken to prevent resale.
“A very small number of exceptions were made on a discretionary basis where it was believed that the tickets had not been bought with the intention for reselling at a profit.
“The issue of secondary ticketing is one that affects the entire live music industry and until robust legislation tackling the problem is passed by the UK government fans of live music face being exploited.
“We will be reviewing the ticketing for this show and will take on board lessons that can be learned for the future.”
