Vermonter.com

If you tried to purchase concert tickets for Elton John’s upcoming performance at the Essex Junction Fairgrounds via the Flynn Theater website you probably didn’t do very well. I had an uneasy feeling at 9:55am that a perfect storm was coming. At 10am, when the tickets went on sale, the online ordering system crashed like a rock.
The website was swamped and apparently the server couldn’t handle the request load resulting in lots of time-out errors and most likely…no tickets. Forget about calling in as the phone lines were overloaded throughout most of the day as well. All in all, a pretty poorly planned system that just plain didn’t work. So what did? Apparently a lot of luck for those who did get through by phone. I would be curious to know if anyone actually was able to purchase Elton John tickets in Vermont via the Flynn’s website. The other lucky folks were the ones who lined up outside and those who hoarded up the limit of 4 tickets per person. I bought my tickets through one of these people at double the face value, yet still a good price considering what they are being scalped for on some of the ticket websites.

I hope that next time there is a major event such as this, the promoters have better sense than to trust a small, inadequately prepared local company to handle the online ticket sales. No offense to the Flynn but anyone in their right mind should have known that their small website could in no way handle the traffic that would be coming their way. A huge disaster waiting to happen and a lot of disappointment for many Vermonters wanting to see the show. As much as I don’t care for Ticketmaster, at least ordering tickets online would have been a fairly simple task.

Now, one of the the only ways to get an “Elton John Essex Fairgrounds Vermont concert ticket” is to pay overly inflated prices to the online scalper agencies. Odd how those websites work very well indeed and buying a ticket is quick and easy.
Hey promoters, the next time a big name concert comes to town, please hire out online ticketing to a professional service and don’t turn it into another small time “Jethro Bodine” disaster.