Didn’t get tickets to Harry Styles’ Madison Square Garden residency? Ticketmaster promises to give fans more tickets at the “originally set price.”
WASHINGTON — Harry Styles fans may have another chance to snag tickets to his Madison Square Garden residency later this year.
Ticketmaster announced on Wednesday that it canceled thousands of tickets bought by scalpers as it worked with Styles’ team to get tickets in the hand of “real fans.” Ticketmaster President Saumil Mehta, who joined the company earlier this year, penned an open letter to fans.
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“For those of you who don’t know me — I’m Saumil, Global President of Ticketmaster. I joined the company earlier this year, and I’m focused on sharing more about how ticketing actually works and improving the experience for fans. So, I want to walk you through what happened here, and how we’re working with Harry and his team to help real fans,” Mehta said in a statement.
“We caught scalpers using multiple accounts and fake identities to try to get around ticket limits and resell tickets for profit. We’ve canceled those tickets, none of which had been transferred to fans, and we are working with the tour to release them back to fans at the original price,” Mehta said. “You may have seen us take similar action on other tours recently. It’s all part of our broader effort to identify and catch more bad actors, enforce the rules of the sale and permanently ban accounts that violate them.”
The Ticketmaster CEO explained how scalpers often target tickets that are the “lowest price” and “super in-demand” to flip at a higher price.
Harry Styles announced his first tour in nearly three years in January, causing demand for tickets to soar. So much, in fact, that tickets were worth thousands of dollars before the presale even began. Styles’ “Together Together” world tour starts in May, and his 30-show residency at Madison Square Garden runs between Aug. 26 and Oct. 31.
Ticketmaster recorded 11.5 million sign-ups for the tickets, calling it the highest volume ever recorded for a presale in New York, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Madison Square Garden’s capacity is roughly 19,500 people for an event.
“This impacts many tours, and Harry’s residency was a huge target,” Mehta said. “When fans go to request tickets, you’ll see the original prices set by the tour.”
According to the letter, the ticket prices will be:
19% are $5077% are under $95100% are under $130
Mehta said that these tickets did not make it into the hands of fans and that anyone who bought the ticket directly with Ticketmaster is not affected. Additionally, if fans purchased tickets from scalpers and transferred them into their Ticketmaster account, those tickets were not impacted by the cancellations.
Ticketmaster said the cancellations were only for the New York City shows.
“We stop most scalpers before they ever buy tickets, and we catch more before those tickets can be resold,” the Ticketmaster CEO said. “But fraud evolves, and so do we. I come from a fintech background, and tackling problems like this is part of why I joined the ticketing industry, and we’ll keep getting better at it.”
How to request a ticket for Harry Styles’ “Together, Together” tour:
According to Ticketmaster, the window to request tickets will open at noon ET April 30 and close at 5 p.m. ET May 1.
Submitting a request does not guarantee tickets, and those who don’t have tickets to NYC shows will be prioritized, Ticketmaster said.
What happens after submitting a request?
Fans who successfully submit a request for a ticket will get a confirmation email in their inbox. The requests will be reviewed to “match as many fans as possible with tickets.”
Those whose request can be fulfilled will be charged for the total order and will receive an email with seat details on Friday, May 8.
Ticketmaster said those whose request cannot be filled will not be charged anything. A $1 hold may appear during request submission and will be refunded if denied.
Those whose requests were denied will not have a follow up email.
Krys Shahin contributed to this report.