polaroids of androids

Splendour In The Grass sells out very quickly, people riot over shitty online ticketing system, more sideshows announced

By now you have probably heard that the Splendour In The Grass festival has officially 112% SOLD OUT. It doesn't take much 'investigative reporting' to find a lot of folks who are pissed off about the failing internet ticketing system or still not sure if their order went through correctly.

This isn't the first time the 100% internet ticketing system has failed. In previous years people have expressed their outrage by fucking-up queue systems and organisers simply 'underestimating' the demand of, not only Splendour In The Grass, but all music festivals in Australia in recent years.

Neil Ackland, Managing Director of QJump, the people in charge of the ticketing gateway used by Splendour, today issued this statement about his system's involvement in what some are labeling 'a complete shimozzle':

Now, as a 'web guy', I understand that the internet isn't the almighty robotic mastermind that people often think it is and therefore get that, like anything, shit sometimes doesn't work right. However, I fail to understand how, given the recent trends in Australian music festival 'culture' over the past couple of years, the organisers did not foresee such a giant influx of people hammering the site at 9.01am attempting to get tickets and take the extra measures. Whether they be increased number of servers, load balancings, nerdy super-side-load mechanisms, extra 1000 chimps on bikes etc etc.

I also don't really understand how or why, besides possibly the issue of eating into (I assume) the festival's (also assumed) large profits, they wouldn't split their ticket sales between 'modern' technology (eg. THE INTERNET!) and more traditional failsafe methods (eg. phone and box office sales). People have an attitude towards the internet that it should 'just work' and it's because of this attitude that there is always such a giant backlash when it doesn't. To the average person the creation of a complex queue-based ticketing payment system is no harder than correctly configuring an RSS reader.

I think, however, that the solution was simple. By splitting the demand amongst several different methods, surely that increases the chances that people who miss out on tickets will miss out fairly and thus not be left with a negative feeling towards the festival, which, I assume, is something that is quickly growing. I know that if I was told that a ticket outlet near my house had 200 tickets to a festival or concert that I wanted to go to and it was purely a 'stand in the line overnight' challenge that I was faced with - I would do it - or lose out by kids who were tougher than me.

It's really the only logical and fair solution.

Well, either that or the organisers could hold some sort of Gladiators-style challenge where the highest ranked 17,500 after the 14 unique and challenging sports (ie. left arm boxing, extreme knitting and water mountaineering) will be awarded with tickets. Fuck, how awesome is Gladiators. I can't believe they took it off air for so long.

Eh .. who cares anyways. Fuck festivals. They are full of bright-coloured t-shirt kids with southern cross tattoos and Australia-flag capes who make me feel old, 'out of touch' and un-Ostralian. Everyone who is anyone knows that the true MAGIC of festivals only happens at the sideshows.

And... with the SOLD OUT news comes even more sideshows. The list just keeps growing...

Sigur Ros
Friday August 1: Festival Hall, Melbourne
Saturday August 2: Hordern Pavilion, Sydney

Laura Marling
Tuesday August 5: The Factory Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday August 6: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne

The Fratellis
Thursday July 31: Capitol, Perth
Tuesday August 5: Hi Fi Bar, Melbourne
Wednesday August 6: Metro Theatre, Sydney

Lightspeed Champion
Wednesday July 30: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Thursday July 31: Oxford Art Factory, Sydney

Band Of Horses
Sunday, August 3: Billboard Nightclub, Melbourne
Tuesday, August 5: Metro Theatre, Sydney

Devo
Thursday, July 31: Festival Hall, Melbourne
Friday, August 1: Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Tuesday, August 5: Hebarton Pavilion, Adelaide
Wednesday, August 6: Metro City, Perth

Vampire Weekend
Monday, August 4: Metro Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday, August 6: Prince Bandroom, Melbourne