Short version: I managed to snag two general admission tickets to see Coldplay in Toronto next summer. Life is good.
Long version: I managed to get an email saying I was chosen to take part in the Ticketmaster presale. Total score!
But I soon realized that everyone in the world probably got the same email if they signed up for the presale.
How do I know? Let me spin you a yarn…
At 8:30 i entered the ‘waiting room’. You just wait there.
At 9:00am everyone in the waiting room goes into the queue. When a screen popped up it said there were 57,316 users ahead of me in the queue.
To put this into perspective, the new Rogers Stadium they are going to build in Toronto should hold around 50,000 people!
The outlook was pretty bleak 1.5 hours later as I sat there staring at the fact that I was now around 46,923 users ahead of me. I was reading on a Reddit thread that general admission had already sold out of its presale allotment (that would need to be confirmed…not sure if they allow presales to sell out an entire stadium or not) and the rest of the tickets were VIP $500+ tickets.
But all hope was not lost! I saw a pop up informing me two dates had been added to the Toronto tour and I could hop over and join that queue! I left my original queue at 24,000 and hopped to another one which was putting me at 21,000 users ahead of me. Again, this is completely random placement from the waiting room. I ended up losing my concert bud Claude by moving to the July 12th queue because it turned out he couldn’t make it that day and he only got back to me with that fact when I was already in the queue. I wasn’t taking any chances.
An hour later, the queue crept down and I managed to get into buy tickets! Hope was lost for a few minutes when I couldn’t find anything under $500 but I just kept refreshing and sure enough, two tickets popped up and I nabbed them for my bud Etienne and I.
I felt like I won the lottery. Is that the feeling they are going for these days?
The show is smack dab in the middle of Bluesfest. I’m not entirely sure if Coldplay would come to Bluesfest itself…it’s a possibility considering their Toronto tour brings them to town on a Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday so who knows if Ottawa will pull off a miracle and bring this great band in the middle of the week.
Either way, I have some options open if that happens now that I have some tickets in hand!