Turnpike Troubadours Address Ticket Issues for Red Rocks Shows
This story has been updated.
Presale for the second Turnpike Troubadours reunion show at Red Rocks on Sunday, May 15th, 2022 commences Thursday morning, December 16th at 10:00 a.m. Mountain, with the full sale starting on Friday the 17th. Tickets can be PURCHASED HERE. But even before the presale starts, frustrated fans are already apprehensive of the process after so many were locked out during the first round of ticket sales for the band’s first reunion show on May 14th, 2022.
After the first show sold out almost immediately, fans who missed out on tickets were redirected to secondary market options by the ticket seller AXS, showing tickets that were just purchased now back on sale for huge markups, including resale tickets made available through the AXS platform.
Amid many frustrated Turnpike Troubadours fans sounding off about the process and expecting a repeat experience for the second show, on Wednesday afternoon (12-5), the band released a statement.
The demand for tickets to our Red Rocks shows have been overwhelming, but we want to let you know that we hear you about ticket resellers and that we are doing what we can to address the issue.
To get as many fans a chance at tickets as possible, we’re going to limit purchases for the Sunday Red Rocks show to four tickets per order.
We are working with AXS, AEG Presents and Red Rocks Ampitheater to identify bots and cancel tickets that were purchased fraudulently and get them back to fans, however there are far more people wanting to come to the shows than the venue can accommodate.
Regardless of bots or scalpers buying up tickets, the Turnpike Troubadours statement is correct. With so many fans eager to see their return, and these Red Rocks shows drawing from the band’s nationwide audience base as opposed to local shows only drawing from the immediate region, it is guaranteed there will not be enough tickets for everyone who wants them, even after adding a second show.
Nonetheless, independent music fans who sometimes are not used to dealing with sold-out shows at destination venues such as Red Rocks are still disappointed after getting a rude wake up call about how difficult it is to navigate ticket buying for these events. It’s not just these Turnpike Troubadours Red Rocks shows. It’s the entire system of how event tickets are purchased and sold in the United States that feels inequitable, and stacked against average fans. Congress has investigated the matter and posed legislation. It’s a known, widespread issue.
After the first ticket sale and ahead of the second, some Turnpike Troubadours fans have taken it upon themselves to do their own investigating as well, and they are not liking what they find. As some have pointed out, even before the presale for the second Turnpike Troubadours show starts, there are already secondary tickets available for the show on Vivid Seats.
However, Saving Country Music has confirmed these are just “speculative” tickets, meaning tickets placed on sale by individuals in hopes they secure actual tickets to sell to patrons. Still, it shows just how nebulous the ticket reseller market is.
Since the beginning, other fans have been accusing AXS of purposely holding back tickets to then sell them on the resell market. If this was the case, it would be prosecutable fraud. What people are seeing is scalpers/bots purchasing tickets and then reselling them through the AXS platform. If AXS is running a reselling scheme, they could/should be prosecuted, but at the moment there is no evidence of this.
Hopefully though, the effort by the representatives of the Turnpike Troubadours will help mitigate this concern for the second Red Rocks show on May 15th.
But even if every bot and scalper is locked out, and every secondary market reseller purchase is cancelled, there still won’t be enough tickets for everyone. That’s simply a symptom of the massive appeal for the music of the Turnpike Troubadours, which for years went overlooked and under-counted by many in the music industry. It’s only after a 2 1/2-year absence of the band that everyone is waking up to just how important and appealing the Turnpike Troubadours really are.
December 15, 2021 @ 7:38 pm
I don’t know how exactly this works…could there be a live-stream “virtual” ticket option to watch from home? I’d gladly pay $10 or $20 or whatever to watch from my living room.
Is that up to Turnpike? Red Rocks?
December 15, 2021 @ 7:47 pm
Eric Church had made it his business to put the resellers out of business by playing several nights in a particular city ao there are plenty of tickets to go around.
I am a bit afraid to admit it but I have resold tickets before – but only when I had bought the tickets way in advance and am then unable go. The unfortunate thing is that by the time one adds in their selling fee, and the sales fees I had to pay to get the ticket, in order to break even I’ve had to charge quite a bit more than face value. But, I try to stick with simply recouping my loss, not making money.
December 15, 2021 @ 7:51 pm
Red Rocks/AXS generally makes all of their tickets for the first 4 rows non-transferable. The answer is make all tickets non-transferable and buyer ID required at the gate. The bots and resellers will be out in force tomorrow as long as they are transferable.
December 15, 2021 @ 8:13 pm
It’s against CO law to do what you suggest.
December 16, 2021 @ 1:14 am
Another problem is if you cannot make the show for whatever reason, you are then stuck with your tix. I have tix for a show in Feb at The Ryman in Nashville and the tix will not show up on the Ticketmaster app on my phone until 24 hours before the show which makes it harder to sell tix but not impossible. These issues have been going on and debated for as long as I can remember.
December 16, 2021 @ 6:05 am
Aren’t the first 4 rows designated handicap?
December 15, 2021 @ 7:53 pm
You nailed it Trig. We ALL knew that when Turnpike came back, it was gonna be insane. They have gotten bigger in their absence. The legend has grown. EVERYBODY wants to be there.
Be Patient. I think a couple of warm-up shows at Whitewater Amphitheater will do everybody just fine….Just my thoughts…..
December 15, 2021 @ 8:51 pm
Red Rocks aside, do we not expect a national or regional tour fro Turnpike after these shows? Can the common folk not just wait it out and see the group at a local venue?
December 16, 2021 @ 10:31 am
There will definitely be other opportunities to see Turnpike in the future.
December 16, 2021 @ 1:18 am
Kind of funny they are calling this a “reunion” as they were only gone for 2 years and never broke up.
December 16, 2021 @ 6:23 am
hi•a•tus – noun – a period of time when something (such as an activity or program) is stopped.
re•un•ion – noun – an instance of two or more people coming back together after a period of separation.
Don’t get mad at me, I just comprehend the English language pal.
December 16, 2021 @ 12:00 pm
Many bands take breaks, especially over these past couple of years but most don’t call it a reunion.
December 16, 2021 @ 1:47 pm
It’s all semantics. Reunion or hiatus.
December 16, 2021 @ 2:08 pm
To me a reunion is a band getting back together a long time after they had broken up. This a band just going back to playing some gigs. No big deal either way, it just sounds like a way to sell tix although they’d sell them either way.
December 16, 2021 @ 6:16 am
Last Saturday, Charles Godwin had his official album release party here at 123 Pleasant Street in Morgantown, WV. I had no intention of going, but I had a ton of friends going. Late Friday night, word got out that Zach Bryan was going to be there. I jumped online a bought a ticket @ 123 Pleasant Street site. In the morning I texted one of my friends, I’ll see you at the show and she replied “how did you get a ticket, it’s been Sold Out since November?!” I sent her a link to the site and she sent me a screen shot of that same jpeg with the word “SOLD OUT” across the image.
To a degree, this has always happened. “X” amount of tickets for shows have always been held back for artists or other people related to the show and the unwanted ones released day of the show.
Moral of the story, keep trying … there are always tickets available somewhere.
December 16, 2021 @ 6:26 am
Also …. Bryan never took the stage Saturday night. He was there to support Godwin. But, word is he kidnapped Godwin’s pedal player (Reed) and took him back to Washington state to lay down some steel on some tracks from his upcoming album.
December 16, 2021 @ 9:15 am
Thanks for the report. Actually putting the finishing touches on an article about the Zach Bryan / Charles Wesley Godwin bromance as we speak.
I think your ticket buying system is a good one. But in this instance, it would probably be difficult for folks who would be traveling to Denver to do this. You’re not going to book a flight and hotel in hopes of securing tickets. You’d want to have them in hand. The destination aspect of these shows really is the driver of all of this.
December 16, 2021 @ 2:10 pm
I agree. If you really want to see a show there is always a way even if you have to wait until the day of.
December 19, 2021 @ 4:05 am
Glad you got to see your boy-crush Zach Bryan. Get back to us when he learns hoe to actually pick (not the up, down, up down 3 chord frat boy debacle) and write at more than a 5th grade level ????
December 16, 2021 @ 9:51 am
Is this presale code same as last time?
December 16, 2021 @ 10:14 am
15 minutes into Presale, No Tickets Available.
December 17, 2021 @ 2:07 pm
Presales only sell a limited amount of tix.
December 16, 2021 @ 10:21 am
I am still in the que, my daughter got in in less than 3 minutes and was blocked out, no tickets available.
The band and the venue did little to help with this issue. crappy way to do business and just throw up your hands.
December 16, 2021 @ 10:26 am
Same crap as before… a couple minutes after 10AM in the queue… By the time I am out of the queue NO TICKETS AVAILABLE… This is a joke, why even bother trying to go to a concert anymore.
December 17, 2021 @ 2:07 pm
Well someone got tix.
December 16, 2021 @ 10:43 am
Got in the queue 30 minutes before 10am. No tickets. Super frustrating. Obviously AXS doesn’t care about the fans and only selling out immediately to the bots.
December 16, 2021 @ 11:00 am
Oh and I refreshed for at 45 minutes in the hopes of getting through…no luck.
December 16, 2021 @ 11:23 am
I actually got through the queue almost immediately, but didn’t do my research to know I needed a presale code, not sure there would have been tickets, but I guess I’ll never know
December 16, 2021 @ 1:04 pm
This was 100% bots that bought and resold almost immediately. I was online to buy at the exact sale time and AXS had me waiting for 1hr and 45min only to find people posting the tickets we’re sold out 1hr 45min earlier and now selling for $350-$2,000. I still waited just in case and when my turn came up I clicked every seat and nothing happened and then it kicked me off the site and said I timed out and would have to wait again. My sis bought the $350 tickets and they charged her card but within minutes sent message they could not fulfill the order and would be soon refunding her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 16, 2021 @ 3:52 pm
I remember back in the day you had to buy in person in advance w a 4 ticket maximum.
It didn’t stop scalpers but gave fans a even chance.
December 16, 2021 @ 4:08 pm
In hindsight perhaps they should have announced Red Rocks as the start of a full tour, so that they didn’t have an entire country fighting over 9,000 (now 18,000) tickets. We’d all be fighting over tickets to our own local show instead.
Still, never thought I would see the day when a band like TT sells out two nights at Red Rocks instantly. That is pretty damn cool.
December 17, 2021 @ 10:35 am
Interesting point there, but it is way too easy to dismiss the Turnpike Troubadours from any responsibility here. Don’t think for a minute that they were not aware that this would happen. The hype over these sell-outs will spill over into any tour they eventually do and create a similar issue once they hit your town.
December 17, 2021 @ 6:58 am
Perhaps I’m getting old but why fight over these tickets?
IMHO Turnpike is meant to be seen in a small venue to hear the music how it was meant to be heard.
9000 seats isn’t massive but too big.
I will wait for Greune Hall or the like at regular price or it’s not worth it
December 17, 2021 @ 2:10 pm
If you’re up front it’s great in any venue. I doubt they’ll be playing Greune Hall anytime soon.
December 17, 2021 @ 10:32 am
Too easy to dismiss the responsibility of the band here and while Red Rocks is one of those “bucket list” type of places, I don’t plan on ever making the attempt to go there. Red Rocks knows for certain what a scam AXS is and does nothing to combat it because they lose NOTHING in the process. And while AXS is a crooked system, the real people to blame here are any of the JACKASSES who pay $400, 500, over 1,000 for a ticket. They are the ones supporting such a system and feeding it.
Unless the Turnpike Troubadours are setting up in my backyard, what kind of fool pays $1,000 to see them?
One last thing, this kind of hype is gonna draw interest once the band goes back on the road, don’t think for a minute that they had no idea this would occur.
December 18, 2021 @ 8:01 pm
We attended one of their last scheduled shows before the meltdown, and there were maybe 200 people there. Show was cancelled after we sat around for about 30 minutes. Rumor that night was they cancelled because not enough tickets were sold, which was believable. The next couple of shows were also cancelled, so we knew then there was more to it.
This hiatus looks like it will be great for ticket sales. The same facility that barely sniffed 200 sales would probably sell out today.