Online Sale Snow Patrol Tickets 'Cancelled'

Belfast City Council has confirmed that all 15,000 tickets for the much-anticipated Snow Patrol City Hall concert being held as part of the MTV EMAs have rapidly been allocated.

It also warned that any tickets 're-sold' illegally online may be cancelled. In a statement on Monday, a council spokesman said that, while it sympathised with people who had been unable to acquire tickets for the 6 November gig, the arrangements and level of service put in place to deal with the incredible demand was unprecedented.

Tickets were available online, by telephone and by going in person to the Belfast Welcome Centre and, while a number of complaints were received, the council confirmed it had received many positive comments about the way the ticket distribution was managed.

"When you consider Snow Patrol played to 40,000 people who paid for the privilege in [Bangor] and the fact that there are other top class artists on the bill, it was hardly surprising that we would be left with so many disappointed people with only 15,000 free tickets available," he said.

Online Sales Halted

The statement continued: "We are also aware of a handful of the 15,000 tickets being sold on certain sites and [have] investigated this.

"Tickets were numbered and we will be able to trace them back to who received them and will consider cancelling them," the spokesman warned, although it later emerged that the website concerned had voluntarily removed them from sale.

Meanwhile, he praised the council staff and said: "Our staff went beyond the call of duty to ensure that this difficult task was completed to the highest level.

"The council deployed community wardens, St John's Ambulance as well as provided entertainment for those people who came in person to get tickets," he said.

"It was very important that tickets were made available in this way to ensure that people from Belfast and Northern Ireland would get priority as online and telephone tickets would be clearly available to people across the world.

"The commitment and dedication of staff is underlined by the fact that they were on duty from the early hours, communicating regularly with those queuing to give the earliest indication possible on the likelihood of acquiring tickets.

"Despite the large numbers and disappointments, there were no incidents of any kind," he added.

However, he did admit that, there were some 'technical issues' with online and telephone applications: "But the fact that all the online tickets were allocated by 8.40am and telephone tickets by 9.10am shows that a considerable number of people made it through," he said.

Red Hot

MTV has also announced around 1,000 tickets will go on sale next weekend for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, with an announcement on how tickets for the EMAs at the Odyssey Arena will be distributed to be made in the near future.

"November 6 promises to be a very special night for the people of Belfast and Northern Ireland, with the city being showcased to 600 million people across the world," the Belfast City Council spokesman concluded, adding that the MTV Awards-associated Belfast Music Week is organised by Belfast City Council with support from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Tourism Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure and the European Regional Development Fund under the European Sustainable Competitiveness Programme for Northern Ireland 2007-2013.

(BMcC/CD)