Ticket resellers Viagogo are selling off Peter Kay tickets for more than 1,000 percent of what they are worth just an hour after they were released – as he announces extra tour dates to frustrated fans stuck in a queue which peaked at more than 300,000 people.
Tickets at a face value price of £150 each in Leeds in September are now on sale at Viagogo for £1,770 – a 1,080 percent mark-up.
Meanwhile seats in Cardiff sold for £50 are now reselling at £1,180 – more than a 2,300 percent mark-up.
The tour went on sale at 10am this morning, although some fans reported being in the online queue from 6am.
Fans can buy up to ten tickets per person, which has seen backlash on social media from fans claiming this encourages ticket resellers to buy.
At 10.30am, Peter Kay announced on Twitter that more dates had been added to the tour. By 10:50am, Viagogo had multiple tickets for sale at more than £1,000 each, with other resellers not far behind.
Frustrated fans complained online of the lengthy wait to get through to the official ticket site and said it was ‘easier to become Prime Minister’ than to get to see Peter Kay.
It comes after Peter Kay reassured fans who had access to his ticket pre-sale yesterday after the site crashed in within seven minutes of opening due to the volume of people trying to access it.
Peter Kay has announced a return to stand-up comedy for the first time in more than a decade
These tickets, sold on Viagogo, were worth £150 each if bought through the official sale – less than an hour later they were already on sale for £1,770
Tickets to see the comic are already selling at astronomical prices on Viagogo
Sellers TicketPort had multiple dates selling for around £500 per seat
It comes after Peter, who has been absent from the public eye for the last four years, announced he will embark on an arena tour spanning from this December to August 2023
MailOnline easily found tickets for various Peter Kay shows selling at prices well-above their face value, with current prices including £1,180, £1,050, £885, £755 and £450.
Ticket prices on resale sites begin at around £140, with even the cheapest tickets being sold at mark-ups of more than 400 percent.
Peter Kay previously told fans some tickets would be available from £35 due to the cost of living crisis – but these are already being resold from a minimum of £175.
Tickets for his Newcastle show on March 23 originally selling at £135 per ticket are now going for £450 each at TicketPort.co.uk.
The site is also selling seats worth £65 in Birmingham on March 23 for £275 each – plus a £20 booking fee.
More shows have been added to Mr Kay’s tour for The O2, London on Saturday 24th February 2024, Saturday 23rd March 2024, Saturday 20th April 2024 and Saturday 4th May 2024.
Meanwhile some fans have reported being stuck in a queue to buy tickets on Ticketmaster for hours – as it peaked at more than 300,000 people.
One social media user shared a photo of his screen, showing he was the 334,185th person waiting for access to the tickets.
MailOnline joined the queue at 10.20am and was faced with more than 218,000 people ahead.
By 11.20am, there were still more than 140,000 people ahead of MailOnline.
One Peter Kay fan said: ‘Why is it so difficult to get tickets for anything these days?’
A second added: ‘Where is [sic] Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby when you need them?!’
Others shared amusing memes poking fun at the scale of the challenge for fans to wait for tickets.
Responding to chaos during the pre-sale yesterday, Mr Kay shared a message from his tour promoter.
‘Message from SJM Concerts.
‘We’d like to acknowledge and apologise for a number of technical issues our customers experienced while trying to buy tickets for Peter Kay’s upcoming live tour via the O2 priority pre-sale earlier today.
‘SJM would like to reassure customers that substantial provision has been put in place for the main ticket on-sale this Saturday 12th at 10am.
‘Plenty of tickets will be available throughout the day so please persevere and please buy from official ticket outlets listed on the attached link.’
Mr Kay announced his return to stand-up for the first time in a decade in recent days.
It will be his first live tour since 2010, when he scored the Guinness World Record for the biggest selling run of all time, playing to more than 1.2 million people.
His comeback was announced during an advertisement break in the series launch of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! on ITV.
He said: ‘It’s good to get back to what I love doing best, stand-up comedy, and if there’s ever a time people need a laugh it’s now.
‘And with the cost of living at an all-time high, ticket prices are starting from £35 – the same price they were on my previous tour in 2010.’
