The Irish band U2 is popular in Spain, but not so popular that their tickets can sell out almost immediately after sales are opened online. Spain’s Culture Minister has requested police to investigate possible fraud after websites almost immediately started offering tickets for the September 20 concert for resale at highly inflated prices.

Second U2 concert offered after tickets sell out – that sells out too

When ticket sales began for the U2 concert to be held at the WiZink Center in Madrid on September 20, fans were shocked that almost immediately all tickets were sold out online.

After the first show was sold out, U2 announced a second concert date in the city at the 16,000-seat venue. The next problem for fans was that most of the tickets for the second show on September 21 also almost completely sold out on Friday (Feb. 2), soon after they were offered.

Inigo Mendez de Vigo, Spain’s Culture Minister, stated at a local news conference that it isn’t normal for tickets to sell out so quickly after being offered on the internet. Within less than a day, there were none left.

Tickets immediately offered for resale at high prices

Almost immediately after the tickets sold out, various Spanish classified ad websites started offering U2 tickets for resale at exorbitant prices. The Local quotes the normal ticket prices as being from between €35 and €195 ($43.50 and $242), but the websites were offering tickets for up to €500 ($623).

Officials believe ticket scalpers had used software bots to purchase all the concert tickets, ready for resale at the highly inflated prices. Some ads offered two pens at a high price of several hundred euros, which they claimed would also include two allegedly “free” concert tickets.

The Culture Minister went on to say this possible ticket scalping can only hurt fans of the Irish group as if they wish to see the U2 concert, they then have to pay those higher prices online.

Similar problems have occurred before in Spain with ticket scalping for other popular concerts. El Comercio reports that a government commission was set up during 2017 to investigate the situation and also look at what changes can be made to the laws in Spain to prevent scalping from happening.

U2’s ‘eXPERIENCE & iNNOCENCE’ tour

The U2 concert in Madrid is part of their “eXPERIENCE & iNNOCENCE” tour.

As reported by NME, the European leg of their tour starts in August and runs through to October. Other venues for their performances include Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Cologne, Hamburg, Lisbon and Milan. After this, the band will head to the UK for performances in London and Manchester.
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