26 Aug 2025
Ricky Gervais fans are fuming after tickets for the comedian’s latest Alban Arena gig sold out in minutes – and then ended up on resale sites for hundreds of pounds.
This Thursday’s extra date on the Mortality Tour was pitched by SADC contractor Everyone Active as being sold for fans at the reasonable price of £45.
But when booking opened at 10am on August 15 the ticket server crashed and the available seats sold out in minutes.
Tickets soon appeared on sites like Viagogo for heavily inflated prices.
Local photographer Craig Shepheard was one of those fans who missed out on the gig.
He explained: “I clicked on the button exactly at 10 o’clock, and was 27th in the queue, so thought it looked promising. But when it got to the point where I could select the tickets suddenly 85 per cent had already gone in the first minute.
“So I selected a couple of seats and hit confirm and the server crashed. How annoying! By the time I refreshed the page I was then in a queue to get onto the server, with a couple of error messages saying it had crashed, and when I got back in the whole of the Alban Arena had sold out.
“Now I don’t know if it’s AI bots buying all these tickets as there was a limit of six per person. The Alban Arena in their blurb said they were going to prevent tickets being sold to resale sites and they were meant to be for fans only.
“But just an hour after the tickets went on sale there were already loads on Viagogo. Where they were £45 as the list price they were on there for £316 – that’s just somebody profiteering, that’s not a fan of Ricky Gervais, it’s an absolute mickey take.
“The Arena and Ricky Gervais should go and check out all these bookings and find out who has actually booked these tickets – because it tells you the seat references that they’re selling – and then block them. Hopefully that would stop all these ticket bots from just trying to make a quick buck and do something about this terrible situation.”
Jo Ditch, theatre contract manager for Everyone Active, said in response: “We’re proud to have kept tickets for Ricky Gervais at an accessible price of £45, as agreed with the producers and Ricky himself. The event terms clearly state this is ‘for fans only’ with conditions designed to deter commercial resale and profiteering.
“However, inflated resale is a persistent global challenge affecting venues worldwide, and is being actively investigated in the UK by the Competition and Markets Authority.
“Third-party resale platforms operate within legal boundaries but outside any individual venue’s control, making complete prevention impossible for any venue, regardless of size or location.
“While we cannot eliminate external resale activity, we rigorously enforce every restriction within our control: strict ticket limits (maximum six per person/household), mandatory photo ID checks at entry, and cancellation of any tickets found to breach our terms and conditions.
“Most importantly, we’re committed to educating our community and raising awareness about this issue. We actively encourage fans to be vigilant about where they purchase tickets. Choose reputable platforms like our website, Ticketmaster’s official Fan-to-Fan Exchange, or ethical marketplaces that cap prices at face value such as Twickets or Tixel
“Avoid platforms known for inflated pricing – this protects fans from paying excessive amounts, ensures their tickets are valid for entry, and helps combat exploitative resale practices.
“Fan education is key to tackling this industry-wide problem – the more people understand how to buy safely and ethically, the better we can protect our local community from exploitation.”
