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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Lisa McLoughlin

Peter Kay tour tickets selling for £1,000 after early-access seats sell out in minutes

Tickets for Peter Kay’s upcoming comedy tour are going for £1,000 on resale sites

(Picture: Handout)

Fans of Peter Kay have been left disappointed after tickets to his upcoming shows are fetching as much as £1,000 on resale sites.

The comedy legend announced his highly awaited tour earlier this week following a long hiatus from the public eye and pre-sale tickets have been flying off the shelves ever since.

Customers of O2 priority were able to purchase tickets early but many reported glitches and website crashes in their attempts to bag a pair.

Tickets were originally priced from £35 but are now being sold for as much as £1,179 for his Birmingham show while his London gig is fetching £944 per seat on resale sites such as Viagogo.

The O2’s priority website and app crashed on Thursday morning as Peter Kay fans scrambled to snap up tickets to the comedian’s comeback stand-up tour.

Many fans were left upset at seeing the tickets on the resale sites following O2 crashing and took to Twitter to air their frustration at the time.

One penned: “Yes it’s a joke tho mate on the resale sites there up for a grand so someone is dodgy or something is going on” (sic).

Another posted: “Tried 8 times just crashes every time code entered. fuming.”

Kay announced on Sunday he is returning with a live comedy tour - his first in 12 years - which is due to start in December and run until summer 2023.

He also announced he will be performing a monthly residency at London’s O2 Arena, in Greenwich. He will become the first comedian to be given his own residency at the venue.

Tickets went live for those with O2 priority access at 10am on Thursday - 48 hours before becoming available to the general public.

But “extraordinary” demand left the customers struggling to reach its website or app.

Apologising to customers on Twitter shortly after 10am, O2 said: “We’re seeing unprecedented demand for Peter Kay tickets & we know a lot of you can’t access Priority. Sorry, we’re working on it.

“Please be patient; this is by far the highest demand we’ve ever seen for Priority Tickets in 15 years. The presale lasts for 48h so keep checking.”

The priority website was still down for some customers at around 1pm.

O2 assured that tickets were being successfully purchased, and urged people to “keep trying”.

Announcing his tour on Sunday, Kay said: “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.”

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