Advanced ticketing for nightclubs C or D

I can't help thinking something is being lost with regular nights and guest nights in nightclubs being sold in advance. It was a point of difference from other cultural activities, gigs etc. that you turned up on the night and, if it was a busy night you turned up and waited in the queue. It's part of the whole process/ritual of going to clubs which helps to set it apart.

I run a monthly with a friend and every fb event page is full of requests for people asking where they can buy tickets which is followed by surprise *does not compute* that you just wait and pay at the door, although ours is a small venture and we are reasonably selective about admission.

But there's something deflating about e.g. fancying going along to see DJ Sprinkles and finding out that it sold out three months ago in 10 minutes to people who follow twitter feeds or events sites etc and know about these things.

I'd call it a resounding Dud.

i'd agree - dud. we do it very, very occasionally (i.e. apart from hogmanay or when we had a very expensive live act playing we have only done it twice), but then only ever put a maximum 50% of the tickets on sale pre-sale. still, as you never venture out to clubs i'm surprised this bothers you.* is sprinkles playing glasgow and is sold out? surprise if that is so.

btw, one advantage of selling tickets in advance is that you can almost guarantee that 10 - 20% of people who bought tickets way in advance won't actually turn up, so it's free money.

the sprinkles thing was when he played in london but it famously did sell it in minutes - I just couldn't think of any other name to list as i never go out** so i don't know dj's! let's just say theres something frustrating about the notion of (any normal punter who isn't me) simply going to the sub club because they were out and had the notion but then finding out that it sold out months ago.

we have pre-sold three hogmanay parties and so i did realise how many people simply don't show up but was still surprised at the %s. they've actually been some of the quietest nights we've put on as i haven't managed to get the maths right so far.

Life is full of anxiety inducing nonsense and stresses, escape and reverie is essential so this should be as easy as possible, that means being able to pay on door OR buy a ticket. Whatever involved the least amount of thinking or planning, activities which chip away at the soul

If something is sold out then the joy has been removed, and its just another trudge, waiting in line for a man on the door to crush any remaining vibe that has survived this far

I can see why promoters, especially new ones, do it. If you want to put on a night with a 'big name' and cover the attached costs you would welcome anything that could reduce your sleepless nights. It's pretty much dud for going out though. Having said that there are relatively few cult DJs I am interested in seeing that have a mass appeal. I really hate the tiered pricing as well. Early bird tickets for 5 and then last minute tickets for 25..

i can totally understand why clubs do it but do think it totally sucks if you just want to go along on the night. most clubs in glasgow who do pre-sales do tend to hold back tickets for the night. one other reason i'm loathe to do any pre-sales is when we have done it and the pre-sales have sold out, word gets around that the whole night is sold out and people just go somewhere else. i prefer the stress of wondering if anyone will actually turn up on the night.

Is London the worst for this? I don't seem to find this so much in the rest of the UK or in Europe.

thats a great post, saer. i just tried to "like" it.

one other reason i'm loathe to do any pre-sales is when we have done it and the pre-sales have sold out, word gets around that the whole night is sold out and people just go somewhere else. i prefer the stress of wondering if anyone will actually turn up on the night.

when i booked a club (only some of it was "club" music though), for many years we didn't even do pre-sales. We'd only do them when there was someone "big" that we'd get enough anxious calls or emails worrying about it being sold out and wanting to make sure they could get in. But we'd do like 30% of capacity as pre-sales, maximum. Plenty of people who bought advance tickets will have friends that they want to go with them to the show at the last minute, and it would suck if the friends couldn't get in. Keeping our reputation that people can always show up the night of and get in was important.

Most clubs in London sell an allocation in advance and keep a load for sale on the door, which seems the best way bar just selling the whole lot on the door. TBH when I was going clubbing regularly in London I don't remember buying many tickets in advance, it just didn't occur to me that this would be a thing you would need to do, and it pretty much never was.

Selling an entire club's worth of tickets out in advance strikes me as a surefire way of killing spontaneity stone dead, and nights out are all about spontaneity. Nowadays if I thought something was likely to sell out I'd buy a ticket, but I only if I wanted to go so much it was basically a certainty.

I think the last night I actually bought a ticket for was an event when a load of friends were going and everyone else had bought tickets, so fear of missing out trumped everything else. Then it turned out to be in a damp cold multi-storey car park with dodgy portaloos and was maybe two-thirds full at best, so I needn't have bothered.

it's good for anyone out of town who wants to know they'll get into a show, complete dud for people who get denied at the door due to being sold out when the venue isn't technically full because some ticket buyers didn't show up