Purchasing Tickets

The rotting remains of 2012's festival
SilverGunnar Hansen
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by SilverGunnar Hansen »

Yeah, I'm coming from Glasgow. I was holding out for more weekend passes, but like others have said, the Twitter feed is pretty adamant that there won't be any more available, so I've just gone ahead and booked passes for the days that are available and I'll get some individual tickets for the Friday. TBH Nightbreed is the main thing I'm excited about that day!
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Re: Ticketing problems

Post by nagelfar »

iomega wrote:the more passes that we put on sale to meet the ever increasing demand, means actually less people attending the event.
I don't get it, can anyone explain that to me? Is it because so many people always fill up the Discovery Screen so there are lots of unoccupied seats on main screen?

I'm not fed up with the FF team, I'm fed up with the shitty reservation system not blocking your seats for at least 30 freaking seconds and I'm fed up with banks just blocking lots and lots of cards (and hotels charging a premium because of Olympics and airlines as well but yeah, that's capitalism, I know).

Looking forward to FF, lineup I think is better than last year :)
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by SilverGunnar Hansen »

Yeah, it's the booking system that annoyed me. Even when I was booking the day tickets, I had to call my bank because they blocked my card since I had to make several transactions in a row because the bloody Empire site won't let you make multiple reservations at once (meaning it's multiple booking fees too).

TBH, 600 weekend tickets in a 1300-seat screen that's rarely full over the weekend doesn't seem like enough, priority should go to the most devoted, which are obviously those wanting to go for the whole weekend. I don't see why they couldn't just put more or less the whole screen onsale/available for weekend buyers then whatever's left could go to day or individual punters. I guess maybe the cinema needs to make more money by selling more individual tickets. I'm glad I'm getting to go, but it's disappointing having had a weekend ticket for years that I'm having to shell out all this extra money, go to extra hassle and miss out on the goodie bag. As long as I get to see the films!
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by TheDukeAbides »

Well, there is a whole year now for Empire to make modifications to their website to avoid this problem - initially by having a countdown timer "you now have X mins to complete your order or lose your seat" - which can be applicable to all seats for all screenings the other 364 days of the year and not just for a manic FrightFest ticket sale day.

As for 'less people coming' if you sell 1300 full weekend passes, you've only got 1300 people seeing your films.

If I remember last year I think I saw about 25 films - for a £160 pass that is only £6-7 per film, as opposed to the £11/12 it was last/this year for individual films.

It isn't necessarily about having full seats but footfall at each screening. Plus of course some seats have to be reserved for VIPs for each day.

Early Bird sales are a good idea, but that could still leave some disappointed, as well as making the following year's Sleepy Q a bit less relevant.
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by ArghZombies »

TheDukeAbides wrote: As for 'less people coming' if you sell 1300 full weekend passes, you've only got 1300 people seeing your films.
True, but there are still only 1300 seats in there so the most each film can be viewed is by 1300 people anyway. OK, you get less people overall attending the festival if all tickets go to weekend passholders, but not sure that's the issue.
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by Malky »

Would there be a demand for Disco & Redisco screen weekend passes? That way if you could not get a main pass you would at least get to attend the festival. Perhaps you could get 5 main screen tickets with it as well to counter the discovery repeats.

I only saw two films in the discovery screen last year; Rabies and A Horrible Way to Die but they were both excellent and a lot better than some of the main screen fare.
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by Kris »

I'm playing devils advocate here but is there a solution?

When the Empire is full then what? Yes we have the argument as hardcore fans we have always been there but what about those who only want to see a handful of the films?

It does make me think how big has FF become now. It's fantastic it is so well known and all the years of building it has reaped the rewards but when you are at the biggest cinema in the UK well where do you go next?

I went to get my tix in person as I knew realistically I had to do that, there's a chance i wont get any booking online or on the phone. Next year I will do the same.
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by morralex »

Kris wrote:I'm playing devils advocate here but is there a solution?

When the Empire is full then what? Yes we have the argument as hardcore fans we have always been there but what about those who only want to see a handful of the films?

It does make me think how big has FF become now. It's fantastic it is so well known and all the years of building it has reaped the rewards but when you are at the biggest cinema in the UK well where do you go next?

I went to get my tix in person as I knew realistically I had to do that, there's a chance i wont get any booking online or on the phone. Next year I will do the same.
This basically.
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by bpbpbp »

morralex wrote:
Kris wrote:I'm playing devils advocate here but is there a solution?

When the Empire is full then what? Yes we have the argument as hardcore fans we have always been there but what about those who only want to see a handful of the films?

It does make me think how big has FF become now. It's fantastic it is so well known and all the years of building it has reaped the rewards but when you are at the biggest cinema in the UK well where do you go next?

I went to get my tix in person as I knew realistically I had to do that, there's a chance i wont get any booking online or on the phone. Next year I will do the same.
This basically.
Where does it end, Kris? Tell me that.

More and more people will join the sleepy q, and the hard core will start queueing earlier and earlier.

Eventually, we could be looking at a week long sleepy q.

Which, actually, would be quite interesting....
I don't remember most of this myself. I only remember the Shogun's ninja hunting us wherever we go. And the bodies falling. And the blood.
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by Kris »

I don't really think you can take it anywhere else though unless you took up more screens in The Empire and doubled up the main screen so what plays on Friday in Screen 1 is then shown in Screen 2 on Saturday much like V Festival or Reading/Leeds. However would you rather watch your films in Screen 1 or Screen 2?

Perhaps I just need to accept its a first come first served basis and just keep coming down and queing as normal.
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by ArghZombies »

Kris wrote:I don't really think you can take it anywhere else though unless you took up more screens in The Empire and doubled up the main screen so what plays on Friday in Screen 1 is then shown in Screen 2 on Saturday much like V Festival or Reading/Leeds. However would you rather watch your films in Screen 1 or Screen 2?

Perhaps I just need to accept its a first come first served basis and just keep coming down and queing as normal.
Either that, or just scrap the sleepy Q all together and have it as all online / phone / in person all available at the same time. Provided the empire booking system can handle it (which it seems may not be the case - although I've not experience that lost-seats issue others are reporting) then at least that will be a level playing-field for everyone.
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by filmfan »

ArghZombies wrote:Either that, or just scrap the sleepy Q all together and have it as all online / phone / in person all available at the same time. Provided the empire booking system can handle it (which it seems may not be the case - although I've not experience that lost-seats issue others are reporting) then at least that will be a level playing-field for everyone.
That is what I would like to see as I think it is the fairest way as everyone is in the same situation. If not as someone said in an earlier post next year even more people will join the sleepy queue, so will there even be any left to sell online and on the phone?

I realise it won't happen though (I imagine it's great from a marketing perspective) so am already thinking of possible alternative festivals for next year. :(
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by SilverGunnar Hansen »

I think a sensible shout would be to have the main programme in 2 screens if it does get so busy in the future (which will have its own problems I'm sure), and have the discovery screen too. As folk have said, some of the best films the last few years have been in there, and some of them definitely wouldn't suit the big screen - I was really grateful for having seen I Think We're Alone Now and A Horrible Way To Die, amongst others, but their rawness might not have suited that huge screen (I wasn't a huge fan, but I can only imagine how nauseating Colin would've been in the main screen on a practical level).

I'm not so sure the Re-Discovery screen is worth a whole screen - I totally think it's a great idea to have another screen but some of the films have been knocking about for a while now, and the Hammer selection is a little under-whelming. Can't grumble cos it's a Brucey bonus.

I also think that alot of the films are never gonna sell out their individual allocations in the main screen, but I can understand the logic of wanting to keep some seats available that way. I still just think it should be first come, first served all the way (obviously that's how it is with the weekend tickets for the first 600, some of us just didn't get lucky this time). I'm with everyone else in loving how successful Frightfest is being, but I also don't wanna see it degenerate into a rat-race.
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by SilverGunnar Hansen »

Another thing - there's no limit on tickets that Sleepy Q punters can buy, I know several other Glaswegians who got their tickets bought for them by people in the Q. If the whole point of the Q is to reward the hardcore, a ticket limit might be fairer.
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Re: Purchasing Tickets

Post by Wiltaim »

In fairness to the FF team , it's tracky balance act decide the number different ticket allocations...as it has to based on current cost & last year's sales.

I think the main issue are :

1. The Empire booking system ( which not going to chanced for a one- off event) due all the sales being the same time ; obviously the time differance between the Sleepy Q & phone/online is to help.

2. Allocation of tickets in a single block :Weekend ,Day & then single tickets

My suggestion would be to schedule different blocks of ticket : 1st sleepy Q , then 1st lot of Weekend phone/online , 2nd
lot of Weekend phone/online then Day ticket then single ticket.

It's much more difficult forecast the numbers when have screen of 1300 seat .... previously ( 800? across the square) knowing you fill all the seats makes the calculation easy .
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