Tens of thousands of fans have been left disappointed today after missing out on the chance to attend an evening with Michelle Obama, as tickets were resold for more than £7,000.
Mrs Obama is coming to the UK for an exclusive event at London’s Southbank Centre to talk in-depth about her life with ‘unerring honesty and lively wit’.
However tens of thousands of fans desperate to see the wife of former US president Barack Obama were left stuck queuing online as they tried to get general sale tickets at 10am this morning.
Disappointed fare now calling upon the venue to live stream the event
Tickets are already appearing for re-sale on ticket website Viagogo with prices starting at £2,700 per ticket and reaching prices of up to £7,000
Mrs Obama is coming to the UK for an exclusive event at London’s Southbank Centre to talk in-depth about her life with ‘unerring honesty and lively wit’
Tickets are already appearing for re-sale on ticket website Viagogo with prices starting at £2,700 per ticket and reaching prices of up to £7,000.
More than 8,500 Southbank Centre tickets were also left waiting in the queue yesterday for pre-sale tickets.
The venue, Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall, has a maximum capacity of 2,700.
Fans are now calling upon the venue to live stream the event.
One Twitter user said: ‘Utterly gutted, especially as members were cut off after 10 minutes of priority booking yesterday. Surely we, as patrons and active supporters of SBC, should have had priority?’
Another added: ‘Not sure what the thinking was behind using a 2,500 seater venue for a speaker with 11.5m twitter followers??! Someone in the events/management team needs a talking to!’
The venue, Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall, has a maximum capacity of 2,700
People took to social media to share their frustration as they desperately tried to get tickets
A message from Southbank Centre to thousands waiting in the queue said: ‘Tickets for Becoming: An evening with Michelle Obama are now unavailable.
‘If you are trying to buy tickets for other events you may want to try again later today. We’re experiencing high levels of traffic at the moment.’
Ticket prices ranged between £30 and £125 went on general sale to the public at 10am this morning.
A spokeswoman at Southbank Centre said: ‘As is standard, we offer various ways to purchase tickets, online, by phone and in person. We have worked hard to ensure that tickets are available to as wide an audience as possible by limiting tickets to two per booker and ensuring there is a lower price point of £30 (which includes a copy of the book RRP £25).
‘For this event, in a commitment to providing access for local schools Southbank Centre and Penguin Live will also be donating 300 free tickets to secondary schools from across London and the UK, as well as some local charities. They will take a seat in the Royal Festival Hall auditorium and along with the rest of the audience will receive a hardback copy of Becoming.
‘Our longstanding arrangements for Southbank Centre members gave them an early chance to apply for pairs of tickets on Wednesday 7 November, with a further allocation then going on general sale the following day.’
At the 90-minute event on December 3 Mrs Obama, 54, will discuss her new memoir, ‘Becoming’, which highlights experiences that shaped her successful life and journey to the White House
The spokesman said tickets on sale by any unauthorised third parties would be identified and cancelled.
The spokesman added: ‘We are in the process of identifying touted tickets and we have contacted third person resale sites and asked them to remove the tickets as resale is against our terms and conditions.’
Tickets will only be available to collect on the night and ticket holders will be required to bring a form of identification.
At the 90-minute event on December 3 Mrs Obama, 54, will discuss her new memoir, ‘Becoming’, which highlights experiences that shaped her successful life and journey to the White House.
The evening will be hosted by Nigerian bestselling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.