Thousands of fans found disappointment in Denver on Monday, as tickets for Hamilton went on sale and the demand crushed the supply, leading to extraordinary delays and system glitches. Even worse, apparently a number of customers were able to use a special link that bypassed the entire queue, swooping in and grabbing tickets while other fans were stuck waiting.
Tickets for the show went on sale online and in person at 10 a.m. A link surfaced online that when clicked on, allowed people to bypass the virtual waiting room where thousands sat waiting for tickets, and took them directly to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ site to purchase the tickets.
Bryce Perica said he was the 90,000 person in line for tickets. He knew someone even further back then him and was surprised to see they got tickets. He later learned that person had used this link that got them in the virtual backdoor.
“It’s disappointing when you follow all the rules, you expect to get somewhere and you don’t,” said Perica.
Other hiccups with the DCPA sale included some consumers who found themselves able to purchase tickets before the official onsale began at 10AM, and others reportedly being able to purchase more than the four ticket limit for the limited engagement of Lin Manuel Miranda’s smash hit, which remains one of the hottest tickets on Broadway.
The venue has said that its IT department is examining what happened, and also combing its sales to see if there was any illegal software bot activity. It says it will cancel any sales it deems to be fraudulent.
As is so often the case, particularly with Hamilton, venue officials did not make public information about how many tickets were available to the public in the face of such high demand. Holdbacks often deeply diminish the number of seats that can be purchased in an onsale, which means that the 90-plus thousand fans who hoped to purchase tickets to the show may have never had much of a chance in the first place. Those who didn’t succeed in getting tickets through the regular sale (or the backdoor link, which reportedly had been deactivated by Monday night) will have a shot at a $10 per seat lottery at each performance.
The show opens on February 27 and runs through April 1 at the Buell Theatre.
