Long Waits For Tickets Highlight Record Day For Ravinia Sales
By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 25, 2014 3:10PM
Tickets for the 2014 Ravinia Festival season went on sale at 5 a.m. Thursday and people were complaining of long waits online and on Ravinia’s phone system shortly after. Still, that didn’t stop Ravinia from setting a first day sales record. By 1 p.m. the festival’s website had 3.9 million pageviews, many of them from people pissed at the long wait times to buy tickets to the shows of their choice.
I can empathize. I waited over two hours online to buy lawn tickets to the July 12 Willie Nelson/Alison Krauss concert but was more shocked by the $43 ticket price than the wait time; Ravinia has simply grown to be that popular in recent years. That didn’t stop customers from venting on Ravinia’s Facebook page about the wait times and questioned the festival’s judgment to put all the concerts on sale at the same time.
Ravinia spokesman Nick Pullia said the demand created a backlog and the longest wait time he heard was three hours. Pullia said Ravinia will work to improve the process for next year, including upgrading servers and breaking sales into blocks. Pullia added the crush was an indicator of how popular the pop and rock shows have become. Or they could also mean a Metra ride to Highland Park for a $200 picnic is in vogue. Either way, Ravinia is counting the cash this morning.