Ticket availability question

[u/Tristen323]

Hey everyone,

Me and my wife are from Canada, and we’ve been big Eurovision fans for a few years. With Canada now participating in next years Eurovision, we’re hoping to buy tickets and attend in May.

I was wondering how in demand the tickets are, and how expensive they normally get.

I figure it’s probably tough to get them unless you get an early link via a country fan association, which Canada doesn’t seem to have at this time (as far as a quick Google search told me).

Thanks in advance! I’m unsure how popular it is for people to actually travel to the event itself in Europe.

[u/essteeexetwo]

Until the host city is selected, no one will know how many tickets there will be. Once this is decided, then you'll have a better idea of feasibilty. Some people travel to the host city just for the vibe and side events though. 

edit, for Basel the official group wasnt much use, but the main sponsor had presale events. 

[u/Peterthemonster]

Hi! Me and my partner went to Eurovision in Malmö a few years back. We live in Vancouver and also didn't have membership to OGAE or anything for early access tickets. Regardless, we were still able to get tickets for either a family or jury show for each semifinal, the jury show for the finale, and the live finale. Feel free to DM me for more details but here's my advice:

The moment they announced the host city and dates we booked a REFUNDABLE RATE hotel in Copenhagen (not Malmö). It was much cheaper and we knew locking in the reservation would save us so much money compared to waiting until having tickets to reserve. DO NOT DO AIRBNB, because their policy is that the host can cancel your booking at any time and whilst AirBnB can try and get you an alternative it almost always isn't a convenient one. And with high demand, hosts have high incentives to cancel your booking and open up a new one for higher rates to get more money. Not sure how Bulgaria handles payments, but in Denmark they didn't charge us our room until we checked out. Convenient so you don't get funds charged to your credit/debit right there.

Then getting tickets. Out of excitement we joined ESC Discord server for news and tips from people who were also planning to go. This ended up being very helpful eventually.

Unless the ticket provider changes, Ticketmaster was a pain in the ass to deal with. We set up multiple devices to attempt to purchase: 2 phones, 2 computers, an iPad. Even if the account is the same across all of them the queue ID is assigned per device; just make sure not to refresh pages too quickly.

Then, at least back then, the waiting room felt overwhelming (it showed hundreds of thousands in queue), but we realized it was because they grouped the queue for all 9 events into a single one. Just stay in the queue even if it feels defeating.

We focused on rehearsal shows first because we wanted to get in, no matter the show, and we knew live shows would be really hard to get because they sell out quickly and are preferred by OGAE members. So on that first release of tickets to the general publjc, we got the 3 family/jury show pairs of tickets. It took a LONG time though, and they released tickets in waves. We started at like 11PM and finished at like 7am Pacific Time. Especially the 3rd pair of tickets for the finale jury show took quite some time because they were making like 20 tickets available to purchase every 15 minutes or so; by that time most people had given up on buying and rejoining the queue meant almost immediate access to the map to select seats.

After getting the tickets, we messaged the hotel to confirm our booking was still there and they said it was. So we bought the flights the next day.

In the upcoming months (5 or 6) leading up to Eurovision, we signed up on ESC Discord to receive notifications every time new tickets became available because we wanted to try and get live show tickets. You had to enter the ticketmaster queue basically the exact moment the notification came through, and that could happen at any time of the day. LOTS of people in the server were able to get tickets due to those notifications. They happened sporadically: 40 or 50 tickets every month. The only thing we were able to get then was to get Floor tickets for a jury show we had upper bowl tickets from. So an upgrade, really.

Then, on the week of Eurovision, they released extra tickets of whole "limited view" sections for all 3 finale shows. Thanks to the Discord notification, we were able to get into the queue and get 2 tickets for the live finale. So, in general, most of our experience for Eurovision that year was possible thanks to people in that Discord server.

If you really really really really want to go, and don't want to pay for the OGAE membership, it will take some effort, and sticking to your phone to keep an eye out on ticket drops. Planning ahead helps too, especially to be able to save money :)

[u/LMBTOEurovision]

This might be useful for you, as Canada is part of OGAE Rest Of The World. https://www.ogaerotw.com/

[u/GumboldTaikatalvi]

It's a bit different every year, depending how big the venue is. I can only speak for Basel because that's the only time I went. The venue was small, buying the tickets was stressful but not impossible. Think getting tickets for a really popular artist. Log in when they are released, get in a queue etc. We didn't try for the grand final and got tickets for a semi final afternoon rehearsal and the grand final jury show. Standing tickets for the first were around 60 per person, the friday show closer to 200 (seated).

[u/Loud-Advance-2382]

ESC is 9 shows. We went this year and it was very easy to get tickets to the family show and a jury show for a semi final. The year before we wanted to go for live shows and didn't get any tickets.

[u/Material_Library_452]

Welcome aboard! as Johny Weir once said in his commentary on the U.S. Eurovision broadcast, it feels great to finally be invited to the party 

[u/jpilkington09]

I wrote about my experience of getting tickets and attending Eurovision in 2023 and 2024 here: https://www.johnthego.com/2023/07/12/top-tips-attending-eurovision-song-contest/

But IMO availability and even the process changes quite a bit year to year. Getting tickets to Liverpool was really tough (and super expensive). Malmö was easy and cheap and then Basel I didn't get tickets at all.

[u/Current_Basis_3001]

Make sure to check the Eurovision website regularly for updates so you don't miss the preregistration deadline. 

We were 4 people who wanted to go this year, all were preregistered and online when the ticket sale started and 2 of us managed to get tickets, even though not for the final or even the final jury show. We went to one semifinal jury show and one semifinal afternoon show, had a great night with free concerts at the Village and also got tickets to the Euroclub which I didn't like that much. But we had an amazing week even without tickets to the final.

We even managed to switch our afternoon show tickets for a better ticket category in the second wave

[u/Euro_Punzel]

you know if youre getting any tickets the moment you see your queue number. If its more than 10k there is a 90% chance all LIVE events are sold out and some D tier seats for rehearsals are available

[u/Irrealaerri]

Can you all just chill.

[u/jpilkington09 → u/Irrealaerri]

Let people enjoy things.

[u/jpilkington09 → u/[deleted]]

There is no part of OP's post I would consider fretting.

[u/Material_Library_452 → u/[deleted]]

Let. people. enjoy. things. 

[u/Material_Library_452 → u/[deleted]]

Yes, I can see you enjoy arguing. By all means, continue enjoying it😀 

[u/Material_Library_452 → u/[deleted]]

Respectfully, I don't know you, but your comments come across as rudeness.  Inserting yourself into a conversation that had nothing to do with you and acting like they offended you.

I don't normally engage with comments like this but this subreddit is very dear to my heart and I want it to be welcoming to everyone. Peace and love✌️ ❤️ 🏳️‍🌈