Saturday’s opening day of ticket sales to Meijer Gardens members sees glitches and four sellouts of the 29 concerts in the summer amphitheater series.
Another Sellout: Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers’ July appearance at Meijer Gardens already is a sellout.
Once again, the rush was on.
Even members of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park had to have a quick trigger on Saturday morning for discounted tickets offered up as part of the annual pre-sale of shows in the summer concert series at the 1,900-capacity outdoor amphitheater in Grand Rapids Township.
Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene
Many ticket-buyers reported difficulties in securing the tickets they wanted with online and phone purchases, with slow responses and duplicate charges. Meijer Gardens indicated it is monitoring the comments and looking into the situation.
Tickets to see Sheryl Crow on June 16, Harry Connick Jr. on July 17, The Steve Miller Band on July 18 and Steve Martin & The Steep Canyon Rangers (featuring Edie Brickell) on July 29 sold out to members on Saturday, which means these concerts didn’t even make it to public sales of tickets which will begin at 9 a.m. May 11.
And tickets to the Aug. 1 concert by The Beach Boys are very close to selling out, according to public relations manager Andrea Wolschleger.
Sheryl Crow
Three of those sellouts – for Crow, Connick and Martin – occurred within 20 minutes of tickets going on sale Saturday, she said. Sellouts during the member pre-sale have been common during the 10-year history of the outdoor amphitheater, and Martin sold out his first appearance at Meijer Gardens two years ago.
The speedy sellouts irritated some members who complained on Facebook that online traffic prevented them from adding shows to tickets they had already purchased, while others were unhappy with the $8 service fees. Clayton Boothe called it “a very bad ticket-buying experience.”
“We’re looking into the sporadic ticketing issues from Saturday. Once we figure out what happened, we’ll be able to better advise guests,” Wolschleger said. “If members are experiencing issues either online at StarTickets.com or with the toll free number, we recommend they come to our admission desk to purchase tickets.”
See the full summer series lineup and ticket prices online here. More details about the series available online at the Meijer Gardens website.
Email: jsinkevic@gmail.com
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music
