Despite some ticketing system snafus in April, Meijer Gardens sold out 18 of its summer concerts to its members in little more than an hour. Revisit Local Spins’ coverage as part of our year-end countdown.
Quick Sellout: The June Greensky Bluegrass concert sold out even before Billy Strings became a surprise guest. (Photo/Steve Baran/Featured in the 2025 Local Spins Calendar Available Here)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Local Spins’ countdown of its Top 20 most-read stories of the year continues with revisiting our coverage of the first day of summer concert ticket sales by Meijer Gardens in April.
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On a day of myriad celebrations — pot/marijuana/cannabis advocates commemorating 4/20 with parties and special discounts, and vinyl devotees embracing Record Store Day with giveaways and deals — some music fans spent April 20, 2024 trying to buy tickets for the most extensive summer concert series in the history of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, system glitches foiled some buyers’ attempts to purchase tickets for their desired shows. At one point, the Meijer Gardens website shut down not long after ticket sales opened at 9 a.m.
Complaints ranged from long delays to ticket buyers getting an error message just as they were completing their purchases to members having difficulty getting their membership codes to work properly. This came after Meijer Gardens switched ticket providers from eTix.com to AXS.com after encountering first-day sales issues in 2023.
With the Meijer Gardens site down today, members were encouraged instead to access tickets via AXS.com/meijergardens.
Error Messages: Seen by some ticket buyers today.
“We had an extreme surge in demand of nonmembers accessing both AXS and the Meijer Gardens website,” Meijer Gardens announced in a statement that morning.
“We have worked with our partners at AXS to relaunch the purchase process and tickets are flowing again for members only and selling quickly. The updated process requires you to select one concert and complete checkout, after which the process can be repeated for additional concerts.”
Despite the snags, 18 of the season’s 33 concerts sold out in little more than an hour, starting with Gin Blossoms/Toad the Wet Sprocket/Vertical Horizon (Aug. 5), Jason Mraz (July 17) and My Morning Jacket (July 1).
Not long after that, tickets for Greensky Bluegrass, O.A.R., Black Pumas, Bonnie Raitt, Mat Kearney, Old Crow Medicine Show, Bruce Hornsby (with Grand Rapids Symphony), The Temptations/Four Tops, The Wallflowers, Boyz II Men, Kansas, Blues Traveler/Big Head Todd & The Monsters, Fitz & The Tantrums and Michael Franti & Spearhead sold out. By noon, Five For Fighting (Aug. 11) also had sold out.
The Reddit site was filled with more than 200 comments by unhappy ticket buyers who called the process “frustrating,” “absolutely insane” and even suggesting Meijer Gardens scrap online ticketing and go back to in-person, first-day sales. (Meijer Gardens “limited” comments on its own Facebook page.)
Jason Mraz: One of today’s first sellouts. (Photo/Shervin Lainez)
“This is really disappointing, especially after spending so much time waiting,” ticket buyer Darci Fawcett-Austin posted at Local Spins.
Jack Clark insisted “the system is broken. I know several friends that were not able to purchase tickets, not because they weren’t in line in time or any fault of their own, but because of ticketing issues once again.”
Added Sara Dailey: “They should have shut it down completely and started over on another day with clear communication to the members. People that were in the waiting room and ready to go got hosed and missed out on shows they wanted. Such a mess.”
Still, Meijer Gardens insisted “we are confident that the high website demand issues from earlier have been resolved” and noted that tickets had continued to sell.
View coverage of Meijer Gardens 2024 concerts at Local Spins here.
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