Journey fans urged to avoid resale sites before Honolulu concert ticket sale

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The promoter behind Honolulu’s upcoming Journey concert is warning fans after hundreds of concert ticket listings are appearing online.

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The problem: official tickets have yet to go on sale.

Presale tickets for the Sept. 8 performance are scheduled to go live on Ticketmaster at 9 a.m. Friday, June 26, for Hawaii residents. Tickets open to the general public at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 3.

Yet, according to promoter Rick Bartalini, more than 676 listings are already advertised on secondary marketplaces, with some seats listed as high as $1,400.

“Before shows even go on sale, these websites like StubHub, Vivid Seats, SeatGeek, and GameTime list tickets they don’t even have in hopes that they will get them,” Bartalini explained. “I had a situation with Carrie Underwood where this woman bought four tickets for $9,000 and they didn’t even have the seats.”

Bartalini says he’s working with state lawmakers to curb the practice by looking at potential regulations on ticket scalping, similar to Maine.

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The Hawaii State Legislature took its first step with the approval of a task force to examine how ticket scalping impacts Hawaii’s consumers and economy.

Bartalini said, “We’re going to meet this summer and get people involved, like consumers and venues and venue operators, and (we’re) going to make recommendations” by the end of the year.

Until then, Bartalini advised fans to stick with the official ticketing provider and avoid purchasing tickets through unauthorized resale marketplaces before tickets are officially released.

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