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US fans with tickets to postponed Live Nation shows can request a refund, make a donation or accept a voucher worth 1.5 times the original ticket price
By IQ on 21 Apr 2020
image © Negative Space/Pexels
Fans who have tickets to postponed Live Nation shows in the US can opt to exchange it for a voucher worth 150% of the original value, make a donation to health workers, request a full refund and more under the new Rock When You’re Ready programme.
Following Ticketmaster’s clarification of its refund policy in the United States last week, the ticketer’s parent company Live Nation has laid out a number of options for fans with tickets for postponed events.
Under the programme, which starts from 1 May, ticketholders can retain their tickets for the rescheduled date or swap it for Concert Cash – credit for use on the Live Nation site worth one-and-a-half times the original ticket price.
Fans can also make a donation to frontline health workers through the Hero Nation programme.
Full refunds are also available, if requested within 30 days of the announcement of rescheduled dates. Tickets to cancelled shows will be refunded automatically unless fans voluntarily opt in to other programmes.
Live Nation has laid out a number of options for fans with tickets for postponed events
AEG Presents – along with Live Nation one of the big two global concert promoters – has announced a similar plan, offering a 30-day window to receive refunds for postponed events and automatic refunds on cancelled events, starting from 1 May.
According to Ticketmaster president Jared Smith, 30,000 events it has sold tickets for have been postponed or cancelled due to coronavirus. Of these, 12,000 have been cancelled outright and around 5,000 rescheduled. Promoters are working to reschedule the remaining 14,000 shows.
The question of refunds has been hotly debated, as the coronavirus crisis takes its financial toll on the live sector.
In Europe, a number of industry associations have lobbied for the option for organisers to offer ticket vouchers, with governments in Germany, Italy, Poland and Portugal introducing voucher schemes, and the Dutch national consumer protection agency offering guidelines to sectors wishing to offer credit instead of refunds.
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