Numerous reports of touting of tickets to Trinity Ball have circulated widely online in recent days, with ticket holders reselling their tickets significantly above the original price.
Tickets for Trinity Ball originally went on sale on March 23 for €91, with 7,500 tickets selling out in under an hour. Buyers were permitted to purchase up to two tickets. Since the original sale of tickets, many ticket holders have sought to sell their spare tickets at a markup in order to make a profit.
In a Tweet shared on Tuesday, one student reported that they had been approached with the offer of a ticket for €150. Speaking to Trinity News, the student said that they responded to a message from a friend in a WhatsApp group with the offer of a ticket, expecting the offer to be at face value.
They were then told by the seller that they were looking for €150 for the ticket, €59 above the original price. The student said this made them “genuinely question whether they were being unreasonable for expecting the ticket at face value”.
“Why did they believe this was normal and not completely fucked up?” they added.
The student said they did not buy the ticket in the end after their friends talked them out of it and “made [them] realise how absolutely ridiculous this was”.
The student added that they did not report the ticket touting to the event organisers as they didn’t want to go to the effort, adding that they “[didn’t] know what the TBall committee could’ve done about it anyway”.
“I was told someone ended up buying the ticket so I didn’t want their second hand ticket to be revoked either,” they continued.
The student added that the experience was disappointing and made them feel excluded.
Another student posted a screenshot to Twitter of their interaction with an individual reselling a ticket.
After reaching out about the ticket on offer, the student was asked “what’s your budget to buy it HAHAH”. When they replied that they had hoped to pay face value, the seller said “I bought one to make some money on it.” After realising that the seller was looking around for the highest bidder, the student reported the touting.
“It was both a matter of principle and the fact that I don’t have money,” they told Trinity News. “I’ve been out of work since December… anything over [€91] is literally not possible for me.”
“I understand that people will be willing to pay more but I really don’t think that’s fair,” the student continued. “We missed out on two Trinity Balls because of Covid, and people are desperate to have the experience.”
After reporting the touting, the organisers responded within 24 hours saying that they would revoke the tickets of the seller.
Earlier instances of ticket touting saw requests as high as €900 for people’s spare Trinity Ball tickets. In messages seen by Trinity News, one seller advertised a ticket on April 10 for €400 in Halls Marketplace, a 188-member WhatsApp group for residents of Trinity Hall to sell and exchange goods. In the following days, other members advertised tickets in the group for €250, €300, and €900, with sellers noting that “price is negotiable”.
The resale of tickets above face value is outlawed in Ireland under the Sale of Tickets Act 2021. Trinity Ball is a designated event under the Act, making the touting of Trinity Ball tickets illegal.
Trinity News has asked TCDSU for comment.
Trinity Ball takes place Friday, April 22.
