Whenever you’re looking to buy a music festival pass, buying directly from the festival’s website is usually your best bet. However, some festivals like EDC Vegas sell out weeks or months in advance, causing hopeful attendees to look through third-party websites like StubHub and Craigslist. This results in many criminals posting fake tickets to such sites to make a quick profit, or some sellers to sell their tickets, report them as fake and receive new wristbands while simultaneously preventing the buyer from entering the festival (an especially devious deception).
The deadly cycle only continued this past weekend at EDC Vegas’ 2016 event, held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. A source told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that an estimated 1,000 wristbands were caught and confiscated during the three-day festival in an effort to prevent more scams from occurring. Many of the false wristbands had been used from previous iterations of the festival, or had been deactivated after the original ticket holders maliciously reported the wristbands as lost or stolen.
While tickets were sold out via Front Gate, EDC Vegas’ official ticket provider, Insomniac Events advised prospective attendees to purchase tickets through PrimeSport, the festival’s official ticket exchange service. Unfortunately, the risk of purchasing fake tickets is a very real possibility when buying from third party sellers for a sold-out event. We only hope this trend is curbed for future festivals.
