Anyone who tried getting Sting tickets at exactly 1PM probably ran into the same issue I did, both the JACC and Knet payment gateway websites crashed. I must have been one of the first people into the booking page since all the seats were still available. Originally I wanted to get Platinum seats but the max budget me and my friends had set was KD75 a ticket and the Platinum were selling for KD175 which was over our budget. So I quickly scanned the ticket prices and found Silver for KD75 and booked 6 seats in the front row. I then proceeded to the checkout page excited that I had gotten great seats, I filled in my knet details and then nothing. It got stuck on “Processing…”
I had multiple tabs open trying to reload the ticket booking page while my Knet order continued to process. When the booking page popped back up to life for a minute I noticed the seats I had chosen were showing as taken, so I figured I still had a chance for my order to go through. Around 20 minutes later with the JACC site still down, my Knet order timed out with an error. At that point, I kept trying to reload the booking page until it finally came back to life. I tried to book the seats the same seats I had originally picked but they were already taken so got similar ones just a few seats down. It was too intense of an experience.
Regarding ticket pricing, below are the prices of all the tickets that were available for sale:
If the JACC website can’t handle this much traffic they shouldn’t launch all the tickets for all their upcoming events on the same day at the same time. They could have made them available at different points throughout the day instead of all at once so their server could handle the traffic. Hopefully, they’ll consider doing that the next time around. For now, I’m just glad I managed to score some good seats for me and my friends.
Update: Since I published the post they shutdown the ticket booking for Sting (and 7 other events) and kept pushing back the relaunch by an hour. I just checked now and they’ve decided to split up the ticket purchasing for their 8 events into half. The first 4 events will go back on sale in around 5 hours time (at the time I’m writing this) while the second batch of events that includes Sting will go back on sale in 2 days time.
42 replies on “The Drama of Getting Sting Tickets”
A while back I booked for a concert that’s at the 02 Arena, and it was through the official ticket provider. What it did, is I chose the pricing tier I wanted, and the number of seats, and it randomly chose two seats for me. I was given the chance to try my luck again for different seats, but it chose the same two for me. When it chose them, it gave me 5 minutes to finalize my booking, so I did. It was so seamless and quick, without any crashing. Sure I couldn’t choose the exact seat I wanted, but it worked
LOL.. you are comparing the O2 experience with anything in Kuwait? You must be joking right?
I tried once the booking went live.
I hour and 10 minutes later still no luck 🙁
Hour and 15 mins and I’m still unable to book. They should really invest in their servers or whatever is needed to fix this.
they closed ticket purchases awhile ago, it will be back online at 3. BUT there are 8 events in total that will be back online at 3 so I have a feeling the site will crash again when they all go live.
exactly…
yeah site is still messed up, now they’ve pushed back the tickets purchases another hour
minimum 150 euros for a ticket at Sting….no way.feels like a robbery
If you wanted to see Sting otherwise, at a minimum you would have to fly to Dubai and spend on a flight and maybe visa + ticket. The convenience of seeing him in Kuwait is worth it 😀
well the interest is very high and the seats are very limited so i’m sure its a delicate balance trying to have tickets that are reasonably priced while also trying to make profit.
For a venue that holds 1637 only I think it is fair.
It’s not like a big arena where you can only see a rice grain moving and hear music blasting.
On the other hand, anything above Gold is not worth it. You’ll need binoculars which they provide but personally I wouldn’t.
Watched Sting live 2 years ago. What a dull experience! He came on stage, sang his hit songs without any interaction with the audience, walked off the stage after about an hour and 15 minutes. Concert over………….the guy has lost it.
Great, i’m not even a Sting fan, I think I know one song forgot what its called though. But since I’m going with a group of friends it should be fun.
ok just checked on spotify, i know two of his songs not one, Englishman in New York and Fields of Gold.
I would expect him to include some Police numbers. You may recognise some of those.
Ah yeah for sure
how have you not heard desert rose?
I guess I’ve just been lucky
If anyone in a wheelchair needs a companion….
Haha, I am offering myself too!
I find your comment quite insensitive. Would you be willing to be a companion to a person in a wheelchair on a visit to their Doctor or helping them go about their daily chore’s. Probably not.
Would Sting be at the hospital?
Lighten up
Why is this being held in the National Theatre and not the concert hall?
Probably cuz it’s a lot bigger and nicer
Sting is undoubtedly one of the most significant musicians since the late 70’s. After disbanding the supergroup “The Police”, he emerged as a solo musician taking a big risk by experimenting with different musical styles that got him recognized as a very versatile musician.
Hi there,
Success….but yes, it was intense. My friends and I tried from several location and on many devices. The 3rd time I tried to pay my CC was declined. So…I called Canada to find out what was happening. One payment went through and a second was pending and they declined the 3rd. Thank goodness!
In the end, I emailed JACC with an authorization number to confirm that I had in fact bought 9 tix, and they responded quickly.
Last night I received an email with my attached tickets. YAY!!!!
Patience persisted.
They are really not managing this well. Selling tickets in timed batches? I’ve never seen anything like this anywhere. They should outsource their ticketing operation. Yes, I understand the demand is overwhelming because there aren’t many concerts around, but still. Finally, I really hope they have more and more rock/pop concerts. Obviously people have a hunger for them here in Kuwait.
This is a shameful affair. Another example of poor planned projects. Nothing is ever thought through a 100%. So much money was invested in the project and they cannot get a decent website running that can handle a few thousand people. Funny thing is we have companies like Cinescape that handle that kind of traffic and continually upgrade their platform. I think they need to lend JACC a helping hand. I’m happy to note however this time around all the tickets were not prebooked by vested interests and there are a few to go around for the public. Pricing? Well that’s another question. I’d personally prefer taking a flight out to Dubai and be part of a crowd.
Wait till Kuwait have concerts regularly and the bots come for those tickets.
You won’t stand a chance and you’ll pay crazy resale prices like a good boy 🙂
Couldn’t care less about Sting but I’m here to say while reading seats classes I thought about Pokemon. No? Okay I’ll see myself out.
I hope those who go enjoy the Sting Experience.. but Paying KD 50 and over to see Sting, in my opinion..and ONLY IN MY OPINION.. is too expensive. He is not putting much effort in his concerts, very basic band with minimum effort, minimla stage set as well as shaky vocals given his age. I want more bang for my KD these days given the hours of work I put every day!… and as I said THIS IS MY OPION. I hope that go enjoy it after all.
What does “restricted view” even mean?
Means there might be something blocking your view or you can see the stage fully
KD75 to SIT and watch an international artist perform doesn’t seem worth it.
In Kuwait, the authorities expect you to sit and enjoy the show as if it’s some opera.
these concerts should be held in open space like a stadium or something like that.
It’s Sting not the Foo Fighters
Yeah.. then a smaller stadium may be?
still can’t understand how can people sit down and enjoy the concert. It’s not an opera or an orchestra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stMaS8edmLI
how it’s suppose to be.
I’ve only been to one concert ever in a stadium and it was foo fighters. stadiums even smaller ones are huge, we definitely don’t have enough interest or a population to fill up a small stadium just for sting. Also his music is basically easy listening so you can enjoy it while sitting. I watched Bob Dylan at the Royal Albert Hall, it was seated as well and it was perfectly fine.
Different people different taste I guess.
BTW in Kuwait you’d probably have to sit even for Foo Fighters 😛
To be fair to JACC, they are trying to manage an impossible situation. The available tickets are around 1700, the demand is conservatively 7000+. What do you do to prevent scalping? Timed batches with windows closing fast. It’s not fun for the average Joe, but what else can they do? The venue is too damn small for these types of shows.
I hope they can think of alternatives for the future like sponsoring events that take place elsewhere, say Al-Shaheed park or even Jaber stadium when the demand is expected to be high. I’m not a Sting fan and I’m interested in going to the show, but I really, really want their efforts to succeed. They are doing a great thing for our country.
“not interested”
” What do you do to prevent scalping? Timed batches with windows closing fast. ” – actually to prevent scalping and providing a first class experience, you outsource your ticket purchasing and logistics to experts who have already solved this problem – you don’t try to re-invent the wheel and then fail.
I’m sorry, but saying that this is the best that they could come up with is letting them off the hook.