Michelle Obama at Southbank Centre: Tickets 'appear on Viagogo for £10,000' after book tour talk sells out

Tickets for the Michelle Obama event at the Southbank Centre are currently on sale for up to £10,000
PA Archive/PA Images
Sophie Williams8 November 2018

Disappointed fans complained after tickets to Michelle Obama’s book talk at the Southbank Centre appeared on secondary ticketing sites for up to £10,000 a ticket after the event sold out.

Those who lost out vented their frustration online as they found touts were selling tickets for thousands of pounds on secondary ticketing site Viagogo.

A spokeswoman for Southbank Centre said tickets found "on sale without our authorisation" would be "identified and cancelled".

Many took to social media to share their outrage after they spotted the highly priced tickets.

However under rules implemented by the Southbank Centre, those with tickets will have to show photographic ID when picking up the tickets on the day.

According to the event page, Ms Obama will discuss experiences that have shaped her from her childhood to her time spent at the White House.

The discussion will be moderated by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of We Should All Be Femenists.

Some 300 of the tickets have been given to secondary school pupils from across London and the UK.

In a statement, Southbank Centre said: "We are delighted that our event Becoming: An Evening with Michelle Obama on 3 December is so popular.

"The capacity of Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall is just over 2700 and due to extreme demand for this event, unfortunately there will be people who are disappointed at not being able to purchase a ticket.

"As is standard, we offer various ways to purchase tickets, online, by phone and in person.

"We have worked hard to ensure that tickets are available to as wide an audience as possible by limiting tickets to two per booker and ensuring there is a lower price point of £30 (which includes a copy of the book RRP £25).

"We are aware that a small number of tickets to this event have appeared on third party resale sites.

"We take secondary ticketing very seriously and aim to discourage this by stipulating that tickets should not be resold for profit or commercial gain.

"If we find tickets on sale without our authorisation by any unauthorised third parties they are identified and cancelled.

"We are in the process of identifying touted tickets and we have contacted third person resale sites and asked them to remove the tickets as resale is against our terms and conditions.

"Tickets will only be available to collect on the night and ticket holders for this event will be required to bring a form of identification."

A spokesperson for Viagogo told the Standard: "Viagogo is a marketplace and doesn’t buy or sell tickets.

"Viagogo provides a platform for third party sellers to sell tickets to event goers. Viagogo does not set ticket prices, sellers set their own prices, which may be above or below the original face value. Where demand is high and tickets are limited, prices increase."

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