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Monday, November 26, 2012

My Anti-Eurovision Post


So today was supposed to be the day where I jumped on Alienhits to excitedly announce that I had gotten tickets to Eurovision 2013 in Sweden, making the pilgrimage for the first time. It's been a weird sort of dream for me... so random and rare for an American pop music lover. And it seemed like the perfect year, given my familiarity and love for Sweden.

I had researched when the tickets went on sale, set my alarm for 12:55 AM last night (even though I had to get up early for work today), and waited in the online queue to hold my tickets. And there were some great seats available to me.

Then, try as I might, ticnet (the lame service in charge of ticketing) would not accept any kind of payment that I wanted to give it. See, ticnet apparently doesn't take any credit, debit or bank charges from countries outside of Europe. Of course, they couldn't have made this clear before I'd spent hours researching flights and lodging and everything. So if you're a Eurovision fan living outside of Europe, you're pretty much S.O.L. By the time I realized I could "call" them and get a chance for tickets (like I was going to attempt that long-distance phone call), the event had sold out.

So that's it, unfortunately. Barring some sort of miracle, I will not be attending Eurovision this year. For those that will be there, have fun. I'll be watching on TV, again :(

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7 Comments:

Blogger Ste said...

We share the same story. Attending my first ESC in Sweden is like a dream come true. Unfortunately I attempted to get tickets to the final via the web site and came to the same abrupt end you did. Fortunately, I was able to arrange VIP tickets to the semi finals through Live Nation - considerably more expensive, but perhaps worth exploring. The email address is listed on this page: http://www.eurovision.tv/page/malmo-2013/about/tickets
Good luck and hopefully your dream can come true!

12:16 AM  
Blogger alesta said...

It probably won't cheer you up that I say they had actually made it clear beforehand that non-European credit cards wouldn't be accepted.... the stupidest move ever, though. On the brighter side: There will be more tickets made available later when the camera positions and stuff are sorted out and I guess also after the fan packages has been distributed among those who want them.

3:09 PM  
Blogger Nick said...

Where was this announced? I thought I had followed the whole thing pretty closely but never saw any info about US cards. The thing is, even if they release more tickets, I doubt whether they'll make them easy for foreigners to obtain :(

4:04 PM  
Blogger Nick said...

And thanks for the idea, Ste. I really had my heart set on tickets for the televised event, but I'm glad you got some!

4:05 PM  
Blogger alesta said...

It says hereyou can use your non-European card if you call to order: http://www.eurovision.tv/page/malmo-2013/about/tickets Not really a really easy option I must say.

11:31 AM  
Blogger ReallyRandy said...

How do you see on the telly in America?

1:28 PM  
Anonymous JC said...

Yea, how do you watch on tv in the states?

1:04 PM  

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