Eurovision fans were left disappointed after tickets they’d purchased to watch Saturday’s final never arrived.
According to Variety, a number of fans purchased tickets for the Eurovision final in Turin, Italy (pictured), from resale site Viagogo. However, as it got closer to the event, the tickets failed to arrived before customers received an email to say that the tickets were no longer available.
One Eurovision fan, Hila from Israel, had ordered four tickets for her daughter’s bat mitzvah which cost almost $5,500 (£4,412/€5,248). However, just one day before the Eurovision final was due to take place, Viagogo emailed Hila to say that the seller was unable to provide the tickets and that she would be refunded. Hila and her family had already travelled to Italy for the final.
Another fan, Juan Carlos Orihuela Cuesta from Spain had purchased three tickets from Viagogo in February. He told Variety that at the end of April, he received an email from Viagogo to say that the seller could not provide the original tickets but would receive different tickets and compensation. However, two days before the event, he was told that no tickets would be provided at all.
In a statement to Variety, a Eurovision spokesperson said: “The Eurovision Song Contest does not work with Viagogo. While we are obviously disappointed to hear that any fans of the Contest have been scammed, we make it clear on our ticketing page that tickets can only be resold through the website FanSale(.it) and resale on any other site explicitly prohibited.”
Eurovision was won by Kalush Orchestra of Ukraine while Britain’s Sam Ryder finished in second place, with Spain third.
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