Tickets for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden have gone on sale, and it appears that the frenzy has already resulted in bloodshed among fans anxious to attend.
Loreen, a Swedish singer, won the competition for the second time this year with her song Tattoo, 11 years after she originally won with her legendary song Euphoria.
That meant her nation would host the grandiose event in 2024, with the city of Malmö serving as the centre of the celebrations.
Tickets for the nine arena concerts, including the previews, broadcast semi-finals, and grand finale, went on sale at 9 a.m. this morning.
People rushed to get their hands on the coveted tickets right soon. They discovered, however, that hundreds of thousands of people were ahead of them in the agonising wait.
One guy who screenshotted their waiting page stated that there were over 400,000 people ahead of them in queue… a figure larger than the population of Malmö itself.
According to the city’s official website, the region has 357,377 people as of December 2022, demonstrating how in high demand Eurovision tickets are.
Many people have been grumbling on X (previously Twitter) about how tough it was to simply get through the wait, let alone get tickets for the events.
‘The only way I’ll ever get to see a Eurovision show live is to participating myself 😞 This Ticketmaster show kills me every year,’ one disappointed person wrote.
Another user noted that despite attempting to purchase tickets at 10 a.m. CET (Central European Time), which equals to 9 a.m. GMT, there were already 150,000 people in wait ahead of them.
Someone else revealed that they hadn’t lost faith, despite the odds being against them, writing: ‘🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 I’m about 10 millionth in the queue but we can pray.’
https://twitter.com/RooPritchard/status/1729432405168337010
Me: I'm gonna try for jury final tickets for Eurovision.
Ticketmaster: pic.twitter.com/szeH5bal3G— Liam (@TanookiLiam) November 28, 2023
The #Eurovision ticket queue pic.twitter.com/lMVootTLdN
— Hannah (@hannahkaty) November 28, 2023
MOOD after that mess of a ticket sale #eurovision pic.twitter.com/unrCGxeROh
— La Nigeloia (@nigelw92) November 28, 2023
The population of the Eurovision ticket queue is larger than the actual population of Malmö, Sweden pic.twitter.com/uUVCDkO4JH
— andrew (@and_rew_thom) November 28, 2023
One user provided a snapshot from the Ticketmaster website, which appeared to demonstrate that prospective purchasers were all clustered together, regardless of the individual performances for which they were attempting to acquire tickets.
The message on the site read: ‘Tickets for the Grand Final show are selling fast and availability is low. Please check back later as tickets may become available again or try purchasing a ticket for the other shows.’
The person who shared the screenshot wrote: ‘’Getting this message even though I’m not trying for tickets to the grand final pretty much confirms that Ticketmaster has put everyone – no matter what show they are trying for – into the SAME QUEUE. #Eurovision.’
The official Eurovision Song Contest account on X asked people to be patient and return later.
‘You can still buy tickets for #ESC2024. Availability for some of the shows is low,’ the message read at 12.20pm.
‘If your preferred show does not have any tickets – check back later as tickets may become available again, or try purchasing a ticket for the other shows. Please be patient and stay in the queue.’
