Tickets for the 15th Annual Shambhala Music Festival — August 8 to 13, 2012 — went on sale October 21 with an unprecedented number of sales.
The 7 p.m. release was delayed by half an hour when the site crashed due to the high volume of people visiting. The Shambhala tech team replaced the website with a simple ticket ordering webpage which allowed customers to place orders by 7:30 p.m.
Similar to the 2011 ticket release, the 1,000 “extra early bird” tickets sold out in just a couple of minutes, but what happened next surprised even Shambhala organizers.
“We expected an increase in sales, but nothing like this,” said ticket administrator Sara Victor. “Last year, in the first 24 hours, we’d sold 1,500 tickets. We were guessing we’d do somewhere around 2,200 this year. As it turns out, we sold 4,200 tickets in the first 24 hours of 2012 ticket sales.”
This puts the festival’s ticket sales on par with where they were in January of last year.
The trend of tickets selling out well in advance was evident in festivals celebrating electronic music during the 2011 festival season and 2012 is already set to be another record setting year for electronic music festivals.
Shambhala organizers expect to be sold out before the New Year.
“Our fan base trusts us,” said Corrine Zawaduk, production manager for the festival. “It is several months before we even announce our talent line up and already tickets are selling faster than ever. We offer a world class festival and the word is out,” she said with a smile.
Just under 2,400 tickets of the remaining 5,000 have been taken offline for allocation at ticket stores and for ShambhaLodging packages. Tickets will be available in stores before Christmas.
To order tickets online visit shambhalamusicfestival.com.