U2 are to play a second concert in Auckland next year after tickets to their St Patrick's Day concert sold out in record time on Monday morning.
All 38,000 tickets to the Irish rockers March 17 show at Auckland's Ericsson Stadium sold out in just an hour and a half.
The second concert will be on March 18 at Ericsson and tickets will go on sale on Monday December 12.
Tickets to the first concert went on sale at 9am on Monday and while the ticketmaster website dealt with heavy overloading hundreds of fans tried for their tickets the traditional way, lining the streets in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Real Groovy manager Steve Richards - a ticketing agent for the concert - was amazed by the response.
"It's been crazy with a huge queue around the block of Real Groovy...it's pretty amazing," says Richards.
Tickets with a face value ranging from $99 to $199 sold are already being sold on auction site Trade Me for $3000 and climbing. That has angered many fans.
"The tickets have all sold already and I've only just got here - whatever the time is - and they're gone," said one of the unlucky fans to miss out.
But things turned out better for some fans who lined up all night to get their hands on the priceless tickets.
"Ecstatic barely describes it...it was definitely worth the wait," said one fan.
U2 haven't played in New Zealand for 12 years and last month's announcement that they would play dates both here and in Australia on the Vertigo world tour had been rumoured for some time.
-- One News/RNZ
Copyright © 2005 One News/RNZ. All rights reserved.
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we tried getting tickets and thanks to those people who only brought them to make a profit we are unable to go. i think society is disgusting!
As an Aussie fan i am so pissed off at scalpers here. People in Brisbane buying NINE tickets to Melbourne shows then scalping them all, for 6 times the original price... is there a way that karma can bight these people in the ass or can i just find them and drop a piano on them!?!?!
FFS these people are EVIL!!!!!!!
Dry your eyes Tara. It's not the scalpers who let the fans down. It's the promoters. They're the ones who allowed an 8 ticket minimum. How many 8 people families do you know of? I think it was all a ploy to encourage second shows in Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne. I saw 2 pairs of double tickets for the first Sydney concert sell on ebay for $4000AUS a pair! Thing is, they each attracted 55 + 48 bids for each auction. There's nothing wrong with that. That's simply a free market economy in action. The wimpish threat from promoters saying those people buying off ebay will be turned away is rubbish. They can't stop it. I missed tickets for the first show in Sydney, but thankfully got 2nd show tickets. I wonder how those buyers felt after realising there was going to be a second show? That's the Karma you speak of baby!