Spend millions to hunt for free 'national concert' tickets

After 7 hours of jostling in a sea of people and witnessing many people fainting, Lan Anh still couldn't get tickets to the concert 'Vietnam in Me', so she had to buy them on the 'black market'.

Thao Vy, from Gia Lam, Hanoi, stood in the first rows, receiving a pair of tickets, on the morning of August 20. Photo: Giang Huy

Lan Anh, 28 years old, from Ba Dinh ward, was very happy when she heard that the organizers were distributing tickets for the live music event "Vietnam in me" on the morning of August 20 at August Revolution Square. She lined up from 3am, believing that this time she would be lucky because she would not encounter the "web crash" like when registering online.

When Lan Anh arrived, she saw hundreds of people waiting since the night before. As the sky grew brighter, more people poured in, and the chaos increased. The screams for order were drowned out by the waves of people pushing and shoving each other towards the ticket gate. The heat and the jostling caused some people to faint. Many people wanted to leave but could not escape the crowd.

"At 9am, the organizers started distributing tickets but after about an hour, they announced that they would stop and continue distributing them in the afternoon. Thousands of people standing behind me were stunned," Lan Anh said. Staying meant they would continue to struggle under the hot sun, and leaving would be a waste of more than 7 hours of waiting. The 28-year-old girl chose to leave and bought tickets on social media for more than 1 million VND.

Lan Anh was one of about 4,000 people present at the Opera House on the morning of August 20 to hunt for 1,000 free tickets distributed on the first morning of the program organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The organizers plan to distribute tickets over three days (August 20-22). Each person with a citizen identification card will receive two tickets.

On the afternoon of August 20, the organizing committee issued an announcement stating that due to the large number of spectators flocking to the Hanoi Opera House, "in order to ensure security, order and have the most thoughtful organization plan, we have decided to temporarily stop issuing tickets." The announcement also affirmed that tickets cannot be bought, sold or transferred in any form. The organizing committee said that they will refuse to issue tickets if violations are detected or will not reissue tickets if they are lost or damaged.

Kieu Van, 25, from Cau Giay Ward, also experienced the feeling of helplessness when hunting for tickets online for events celebrating National Day. Despite mobilizing many devices, she still could not access the registration link for the concert "To Quoc Trong Tim" on the morning of July 31 due to the system being overloaded. After only 10 minutes, the website announced that all tickets were sold out.

She had to go to "black market" groups, where tickets were openly sold for prices ranging from 800,000 VND to 2 million VND. Van spent 4 million VND to buy four tickets for her family. A similar situation happened with the "Proud to be Vietnamese" event on the evening of August 17, Van also proactively bought tickets early.

"This is a once-in-a-decade event, I want my whole family to fully enjoy the heroic atmosphere of the grand celebration," Van shared.

A person is selling a pair of tickets for the show "Vietnam in Me" on social media. Screenshot

However, not everyone accepts buying tickets on the "black market". Thuc Anh, 30 years old, Hung Yen, believes that buying and selling tickets for free events is supporting speculation and profiteering.

Luckily, Thuc Anh received a ticket and someone offered to buy it back for 500,000 VND. She was surprised to see that the ticket price was pushed up much higher on social media. "The tickets are given out for free by the government and cannot be used as a commodity for profit. If you are not lucky, you can watch them online," she said.

A survey by VnExpress shows that since August 10, dozens of groups have been established to "transfer" tickets to free art shows, attracting tens of thousands of members. The largest group has more than 50,000 people, where buying and selling activities take place openly and vigorously.

This topic has created a heated debate. One side strongly opposes it, arguing that the act of selling free tickets creates injustice, takes away the opportunities of others and needs to be dealt with. The other side argues that this is the law of "willing buyer, willing seller", and that people who do not need to go to the show transfer to those who need to and receive a fee is normal.

"This is similar to buying concert tickets for artists. There are always people who book tickets for you and get paid. There's nothing unusual about it. If you feel it's unfair, just register yourself or queue up," a ticket seller shared his opinion.

The widespread sale also led many people to mistakenly believe that this was a ticket sale event. Last week, Ms. Thuy Duong from Lang Son went to Hanoi and spent VND800,000 for a standing ticket and VND2 million for a seated ticket.

"Seeing the tickets being sold publicly, I assumed this was a paid program. Since I came from far away, I quickly bought them so as not to miss the opportunity," Duong said.

According to Master Le Anh Tu, lecturer at the Faculty of Public Relations and Communications, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Finance (UEF), the people's response to events celebrating National Day is a valuable expression of patriotism and national pride. Free programs are organized to create conditions for all people to immerse themselves in the sacred atmosphere of history.

"However, the act of selling free tickets, whether directly or online, must be condemned," said Mr. Tu.

According to him, although buying and selling tickets based on the law of supply and demand is not new, for programs of national significance, political significance and non-profit, this profiteering behavior is inappropriate, not to mention the risk of fraud causing buyers to lose money unjustly.

A representative of the organizing committee of the event "Fatherland in the Heart" confirmed on August 1 that this is a completely free art program, and that tickets are not sold in any form. "We recommend that people do not spend money to buy tickets from unknown sources. The organizing committee has sent a dispatch to the police force to coordinate in handling profiteering subjects," the representative said.

PV (synthesis)

Source: https://baohaiphong.vn/chi-tien-trieu-san-ve-concert-quoc-gia-mien-phi-518653.html