Bruce Springsteen is having the ticket year from heck. The most recent issue making headlines has to do with hundreds of fans getting denied access to a recent show thanks to ticket fraud.
Many of the “Born in the U.S.A.” singer’s fans at a show in Munich, Germany, on Sunday (July 23) were denied access to the Munich Olympic Stadium after buying fake tickets, according to reports. The counterfeit tickets were purchased online for upwards of €600, the fans said.
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According to Live Nation spokesperson Katharina Wenisch, there were some 200 to 300 concertgoers who had to be turned away, reported the German publication SZ. That outlet also reported that another counterfeit incident happened the week prior on July 18 in Austria.
“The higher the desire, the greater the risk that people will buy on the secondary market if there are no more tickets from the official providers,” added Wenisch.
Unfortunately, for fans of the Boss, this wasn’t the only ticketing issue this year. Springsteen, whose tour of Europe is now over, has had his fair share of ticketing issues this year. The rocker made headlines some eight months ago when tickets for some of his North American tour dates hit a whopping $5,000.
“What I do is a very simple thing,” Springsteen told Rolling Stone. “I tell my guys, ‘Go out and see what everybody else is doing. Let’s charge a little less.’… For the past 49 years or however long we’ve been playing, we’ve pretty much been out there under market value. I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been great for the fans. This time I told them, ‘Hey, we’re 73 years old. The guys are there. I want to do what everybody else is doing, my peers.’ So that’s what happened. That’s what they did.”
In the interview, Springsteen admitted that ticket pricing has become very confusing for fans and the artists, but that most tickets of his are still more modest in price.
“Ticket buying has gotten very confusing, not just for the fans, but for the artists also, and the bottom line is that most of our tickets are totally affordable,” said Springsteen. “They’re in that affordable range. We have those tickets that are going to go for that [higher] price somewhere anyway.
“The ticket broker or someone is going to be taking that money,” he continued. “I’m going, ‘Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?’ It created an opportunity for that to occur. And so at that point, we went for it. I know it was unpopular with some fans, but if there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.”
Fans—especially those who missed out—can see some footage of the show below.
Photo by Octavio Jones/Getty Images