More than 10,000 ‘unscrupulous’ attempts were made for tickets set aside for Ariana Grande fans who were at the bombed concert

More than 10,000 “opportunists and touts” tried to get free tickets for this weekend’s One Love Manchester concert, even though they were intended for those affected by the Manchester bombing.

Ticketmaster set aside free tickets to a benefit concert fronted by Ariana Grande for 14,200 people who were at the singer’s Manchester Arena gig when the bomb went off.

But it said “more than 25,000 people” had logged on to its system to claim a place at the event, indicating that many were seeking tickets to which they were not entitled, potentially in a bid to resell them for profit.

“Sadly, over 10,000 unscrupulous applications have been made,” said Ticketmaster, adding that it was “doing everything we can – including extending today’s deadline – to ensure that tickets go to the actual fans and not the opportunists or touts who have also been applying for free tickets.”

Fans had earlier complained that they were not eligible to register for free tickets for Grande’s One Love Manchester event this weekend because they had bought tickets to the original gig from listings on resale sites, such as Ticketmaster’s GetMeIn, which meant they had no original purchase information to prove they were there.



Resale sites such as Viagogo, Seatwave and StubHub have been criticised for being used by touts and event companies to ramp up the price of tickets to fans who miss out on official sites.

But all appear to have refrained from offering a platform to resell tickets to One Love Manchester although Viagogo, which has been criticised for seeking to profit from charity events in the past, had almost 11,000 people monitoring its site for tickets on Thursday morning.

A limited number of tickets have subsequently appeared on eBay, with some being offered for hundreds of pounds, but the auction site moved quickly to block any attempted sales of tickets or other products linked to the gig.



“All tickets for the One Love Manchester event will most certainly be removed by the team who are doing manual sweeps to pick up any that slip through,” said a spokesman for eBay UK. “We also aren’t allowing the sale of any item which profits in any way from the tragedy in Manchester. All of these items are being removed if they appear, and the sellers’ accounts will be restricted.”

Ticketmaster and LiveNation, its parent company, stopped allowing fans who were at the concert on the night of the bombing to register for free tickets to this Sunday’s charity concert at 10pm on Wednesday night. They later acknowledged issues in verifying who attended and reopened the online service for fans until 2pm on Thursday.

“We want to give all fans who were at the show, regardless of where they bought their tickets, every opportunity to register for One Love Manchester,” said a spokeswoman for Ticketmaster. “We worked through the night and verified thousands of original bookings although there were some we could not verify.”

Play Video 0:53 Liam Gallagher performs solo for Manchester attack fundraiser – video

However, disgruntled fans could still find it hard to get their free tickets to the event, to be held at Old Trafford cricket ground, as Ticketmaster still wants information that many who have used resale sites are struggling to obtain.



Ticketmaster has said fans have to provide their booking reference number and information about where they bought the ticket.



One fan told the Guardian she bought tickets for herself and her two daughters from Viagogo as a Christmas gift because the main ticketsellers had sold out, but now she cannot get free tickets because the details required by Ticketmaster are held by the original purchaser.



“My tickets were originally bought by a travel company specialising in music event travels,” she said. “I then paid £100 for a £45 ticket on Viagogo. These companies [who originally purchased the tickets] can claim these [free] tickets they are not entitled to, and resell them all over again. We’ve escaped with our lives the horror of the terror attack and now I find I will not be able to take them.”



Only about 9,000 fans of more than 14,000 who attended the original concert have received tickets for the charity gig.

It is not clear how many have decided not to go and how many want to go but have been unable to pass Ticketmaster’s verification system.

“We would like to reassure any fans that were at the show that they will receive a free ticket for One Love Manchester, provided we can verify their initial booking,” said a spokeswoman. “We thank fans for their patience as we continue to process the registrations.”

The official £40 tickets went on sale at 10am on Thursday on the Ticketmaster and LiveNation websites, with buyers given the option of donating more money to the We Love Manchester emergency fund.



“Ticketmaster was unsurprisingly met with remarkable demand for One Love Manchester tickets we had on sale this morning; 140,000 fans were on the website and our call centre was buzzing,” said the spokeswoman. “With over 450,000 searches on our site for One Love Manchester over the last 24 hours, demand was always going to be extremely high. We are happy to report that there are thousands of fans who successfully purchased tickets during the general sale.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest People gather to see flowers and messages of support in St Ann’s Square in Manchester. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

Ticketmaster said the event, which will be attended by about 50,000 people, sold out in minutes. An allocation has been kept aside for those who qualify for free tickets.

The gig will be broadcast on BBC television. ITV has rescheduled the final of Britain’s Got Talent, moving it from Sunday to Saturday night, so as not to “distract from an important cause”, a spokesperson said. The British Soap Awards, which were scheduled for Saturday evening on ITV, will be broadcast on Tuesday night.



The performers have all waived their fees and organisers hope the show will raise at least £2m for the emergency fund, which was set up by Manchester city council and the British Red Cross after the attack on 22 May. The attack killed 22 people and injured 116.



Manchester’s cinemas have come together to use screenings of the Hollywood blockbuster Wonder Woman to raise money for the emergency fund.

More than a dozen cinema sites will donate ticket takings from the screenings – distributor Warner Brothers will also hand over its share of the box office – and all revenue from advertising run around the films will also be given to the fund.

It is not the first time reseller sites have been criticised for seeking to profit from events organised to raise money for charity.

The Switzerland-based Viagogo was accused of “moral repugnance” after reselling tickets for an Ed Sheeran gig in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust and was branded “callous” for cashing in on a charity event featuring the comedian Peter Kay.

The company also drew fire from MPs after refusing to turn up for a select committee inquiry into the ticketing market, in an almost unprecedented snub to a parliamentary evidence session.

The company was accused of “naked mis-selling and fraud” in its absence, amid complaints from fans who have said they are being overcharged, or refused entry to events having bought tickets through the website.