On the 12th of December at exactly noon, the first wave of Eurovision 2020 tickets was released. Spread over nine shows, Eurovision fans from all over the world tried to snatch a ticket to their beloved contest. While some had a lucky day, most were unsuccessful.
The organising broadcasters NOS, NPO and AVROTROS tried their best to make the process as fair as possible. They guaranteed that everyone who had accessed the ticketing website before 12:00 CET would be granted a random place in the queue. On top of that, the tickets were set to be name bound, which would counter people trying to resell Eurovision tickets for excessive prices.
Besides some small glitches, it seems that there were no major Vienna 2015-like crashes with regards to the site, which operated a separate site for each and every show to divide ticket buyers.
Eurovision 2020 tickets: First wave sells out
However, this didn’t mean that many Eurovision fans had a lucky day. Within half an hour, all of the tickets in this batch were sold out. The only thing most fans, including all wiwibloggers who gave it a try, got to see was a message which told them they were in the automatic queue.
The host broadcaster AVROTROS revealed on Facebook that the demand for tickets had been huge. Over 80,000 people were waiting and a total of 200,000 tabs were open to buy Eurovision tickets. The organisation also said that the majority of the tickets sold were eventually bought by inhabitants of the Netherlands.
The view through my browser window… In a couple of @Paylogic ticket queues for #Eurovision 2020 pic.twitter.com/y1YBnTiFmu
— Robin Cantrill-Fenwick (@RobinComms) December 12, 2019
Eurovision fans in the ticket queue as soon as noon hits: pic.twitter.com/zs17tF4XLu
— BUY AND STREAM STUCK IN THE 80S (@eurenvision) December 12, 2019
When are the next Eurovision 2020 tickets going on sale?
Fans who didn’t manage to buy any of the Eurovision 2020 tickets from the first wave shouldn’t worry. There are still two waves of Eurovision 2020 tickets to come. The second wave is expected to be released in late January and the third and last wave is expected in mid-March.
The ticket prices will remain the same, except for the semi-final tickets which will be €5 more expensive. From these batches onwards, it is also possible to buy tickets with a limited view.
Did you manage to get Eurovision 2020 tickets from the first wave or were you left out? Let us know in the comments below!
Why people say there are 65000 tickets available for 9 shows? It’s like 7222 tickets per show. That’s the capacity of Expo Tel Aviv. The Ahoy supposed to be much bigger. I guess they’ll have minimum of 10-11k spectators in every show, that’s 90k tickets..
Me and my husband queud up on 6 different devices (each with a different IP adress), and on each device we opened both Google and Internet explorer, and within each browser we opened 2 tabs for 2 shows. So we were in 2 queus with 12 spots per queu. After 40 minutes I got through on my work computer and was able to buy 4 standing arena tickets for us and our children for the Grand Final family show. I guess we won the lottery. Very exited to go, I have watched and been a fan of the ESC since… Read more »
We purposely choose to queu up for 2 family shows btw, because we thought that our chances were bigger for those.
When did you start cuing online before the official live sale date?
The whole Rotterdam thing is being a huge let down for me. I still can’t find accomodation for under 500 EUR the night, and now this. I had 5 different devices open waiting in the qeue and yet no luck. Same for all people I know. I remember Lissabon, and everything seemed so easy and straightforward. I am starting to giving up on Rotterdam honestly. Hopefully next time the host city will be more available.
If they really give Dutch IP addresses an advantage, I might be lucky as I’ll be in Utrecht for a while in late January 😀 However, I’d find it immensely unfair. The demand for tickets is so so so huge…
They didn’t give Dutch IP adresses an advantage. Where did you get that from? It’s just that the grand majority of people trying to buy were Dutch (which seems logical since they live closeby and it’s a once in a lifetime experience to have the ESC in your own country), and resulting from that most tickets went to Dutch people.
As I wrote in the other post: “On the official FB page on comments it seems the only people that got a tickets are from NL. I wouldn’t be surprised if they prioritized the requests from Netherlands IPs. Plus I can remark a long “hate score” with Paylogic, since Tomorrowland 2012.” So if the organization confirmed that the majority of tickets were bought by inhabitants of the Netherlands it’s just a confirmation of my theory . It makes sense giving a special fast track access to locals, the importance should be make it clear and not hiding queue numbers and… Read more »
If people on FB claim that only Dutch people could buy tickets, then it must be true. After all you never read nonsense in FB comments.
I meant that the only people claimed they actually got a ticket were dutch, I didn’t mean that everyone said dutch got tickets
Apparently only 20.000 tickets were sold today (according to RTL boulevard). Considering the total of 65.000 (minus 8.000 free tickets for poor rotterdammers and reserved tickets for delegations)… there is still hope for round 2 and 3. But I’m happy I got mine already 🙂
I don’t think your numbers are correct. The Ahoy does not hold anywhere near 65,000.
It’s 65000 across 9 shows.
Oh, right, of course. Apologies!
I will try again to buy it in January, but if I fail, then I give up and save that lot of money in something better (i wanted to buy the one that costs 250€ for the final)
I will be in Rotterdam the whole week feeling the atmosphere
Best from Spain
Why would majority of the tickets go to someone who is from Netherlands over all other fans from different countries trying to buy them?
This system is flawed and unfair and honestly in January and March it will be late to book travel and accommodation as prices will be already double inflated due to demand.
I find this annoying to say the least.
In total myself and my friends had 8 devices opened between 4 of us and we had no luck whatsoever.
It makes sense that local people would generate the most demand, they have less expenses and so are more likely to buy tickets. It has always been the case that the contest has relied on locals to fill the arena, you just wouldn’t know it from the television coverage. The supposed great visitor numbers is mostly hype.
The thing is that everybody who was trying to buy used that tactic with the multiple devices. And as I said before: Dutch people didn’t get preference, we were just forming the overwhelming majority of people queing up to buy. If there are 10 tickets for sale and 100 people try to buy of which 90 are Dutch, than chances are big that 9 of those 10 tickets wil end up with Dutch buyers.
I got my sister and brother to help me. In total we had 9 different devices and after half an hour my sister managed to get through on her phone and buy 2 standing tickets for the family grand final! 😀
I’d definitely recommend using as many devices as possible (even better with different ip addresses). That waiting queue is like a lottery. Good luck to everybody who still needs to get theirs!
that was nice:) . I guess when a country has waited 44 years for a win the demand is high:)
#nonOGAElivesmatter
Im from belguim and I have my tickets but I’m so sad for the people who don’t got a ticket I wish you a lot of goodluck for january and March
Impossible that you got tickets. According to the good people on FB only Dutch people were allowed to buy tickets.
Belgians haven’t been Dutch since 1830 so perhaps FBisn’t telling he truth?
I find it so unfair that they sell 2.000 tickets to OGAE, while there aren’t that much tickets to buy anyway. Like, good for them to be in a fan club, but it’s so unfair for other people… Being a part of a fandub doesn’t give them the right to get tickets from the organisation itself. People are waiting for years to finally have the contest back in the Netherlands and they don’t seem to give a single flying f*ck. Why don’t they split up the tickets for OGAE? One half to people who can affort one and one half… Read more »
I agree. The standing area should be available to everybody – to me, the home audience are the most important people. I don’t really understand why the fanclub get this huge perk – is it because the producers think they add something to the show with their flags, costumes and enthusiasm? If so, I think it’s time to reevaluate that idea. There’s no sense of a “home crowd” anymore, which is sad. The standing area for 2019’s semi-finals were half empty anyway, so why continue to give them this privilege…?
tea. and they give the ogays the front standing rows in the arena, which is SO unfair it’s like a mafia !
you mean where all the gay men are ;)? I agree. could have been more demokratic
How dare the first country in the world to extend marriage equality to all its citizens give something to the gays..
Shock!?