Gigs & Festivals

Tate defends website crash in rush for Kraftwerk tickets

By | Published on Thursday 13 December 2012

Kraftwerk

Ah, remember when websites selling tickets for music events were all woefully unable to cope with sudden increases in demand? Those were happier times, I think. Getting a Glastonbury ticket felt like more of an achievement back then, especially when it turned out you’d inadvertently bought seventeen of them while trying to make the website work.

Those of you who yearn for a return to those days will have been delighted yesterday when the Tate website went down almost as soon as tickets for Kraftwerk’s eight shows in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall next February went on sale.

Tate Director Nicholas Serota told the BBC: “This isn’t the first website that’s crashed through over demand. The Olympics site did something similar … Frankly we could have gone to a… Ticketmaster. We didn’t think we wanted to give 20% of the ticket price an organisation of that kind”.

The art gallery’s site did get up and running again later though, and now all eight shows are sold out. Well done on your achievement if you got yourself one. Or seventeen.



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