How to Get Sold Out Music Festival Tickets

One of the great parts of summer is the plethora of music festivals going on all season long. The downside to these festivals is that the tickets are pricey, and if you’ve procrastinated in buying, you may find the event sold out months in advance. Not all hope is lost, however, as there are a few options out there to help you get tickets even when the event is sold out.

Who’s Still Selling?

If you can act quick, one of the most well-known festivals in the country still has tickets up for grabs. Lollapalooza (August 5th - 7th, Chicago, IL) has tickets available at the price of $215 for individual passes and at the $850 VIP price point. Ticket prices may go up as the event draws closer, so if you’re wanting to see Coldplay, Eminem and the Foo Fighters, it’s best to buy now.

One day passes just went up for grabs for the Austin City Limits Festival (September 16th - 18th in Austin, TX), which will include performances by Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Arcade Fire and more. Tickets will set you back $90 for each one day pass.

Volunteering

While many festivals don’t offer a lot of options for fans that have lots of time but little money; Bonaroo (June 9th - 12th in Manchester, TN) is the exception. The festival offers the option for volunteers to perform work exchange in lieu of paying for tickets. Applications must be submitted with a deposit of $275 but once you’ve performed all of your work exchange duties, the amount is refunded (less the $25 application fee). Plus you have the option of doing your work exchange responsibilities during the festival itself, or you can opt to help restore the festival grounds after everyone has departed.

Contests

If you’re feeling lucky, you can try your hand at getting tickets by entering a contest. While there’s a good chance you might not win, it’s worth a shot to get free tickets and goodies, right? Concert promoter Live Nation has a contest going for the Sasquatch Music Festival (May 27th - 30th, George, WA) that gets you free VIP tickets, free wine and beer service, primo camping and parking spots and a bunch of other freebies. You only need to complete the online form and submit to be eligible to win. Pass the link around to your friends to increase your odds of cleaning up on free tickets.

If you’re a musician and have a knack for writing great songs, the promoters of Summerfest, (June 29th - July 10th, Milwaukee, WI) are offering the Summerfest Songwriters Project Contest. Simply upload a video of you singing an original song with their theme of “Let’s Fest!” and wait to be contacted on June 8th to hear if you’ve won. Along with free tickets and $1000, winners will have their video featured at Summerfest, and they’ll get a $250 giftcard that can be used for food and accessories at the festival. So you'll score free tickets and get your video shown at the world's largest music festival -- a pretty cool opportunity.

Ticket Brokers

While buying tickets through a ticket broker isn't the cheapest way to gain entry to your favorite festival, it’s the only way to go for more elusive tickets. The three day passes to Austin City Limits Festival have been sold out for months, even though the full lineup is just now being announced. A three-day pass for the festival will set you back about $254 at online broker Ticket City, which is about $89 more than the original three-day pass price. If you’re wanting to get in to see the entire lineup of indie and old school bands that will grace the stage at the ACL Festival, it’s a good idea to buy now before the prices go up even more.

Buying From an Individual

A last resort for buying hard-to-get tickets is from directly from sellers. You can often find tickets on Stubhub, Craigslist, or in the classified ads that are being sold by individuals that have purchased tickets and can’t attend. There are tons of cautionary tales online about ticket purchases facilitated through Craigslist, ranging from getting stood up while trying to make the transaction to getting fake tickets. So while picking up tickets from an individual is a valid way to snatch up last-minute tickets, it’s best to know the risks going in.

So while we'd all love to win a contest and score free VIP passes to an event, it probably won't pan out for most of us. And though buying from a ticket broker may seem too rich for your blood, for the safety of knowing that the tickets will be there when you want to attend an event, they're the safer alternative for getting into a last-minute show.