Scoring tickets to concerts at Red Rocks Amphitheatre is harder than ever, music fans have complained. And a statement fired off last week by ticket-seller AXS — which peddles the majority of tickets to Red Rocks shows — did not chip away at that perception.
Prices, and frustrations, are at an all-time high right now as music fans and artists decry a broken system in the wake of face-planting failures by ticketing companies. Meanwhile, instant sell-outs for high-demand Denver shows from artists such as Pretty Lights and Maggie Rogers have forced some fans onto the secondary and third-party markets, where prices can balloon to many times the price set by the artist.
“I have been told: StubHub has pulled listings in all markets except NY, Chicago, Denver . Please don’t buy from the scalpers. There are still tickets available — it is just a very slow process,” Smith Tweeted in March.Ticketmaster officials declined to do interviews for this story. Fans remain unconvinced. “This is the new normal in live music,” wrote a Reddit user in the r/Denver subreddit. “It sucks.”