Nearly 900 people on Wednesday morning vied online for tickets to a recital in Hong Kong by renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, which sold out in under an hour.
Tickets went on sale from Urbtix, a major booking platform in the city, at 10am. By 10.11am, the system showed 856 people in a 20-minute queue with only 150 tickets available. By 10.43am, all tickets except those for wheelchair users had been snapped up.
The recital, set for November 6 at the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, will feature Ma and pianist Kathryn Stott.
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Ticket resale prices for Yo-Yo Ma concert in Hong Kong hit altissimo range
A Post reporter joined the queue at 10am on Urbtix’s website and mobile app, waiting for about 15 minutes before reaching the page for seating zone selection.
Each buyer was allowed up to two tickets and given 15 minutes to complete the transaction. Buyers must use names listed on their identity cards or other travel documents, and sales are on a first-come, first-served basis.
Throughout the 15 minutes, the Post was unable to proceed with seat selection and payment stages on both the website and app, encountering the message: “Seats at the selected price zone are being selected by customers and are not available for the time being”.
The price of tickets ranged from HK$380 to HK$1,380 (US$176).
Some tickets were released earlier via a balloting system, under which hopefuls were asked to register on September 25 for a chance to buy passes on October 5 and 6.
The Post has reached out to organiser the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, on the number of tickets allocated for ballot and sales.
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The celebrated cellist is also performing with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra on November 8 at the same venue.
That concert, likewise sold out, will be conducted by orchestra music director Jaap van Zweden and includes a repertoire of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No 3 and Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien.
Scalper tickets for this show are being advertised for more than HK$20,000.
As of Wednesday, the Post has seen three pairs of tickets being resold on ticketing platform Viagogo for the November 8 concert, priced at HK$8,050, HK$16,100, and HK$21,850, depending on seats.
Ma last performed publicly in Hong Kong in 2016.
More from South China Morning Post:
- ‘Bay area billionaires want tickets’: interest in Yo-Yo Ma concert in Hong Kong pushes resale prices to HK$17,000
- Yo-Yo Ma, Lang Lang among highlights of Hong Kong Phil’s 2023/24 season
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