Nolan,
For the past two years I have attended the ScreamFest horror convention and published reviews. I know some readers of the PCR have expressed interest in attending so I thought I would pass along some information that may save them a few dollars and some aggravation this year. Last year I commented on the fact that Byron and I felt we had wasted our money buying advance tickets when there was absolutely no advantage to having them and we had to pay a nominal surcharge. When I went to buy the tickets online this year I saw there was a $4.00 surcharge per ticket so I decided to hedge my bets. I contacted their website with the following inquiry:
I am writing to inquire about your advance tickets prior to purchase. I purchased online in advance last year and paid the service charge. When I got to the show on Saturday morning, all this got me was the privilege of standing in a different line from the people waiting to buy their tickets that morning. Their tickets went on sale at exactly the same time they started processing the people who had paid in advance so I basically paid a surcharge for nothing. I just wanted to verify if this is going to be the case this year or not. If it is I will just save my money on the surcharge and buy at the door. If it isn't then I expect to be able to pick up my wrist band and be standing in line, ready to go in when the doors open. Please advise. Thank you.
I received the following response and apparently I am one of the few people who would challenge a situation like this:
You are totally right about buying the advance tickets, but you are probably the only person that has ever emailed me about it! The only reason we do advance tickets is because so many people ask about buying them in advance.
I can say that as our show gets bigger we are going to start having everyone that buys tickets at the door register, so the line will become longer and slower. So those of you that buy advance tickets will get in quicker at that time. But right now we don't have that problem, I would actually rather you buy them at the door.
If you do buy advance tickets you will definitely get in. But, again, once our show starts getting bigger, if there are too many people trying to get in and buy passes at the door the fire marshall may turn away people.
So as of right now, there really isn't an advantage of buying the tickets in advance, you're just paying more...
Petey
I thanked Mr. “Petey” for his prompt and honest reply. I also informed him I would not be paying the $8.00 to get our tickets in advance and would pass this information along. I noticed Petey made no mention of clarifying on his website that you get nothing for the surcharge you pay. I suspect that would both stop people asking about advanced tickets AND buying them. Based on the attendance last year, I would say there is little to no chance of not being able to get in when the doors open and it certainly would not ruin my day if that did happen.
- ED Tucker -
Jacksonville, FL
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