"Shambles" - Frustration as Sam Fender fans get ballot email confirmation hours after tickets go on sale

The North Shields local announced a full UK arena tour earlier this month, with all shows offering tickets through the standard ‘first come first served’ method used across Fender’s career so far - with one exception.

To stop overly high demand for his huge homecoming show, Fender and ticket company AXS opened a ballot system for the Newcastle night of the tour, which is set to take place on Friday, December 20.

Hoping to stop demand from across the nation, the ballot could only be entered to people within the North East. This was confirmed to be anyone who has an NE, DH, SR, DL or TS postcode.

The artist’s website claimed successful fans would have an email if they were successful by the evening of Wednesday, October 23, although some fans claim their confirmation of a successful ballot place was only sent once the show was already sold out.

“So just got the email for Sam fender ballot at 15:30 for Newcastle” said one fan on social media. “Click it and event sold out. So clearly delayed email??? What even is the point man.”

Another said “Email at 11:31am confirming I was successful in the ballot for Sam Fender’s Newcastle gig with a code, only to find that it sold out at 10am...”

Others described the situation as a “shambles”, with one fan taking to social media to say: “What a shambles only receiving my Sam fender ballot email at 3:30pm today when the tickets went on sale at 10am. Went on and of course all sold out. What is the point. Absolute joke.”

The show at Newcastle’s Utilita Arena will be the North Tyneside star’s first show at the venue since 2022 on his Seventeen Going Under tour, and his first show in the North East since his momentous St James Park double header in the summer of 2023.

After the show sold out, Fender took to Instagram, saying: “Thank you to everyone that entered the Newcastle ballot!! We tried to make it as fair as possible using North East post codes. The response has been totally overwhelming.”

The other dates on his UK and Europe tour went on sale at 10am on Friday, October 25.

NewcastleWorld has reached out to AXS Tickets for comment.