Booking fees

Make me an offer, please

bruceonthefringe 2023, Comedy duos, Edinburgh Fringe 2023, Previews, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

I have Fringe tickets, woohoo. I mentioned as much at the end of my last blog post, I have even more now, thanks to an email update from Underbelly. I just wish I’d opened and read it sooner – I’d have saved a few quid! Only a few but it all adds up. Underbelly had announced a special offer of £6 tickets for shows up until 10th August, one just had to be organised enough to buy them by midnight tonight, oops. I only read the email after I had booked a wodge of preview shows; I did feel a tad disgruntled, my own fault, I know, I really should check my emails more regularly.

At least I’ve managed to save on booking fees, that old bugbear! The Fringe and Underbelly box offices have once again capped the booking fees at £5 per transaction (£1.25 a ticket). Organisation is key, fifteen tickets in and a tenner spent on fees, not that I see that as a saving, just less irksome.

Assembly have for a number of years now done an offer for locals at the start of the Fringe, they just like to announce it quite late on. To make us sweat or just so’s we might have already paid full whack? There’s a number of Assembly shows I quite fancy, that I may fancy even more with a cheap offer, only one has made my must-see pile.

My favourite comedy duo from last year are back, and with a new show, Grubby Little Mitts: Hello, Hi. Well, I had to get a ticket, this is one second outing I’m confident will be as funny, clever and dark as the first (not always the case).

It’s a tad late, I shall away to bed. I leave you with a peek at my possibilities…..

Another wee rant

bruceonthefringe a rant, Edinburgh Fringe, Ticket prices, Uncategorized Tags: Leave a comment

Booking fees!! Finally they’ve nabbed me, the blighters! As a local I’ve always just trotted along to the Box Office in person, thus avoiding what had been a 90p booking charge per ticket (on phone, online or app bookings up to £5.40), so imagine my horror when I discovered that this year they’re including counter sales too!! How very dare they!

At least they’ve had the good gracious to reduce it a bit to 80p a ticket  (to a max of £4.80), but still!!?*##%*!! Yes, I know, its only 80p, but it’s the principle of the thing. Oo, and a sudden thought (I do have them occasionally) – what about shows that are Free Ticketed? Huh? Not quite free anymore, that’ll be 80p, sir? Another thought occurs ( I’m on a roll today!), is this booking fee right across all tickets or is it just at Fringe Box Offices? i.e., not charged at the venues themselves? Hmmm.

Now if the Fringe had just decided to add an extra 50p on to every ticket instead of an additional booking fee added on afterwards, everyone would have just thought, yeah just another wee price rise. And the phone/online/app bookers may primarily twig on, but they would have been delighted too. No extra booking fee always sounds better, even though most of us realise its only because its just been put into the ticket price.

Jeez, three thoughts in a day! The new way of “Buy a ticket in advance to guarantee entry or Pay What You Want at the venue” for some shows may find fewer advance tickets being sold, the paying public can be a very principled lot especially when parting with cash – that 80p will be needed to pay the extra hike-up in beer prices!