Viewers “clicked” for tickets – Kommersant FM
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Is the Bolshoi Theater going to change its ticket sales system? Why is his website working intermittently? And how does the institution interact with the police in the fight against profiteers? State Duma deputies addressed these questions to the general director of the Bolshoi, Vladimir Urin, after the start of ticket sales for The Nutcracker. The legendary ballet is traditionally performed on New Year’s Eve and January holidays, and each season there is a stir around the production. In 2024, there were again crowds and scandals at the theater box office, and prices from resellers were again several times higher than the official ones. With details – Grigory Kolganov.
The Bolshoi has been testing the strength of those wishing to see “The Nutcracker” for several years now. The crowd at the box office seems to be as much an attribute of the New Year holidays as the legendary production. Portion sales of tickets for certain dates and strictly according to the passport do not change the situation.
This year, the first stage of the fight for seats in the historic hall began on the night of November 4: hundreds of ballet lovers lined up for… bracelets, which provide a place in line at the theater box office. They opened ticket sales at 10am on November 4th.
What happened next was reminiscent of scenes from The Hunger Games, Kommersant FM’s interlocutor Daria, who won the battle of art connoisseurs, shared her impressions:
“I stood there for about 11 hours. It was impossible to go out for water, food, or to the toilet. If you leave, then most likely you won’t come back. And everyone stood as best they could. When they started giving out bracelets around midnight, there was a wild stampede, many began to simply fall, the crowd pressed very hard, there were about 2 thousand people there.”
But not everyone is so lucky. There were only 400 of the coveted bracelets, and there were several times more applicants, Kommersant FM’s interlocutors from the scene told. In addition, as often happens, during the waiting process a parallel queue formed, and the private security guards who were keeping order allowed someone to go around.
But all this seems to be an acceptable price for the opportunity to touch the great. At the very least, Muscovite Dmitry intends to take a day off from work during the new round of bracelet distribution, just to be sure:
“I want to arrive at night and I’ll stand there all day. We have a group of about 50 people, we will change each other, warm up. I’ll park the car nearby, in the theater parking lot. Let’s take warm clothes, chairs, blankets, tea, some food. I’ll also bring a button accordion, the girls will sing.”
It would seem that in the age of the Internet there is no need to physically stand in queues. The Bolshoi Theater opened ticket sales on its website on the evening of November 5, but this did not bring relief. Muscovite Oksana, after eight hours of unsuccessful attempts, realized that buying offline is apparently more humane:
“Within an hour or even an hour and a half, problems began on the site. It is impossible to go to the subdomain where tickets are directly sold. At some point, I started getting kicked out of my account, and I had to enter a “captcha” to prove that I was not a robot. There was a message that kept popping up: It looks like you are not human. This was direct proof of how the Bolshoi Theater treats us.”
But resellers seem to have no problems. Almost immediately after the start of sales, Kommersant FM discovered offers for pre-ordering tickets on popular advertising sites. Not the most comfortable seats in the stalls were sold for 60 thousand, all you needed was your passport details.
Why does the situation repeat itself year after year? The Bolshoi Theater refused to answer Kommersant FM’s question. Perhaps State Duma deputies will be more successful. Although, most likely, rhetorical figures will be used, because there is no normal solution to the problem, believes Evgeniy Safronov, editor-in-chief of the InterMedia news agency:
“It is possible to organize the sale of tickets effectively, but it is extremely difficult, this problem was not solved even in the USSR, and now it has not been solved anywhere in the world. Special measures are needed – a lottery or an auction – but for this now there is simply neither the will of the leadership nor the appropriate legislative framework.”
Last weekend saw only the first wave of sales of tickets for “The Nutcracker” – for screenings from December 23 to 28. Prices from resellers reached up to 200 thousand. But what else will happen: next Saturday sales will start for the top pre-New Year dates. Here, “The Hunger Games” will seem like a children’s matinee.
Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.
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