With success comes new challenges — that’s what Bass Coast organizers are realizing after the music and art festival’s first sellout occurred in 2016.
Looking ahead to next year, Bass Coast spokesperson Paul Brooks says he wants to examine how to help curb the selling of counterfeit tickets to their festival.
Prior to this year’s event, Merritt police reported that a local person was sold two counterfeit tickets to Bass Coast through the website Craigslist.
Brooks heard about this incident anecdotally, as well as other cases of fraud like it.
Brooks said the selling of counterfeit tickets hasn’t been a problem for Bass Coast in the past, but this year was their first sell-out crowd, making tickets more valuable.
“That is one concern that I have,” Brooks said. “There are going to be people that are sold bunk tickets and we’re looking into how we can help prevent that in the future.”
Brooks said he saw tickets selling online this year for three to four times what they’re worth, adding that the festival sold its top priced ticket for about $300 after taxes.
“There are growing pains, but we’re going to learn a lot this year and apply it to the next year,” Brooks said.
