January 14th, 2009 by Warren Moore

The people behind the Reading And Leeds Festivals, Festival Republic, recently alerted fans to the number of websites claiming to have tickets for the 2009 festivals which take place over the August bank holiday (August 28-30).

A handful of websites were closed down for selling bogus tickets for last year’s Reading and Leeds Festivals and the events’ organisers are are seeing similar looking sites emerge this year. The promoter has already warned fans about one particular site, Bookmetickets.com, which claims to have a number of tickets to the 2009 Reading and Leeds Festivals. Festival Republic has reiterated that they have no affiliation with Bookmetickets and asked fans to only buy from trusted sellers.

Concert-goers are urged to check the buyer guarantees before making a payment on any online ticket agencies. Paying by credit card will also provide some level of protection in the event that tickets are not received. Anyone who is concerned about similar difficulties is urged to report the website in question to ASTA (Association of Secondary Ticket Agents).

Recurring incidents of this nature are likely to renew calls for some kind of kite mark scheme that will allow legitimate and trusted resellers, of which there are many, to stand out from their murky counterparts.