For almost a century, San Francisco’s Stern Grove Festival has offered free concerts in a picturesque park, drawing music lovers to its grassy lawns and hilly landscapes to enjoy performances.
In an effort to manage attendance and reduce overcrowding, the festival introduced an online registration system in 2021, allowing guests to secure up to four tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.
However, this new system quickly attracted the attention of scalpers, with reports emerging of individuals reselling tickets at inflated prices, reaching between $40 to $100 for some shows.
This year, the festival opted for a different approach, implementing a lottery system where attendees selected at random receive a QR code for up to four tickets.
Sadly, this new tactic has also been compromised. Recent findings by Mission Local revealed a variety of Stern Grove tickets available for purchase on platforms such as Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, with prices varying from $10 to $50.
The demand on the black market showed a clear hierarchy based on the popularity of the acts. Tickets for Orville Peck’s concert on July 27 were being sold for $50 each, while Michael Franti (scheduled for August 3) and Girl Talk (performing July 20) tickets were listed at $35.
Channel Tres, who performed on June 22, saw tickets sold for prices ranging from $15 to $25.
The most affordable options this year? Concerts featuring the California Honeydrops, the San Francisco Symphony, Sleater-Kinney, and Phantogram had tickets available for as low as $10.
In a striking listing on Wednesday, a seller on Craigslist advertised tickets for Damian and Stephen Marley’s show on August 16 at $45 each, with a bulk deal for four at $150. Another urged the sale of two Orville Peck tickets at $20 each, while humorously noting they had “won the raffle 3x LOL.”
After Mission Local reached out for comments, many of these listings appeared to vanish by the end of the day.
Organizers of the festival expressed their dissatisfaction regarding the resale culture. Molly Fremgen, the festival’s director of marketing, emphasized that Stern Grove Festival is committed to providing free access to live music for all.
“We absolutely do not support the resale of tickets under any circumstances,” she stated.
Fremgen noted that the festival is aware of scalping activities and actively monitors resale platforms, taking steps to void tickets when feasible. She also encouraged concertgoers to obtain tickets solely through official channels and to return any unwanted tickets to the festival for others to utilize.
“We strongly encourage our community to help us uphold the spirit of the festival by never purchasing tickets from third-party sellers and by reporting suspicious activity when they see it,” Fremgen stated. “This is everyone’s festival, and we hope our fans and patrons understand the importance of keeping it free.”
Yet, despite these efforts, scalping continues unabated.
One seller, offering Michael Franti tickets for $35 each, even proposed to deliver printed tickets anywhere in San Francisco, citing prior negative experiences with digital transactions.
Another seller listed tickets for the Pointer Sisters concert on August 10 without specifying a price, quickly removing the post once contacted by Mission Local.
A seller on Facebook advertising Orville Peck tickets at $50 refused to comment on their motivations for selling instead of adhering to the festival’s recommendation to return unsold tickets.
The seller even threatened legal action if any details were disclosed, before taking down the listing.
Many other sellers followed suit, opting not to engage in discussion regarding their resale activities.
Alexia Roditis, the lead singer of Destroy Boys, who had opened for Sleater-Kinney recently, commented on the ticket resale situation, calling it “lame.”
In contrast, one anonymous seller cited the age-old concept of supply and demand, as they sold tickets for Channel Tres at $18 each. This scalper admitted that this was not their first time reselling Stern Grove tickets.
The anonymous seller suggested that some individuals might simply be facing financial hardships and resort to selling tickets they cannot use due to these circumstances.
“Hey, I’m unemployed,” one scalper reflected on their circumstances. “In the end, I didn’t even sell them, and I just ended up giving them to another friend.”
The potential for scams also looms large in this landscape; the tickets, featuring QR codes which can be transferred among users, lend themselves easily to resale, casting doubt on their authenticity.
Mission Local did not engage in purchasing any of these resale tickets to verify their status.
As the festival continues, the struggle against scalpers persists, threatening the original ethos of community access to free music, which has defined the Stern Grove Festival for nearly 100 years.
image source from：missionlocal
