OCEAN CITY — Heading into ticket sales opening at The Freeman Stage at Bayside on Monday, expectations were high for a solid response from the public, but those were exceeded with two sold out performances being reported within 24 hours.
On Monday morning, the general public had the opportunity to buy tickets for the major concerts planned at the Selbyville, Del. site.
Hall and Oates, set to appear June 29, sold out of the possible 2,400 tickets in the first 45 minutes on Monday and Heart, booked for July 24, sold out within 24 hours.
Additionally, as of Thursday morning, Joshua M. Freeman Foundation Marketing and Communications Manager Doug Phillips expects this summer’s Melissa Ethridge and Blondie show on July 8 as well as The Beach Boys concert on July 2 to sell out in the near future.
“We knew we would have a good response our first week out, but we didn’t anticipate sell outs in the first couple days,” said Phillips. “That far outreached our expectations. We knew we had a diverse lineup that appealed to multiple generations, but we didn’t anticipate that some would be so popular right out of the gate. We figured Hall and Oates would be our first sell out, but we certainly did not anticipate it being within the first 45 minutes. This is a welcome surprise to us. It’s a testament that we listened to our customers and are bringing them what they wanted.”
The major names booked for this year’s concert series helped contribute to some fraudulent ticket activity being reported to The Freeman Stage this week. Consequently, a warning was posted on its social media outlets.
“We have multiple confirmed reports of patrons buying tickets from third party ticket brokers for tickets that do not actually exist. They may have our seating maps and may even have ‘Freeman’ in the website name, but they are not selling on behalf of our organization,” the post read on Facebook. “These sites are not offering anything specific for seating numbers or delivery dates because they don’t actually have them. Tickets for our performances are only sold on FreemanStage.org, through our ticket vendor Vendini. Any other tickets that are sold through third party sites (StubHub, CraigsList, eBay, VividSeats, BoxOfficeTicketSales, for example) should not be considered authentic. Resale of tickets for events held at The Freeman Stage at Bayside is strictly prohibited. Any tickets that are found to be in violation of this policy will be immediately voided.”
According to Phillips, The Freeman Stage works to try and prevent these sorts of instances from occurring but there’s only so much that can be done from its end.
“We try to have a robust ticketing system that has enough hurdles in place that doesn’t make it too easy to buy tickets in mass quantities, but we certainly cannot stop the entrepreneurial spirit of someone trying to put tickets on the open market, but we don’t support it,” said Phillips.
This year’s Freeman Stage lineup was announced last month and includes 16 national recording arts. The lineup includes Rosanne Cash (June 27), Daryl Hall & John Oates (June 29), The Beach Boys (July 2), Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue (July 3), Melissa Etheridge & Blondie (July 8), The Wailers (July 10), Heart (July 24), Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (July 25), Indigo Girls (July 29), Preservation Hall Jazz Band (July 31), Colbie Caillat (Aug. 4), Lyle Lovett and His Large Band (August 13), Rusted Root (Aug. 28) and Aaron Tippin. (Sept. 11), Combined, performers from the 2015 season have 50 Grammy nominations, 16 Grammy wins, and 4 are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
A program of the Joshua M. Freeman Foundation, The Freeman Stage at Bayside will kick-off the 2015 season on the evening of May 23 with a performance of Cirque Zuma Zuma. Regular weekly performances at The Freeman Stage will commence on June 19 with a performance by the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.
For more information on this season’s events or to purchase tickets, click over to www.freemanstage.org.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with how ticket sales are going and we encourage people to buy tickets soon for any shows. We hope to deliver a very memorable summer at The Freeman Stage,” said Phillips.