Hundreds of royal fans have contacted Royal Central after believing they had been lucky enough to get tickets to the Coronation concert, only to find they wouldn’t be attending after all.
Just after midday, thousands received an email telling them they had ”won” two tickets to the concert which takes place at Windsor Castle on May 7th 2023. The email contained a link that had to be followed to claim the free tickets and a deadline of April 27th, two days in the future.
However, hundreds of people have told us on our special Coronation Twitter account (@Coronation2023) that despite clicking on the link within moments of it landing in their inbox, they found that the concert was completely full and they wouldn’t be able to get tickets.
They expressed frustration as the email message clearly said they had until noon on April 27th to make their claim. One correspondent said that their frustration was increased by the end of the email which said ”once again – many congratulations and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday May 7”.
Ten thousand tickets were made available for the Coronation concert, to be allocated by online ballot. People were asked to apply by email for one pair of tickets with 5,000 people to be chosen. Each could bring a guest with them. They were told they would be notified in April if they were successful.
The original application said there was no need to rush in getting names into the draw as the ballot would be allocated randomly and not on a first come, first served basis.
However, it appears the emails sent today were for leftover tickets and not allocations from the main draw.
Ticketmaster told the BBC that ‘”Everyone who was successful in the two main ballot rounds for the Coronation Concert was offered a guaranteed pair of tickets, provided they claimed them within three weeks. Today, any unclaimed tickets were released on a first-come, first-served basis to those who had previously applied to the ballot and were unsuccessful. These inevitably went very quickly.”
However, fans told Royal Central that this process was far from clear in the email that they received.
Royal Central’s special Coronation social media, @Coronation2023, was among the first to raise this issue and has received almost 1000 responses over it in just a few hours.
We have contacted Ticketmaster several times directly for comment but are yet to hear from them.