The Bolshoi has begun personalizing tickets to stop people reselling them for profit
Russia’s Bolshoi Theater has introduced a new system for purchasing tickets in a bid to prevent scalping, personalizing passes and requiring spectators to produce identification in order to be admitted.
The new rules will apply to performances on both the historic stage and the chamber stage at the famous venue, according to a statement issued by the Bolshoi’s press office on Thursday.
It explained that the drastic step had been taken in an effort to combat long-standing ticket speculation that typically intensifies ahead of the winter holiday, when hundreds of theater-goers rush to get tickets for Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker.
“If the information specified on a ticket does not correspond to the data contained in a presented ID, the theater administration won’t allow a ticket holder to attend the performance,” the theater said.
The iconic cultural venue has been struggling with ticket scalpers, who scoop up tickets to the most popular performances and then resell them at inflated prices. The Bolshoi had previously announced plans to prosecute scalpers. It has also said that combating the practice was extremely hard, as scammers and resellers launch new websites for reselling tickets as soon as other ones are blocked.
In 2019, the Russian authorities introduced a regulation aimed at tackling the issue, which limited service charges on the purchase of tickets to 10%. However, ticket scalping is still a challenge for the local theater market, with resellers increasing prices by up to 200%.
Last November, around 500 people queued for hours outside the Bolshoi for a numbered wristband indicating their spot in the line, before waiting in a second line to buy tickets for The Nutcracker ballet, which is traditionally performed in late December and January.
The theater administration called the police, and several people were detained following reports that they were selling their places in the queue after managing to illegally pre-register in the line.