A survey by the German newspaper Handelsblatt finds that the black market in Bayreuth Festival tickets is flourishing.
The open sale of tickets increased this year from 40% to 65%. When the newspaper analysed ticket sales on Ebay it found that black market sales have risen too.
So far, 524 tickets have been sold on Ebay. This is already more than the entire total for the previous year, and the Festival is still a month away.
The average premium on the original price has increased slightly from 136% to 139%. The highest surcharge (217%) is for the new production of Der Fliegende Holländer. In comparison Tristan und Isolde tickets are fetching around 80% more than the original price.
For the cheapest tickets, costing less than 35 €, the average premium was 550 %. For the most expensive category, originally € 280, the corresponding uplift was 50%.
