Cheap tickets, free booze

London orchestras have been having a tough time filling seats recently. You've probably noticed the heavy discounts (or even free tickets) offered on sites like Lastminute.com, Time Out and Student Pulse; perhaps you've even given up on advance booking completely.

Now here comes another sweet offer.

The Southbank Centre, London Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and BBC Concert Orchestra have clubbed together to launch Pick & Mix, a cheap ticket with a drink thrown in.

£15 (plus booking fee) buys a best-available seat plus a cocktail.

Tickets are now on offer for the LPO tonight at the Southbank  (regular price up to £65) and the OAE tomorrow night at the Southbank Centre (regular price up to £25). Use the discount code PICKNMIX to show all available seats at the reduced price.

More discounted events are lined up, so keep an eye on the Pick & Mix page.

Comments

[Puzzled]

Will this offer include freebies to Offenbach's Fantasio on 15 December? OK it's a Sunday evening, but it does have Sarah Connolly and the OAE. I just checked online and I've never seen so many unsold seats: over 80% at a guess.
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Intermezzo replies - I don't know; I suspect they will decide closer to the date. Of course they're shooting themselves in the foot financially with this sort of offer, because anyone with common sense is going to wait for a reduction.

[Miriam]

Well I just booked for it yesterday, and if there is a special offer later I shall not be very upset because I got a nice seat in the front row (where I like to sit) and I did not think it was very expensive at £24. Anyway there's no use "crying over spilt milk" if there is one. I had not even noticed it was on until last week when I saw it mentioned in the bio of a singer appearing at the Wexford Festival as being amongst his plans.

[Steve]

I find the South Bank Centre 'newish' website almost totally unusable when it comes to browsing what's coming up so I'm not surprised that audiences are down. Their written reponse has simply been to thank me for my comments as feedback is always useful. Genius!
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Intermezzo replies - Agreed. Even if you know exactly what you're after, it can be impossible to find it.

[Nik]

It's a complete disaster. It crashes my computer almost instantly as soon as I try to get in. I haven't been to anything at the SBC for ages, simply because I can't be bothered to go through hours of pain just to find out what's on.

[Miriam]

That is probably why I had not realised the Fantasio was on. However I don't think the Barbican site is much/any better in that respect. I really find it much easier to find out what will be on in the good old-fashioned way by browsing through a printed brochure where you can see all the details at a glance and just use the websites for booking things I already know about. Trying to browse wesites to find out what is on seems too time-consuming, you have to click on things to find out the performance details and then when you want to return to the list it might take you right back to the beginning instead of where you were (that is what the Barbican kept doing to me the other day).

[digressionist]

This is a constant problem. I've had to pick up the paper programmme to figure out what's on.

[Faye]

I can never find a bloody thing on the Southbank website. I've actually given up trying now and only tend to stumble across things by accident, either because they're mentioned on Intermezzo or because someone talks about them on Twitter. I do, however, use the search function to check for concerts featuring my favourite singers

I already have a ticket for Fantasio - think I paid about £24 and it's at the front of the stalls. So does this mean I can buy a new ticket for £15 but then take back my old one and swap it for a credit voucher? Or is that being cheeky?
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Intermezzo replies - I've started doing that. The problem is, you quickly gain a pile of credit vouchers, which of course can only be used for in-person, non-discount code purchases. Next season I'm just not going to bother with advance booking at all.

[Nik]

The Barbican site doesn't have the best layout, but at least it's technically quite simple so that it can be browsed/searched even on a slow internet connection. The SBC one is designed in a way that completely overloads all but the very fastest of computers and just freezes, making browsing impossible. They urgently need to create a "text only" version of the site.

[Faye]

Thanks Intermezzo. I'm pretty sure I used Southbank credit vouchers to make phone bookings in the past - I just gave them the reference number from the voucher and they deducted the credit amount from the final bill

[Dogbrook]

Another incentive to booze and discriminatory against those who do not.

[Puzzled]

Have you checked whether there is a non-alcoholic cocktail on offer? Or do you also object to people drinking fruit juice?

[Frances]

The priorities at the South Bank seem strange. There is now an app to enable you to sit at your table in the members room, order drinks etc from the bar and have them delivered to you! Yet when you return a ticket you get this silly paper voucher which you can't use on line. Presumably they realise that many people do all their bookings online and will never get round to using the voucher, in other words they treat it not just as a free loan but as a donation! Incidentally, I returned a ticket to the Donmar yesterday and got an instant credit to my card account!