tigermilk

I am very suspicious! I suspect a big premium ticket auction or premier seat package etc

It looks like it is ticketmaster auctions, if you want seats in the 100's

yeah keep your camera on you! you wouldn't let a stranger in New York take your camera. i had good experiences with official guides who let us climb in to tombs and take our pics-we gave them a $1. if you go to a market stay away from the livestock, meat section-you can usually smell it before you get there. killing animals is very upfront, but I accept it that that's the way it is. a good tip is to take chewy kids vitamins, crayons, paper and give those to kids-i give money too! i know there is a lot of western moralising about giving kids money and encouraging begging! these kids are poor, a hungry kid is a hungry kid and it is my money. i was in egypt shortly after 9/11 and I experienced a lot of warmth, i was not scared at all walking in cities or tourist attractions. strange i am more scared walking round parts of vegas and i live here. my fave parts was camping out in the remote desert with camels. its beautiful, try and sail on a felucca on the nile and go down to aswan dam too. Geez I so wanna go back to egypt! I have a date to meet various people and friends in 2011-10 years after the original trip!

These tickets on stubhub, ebay etc are not from ticketmaster or livenation. They come from sponsors, radio stations, venue, promoters and roadies. Usually the roadies who go on tour get so many tickets-which they mostly sell because they aren't that well paid. Venue sponsors get batches of tickets for every show to give to clients and employee's. Radio stations usually sell their tickets etc etc... I used to work for Ticketmaster and most venues had blocked out seats ie. one's the public can never buy. This is why I prefer standing/general admission shows. It just seems fairer that if you are so much of a fan and prepared to wait in line 12 hours to be first to the front then you should get front row.

People will try and sell you stuff, not scam you! Just remember you are very, very rich to them. The main tourist areas are traps but you should get a good local guide-I had a Professor of Theology, Philosophy and History from the University take me round. Saqqara and the Stepped Pyramids are much quieter and well worth a visit. If people sell you something just smile, touch your heart with your right hand and say 'Shokram' (thank you). Do not react negatively because that will incite a scene. The middle-eastern culture is to be welcoming and friendly and make a fuss so it is not unusual for them to offer you tea and want to chat. Yes there are scammers but none more so than the US. Also if you have anyone do something for you Bakeesh (tipping) is very important-remember the average police officer makes about $150 per month. In Syria I lost time with so much fuss! Packs of school children would run up to me to say 'hello, how are you?'. It was like being a celebrity. Police officers/shop-keepers/museum guides would invite me home for dinner! Just for dinner, no motive, they just are so friendly they didn't want money just my conversation and company and just to be so darn friendly. When was the last time a perfect stranger asked you to dinner in the US?? And would you accept?? It really is a whole different culture!

Egypy is awesome! I was there in 2001! If you can ride a donkey to the Valley Of The Kings in Luxor! It is terrifying but the best thing ever. One of my best places I have visited along with India, Syria, Morocco and Peru.

Yeah they have showers. I tend to avoid them and be content with a make-shift shower (a bucket with holes in it dangled from a tree). I'm an outdoorsy type anyway-we keep goats and chickens. michael eavis is the guy who runs glastonbury. i don't mind the rain, i have a nice camp spot under trees on a hill. its very nice! rain is very nice when you spend 300 days in the sun in vegas.

Glastonbury is an all camping affair. It is held on a farm in a little village called Pilton, in Somerset. It is miles from hotels. The festival is run by the guy who owns the farm-he makes no money from the festival-all the profits go to charity. Basically you get there weds/thurs set up your tent and you live there till mon/tues. You can camp just about anywhere and everything you need is there, we just bring some sleeping bags, food and camp stove. We are regular campers, we go to the National Parks in the US, so we love camping. Our airfares to the UK are really low this year-we were able to go with United for $550 return. Because I have family over there we don't need hotels or rental cars, so it is very cheap for us.

I totally get ya! That is another reason I am undecided about the current dates. It is $375 for 3 tickets-which is about what we have paid for 2 tickets to Glastonbury (our daughter is free for that one). When you tap on hotels, driving/travel costs, it is some $1,000. So I am really is it worth that much for 90 minutes of music? We are only spending $2,500 on our a 2 week trip to England with a three day music festival.

Only the Ticketmaster shows. Live Nation I am not aware of doing premium seat auctions, although the same problem exists with still getting good seats.

I don't know what the situation is for Live Nation. I only know that Coldplay and Ticketmaster have an agreement to sell premium tickets.

There is definitely going to be a premium seat sale/auction through ticketmaster. My friend thinks it is scheduled for early next week and believes it is a auction rather than a buy it now type sale. It is very hard for him to get any info because the pages are locked, he did look at the seating chart-as expected most of the best seats are locked and there is very little in the first 5 rows. There are seats in the 100's but 50% are already locked. Unfortunately, as a TM employee, he can not buy tickets from TM-he has to enter his name in to a lottery to draw tickets for a show. This is to stop TM employee's from snagging all the best seats.

What was the presale like for Dallas? Let me guess seats in the 200's? Glastonbury is so amazing! It is a must in our calendar. It is especially great when you have kids because their is so much to keep kids entertained. Glastonbury is more than a music festival, it has performing arts from circus, comedians, childrens entertainers, art, spiritual and the music. I try to get on here when I can-especially during presale/ticket times, when people might need some help. It is tax season, so I am knee-deep in work (should be working now).

Go back to Livenation later in the day or tomorrow. Livenation has this cool thing that lets you see what seats are available at that moment. It gives you a virtual map and tells you what seats are left and where. Sadly it is not usually available until the rush dies down.

I have gone to gigs by myself...in fact I still do from time to time. When you are married and have kids then it is hard for you and your partner to both go. I would rather go by myself than miss a band I really like. Also I have been stood up by friends and family. I mean, if you are at the venue and your friend says they are stuck in traffic or something, I would feel gutted walking away and going home. I would rather go see the band on my own. The cool thing is sometimes you meet new people, which wouldn't happen if you go with friends.

I don't know! I like to go to san diego and escape the vegas summer, so that is my option but we are in England at the end of June for Glastonbury. I have to catch up on work when I get back at the beginning of july, so I am kinda in an indecision about what to do. Fortunately, I have a bunch of tickets for san diego-some in the 100's. So I am going to wait and see. I really wish they went back to presale for fans and sold the best tickets to us directly. I know it wasn't perfect but I would rather be surrounded by some loyal fans than some corporate employees/hanger-ons. Let me know how you get on with tickets. I will try and help you out if I can-I have a few contacts that might help.

Hi folks! Generally, there is no better way to get tickets. I used to work for ticketmaster-i auditted their systems and accounts. Generally most of the best seats never make it on-sale to the public. The best seats go to venue promoters, band, record company etc. Presales are better than average tickets but not the best. General sale will usually have the best of what is left. Then we have ticketmaster auctions for premium seats. So to get great seats for coldplay means essentially paying a premium or hoping you know someone. I can verfiy that seldom did many seats in the first five rows ever make general sale-only a few bands have fair access radiohead, RATM, ACDC are the biggest names to do so. Coldplay allow the premium seat auctions, something I am very against. Essentially it means you have to pay more than $125 per seat-and Ticketmaster and the band share the profits. Hope that helps! I am more than happy to answer any queries!

Sadly the band don't really know about weather. I mean they are British like me, so we tend to think of summers as just a little bit warm and nice. So outdoor summer shows tend to be quite lovely! I knew Vegas was supposed to be hot but my first summer here was a real shock!! I expect Dallas will be baking hot in July! Anyhow, the Dallas venue is a little wider, so in theory there is more chance of getting good seats. I am still trying to find out about auctions etc...Ticketmaster likes to keep it a closely guarded secret and wait till the show is 75% sold. But there is a link to bid on premium seats on coldplays ticketmaster page-it doesn't go anywhere though! Again expect it to happen on early next week. Its a total bummer for you not to know these things ahead of time.

I don't expect a Vegas date, it seems they are set up to play outdoor summer venues this time round. Can't say I fancy an outdoor gig in Vegas in summer!!! I expect the premium seats auctions will start after most of the tickets are sold. Maybe on Monday, I will try find out for you.

My friend from TM says most of the presale tickets were in the 200's for Chula Vista, only a few in the 100's and no orchestra. I don't think the orchestra will go on general sale-they are scheduled for Ticketmaster Premium seats auction.

How did the presales go? My friend from TM says that most of the seats were in the 200's and were over $125!!! Anyway, I have a batch of tickets in the 200's. So if anyone can't get tickets on saturday, feel free to PM me and I will try get cost price tickets for anyone who asks nicely!:D

For a presale, a certain block of seats is reserved. You are not able to have access to every single seat in the venue just a certain area. Usually a presale is limited to around 100-500 seats-for citi/amex it is 1% or less of all seats.

Guys the Citi and Amex presales are not that special. They will get you seats but in terms of how good they are, well, I would say on a scale of 1 to 10 they are about a 6. The code for these cards is typically the first six digits of your card ie. 412800 or 8005253355. It is possible to use these codes and not have a citi/amex card. So the big benefit thing citi and amex build up isn't that special really.

I will PM anyone who wants the presale code. I can't send you the code until right before the presale starts and I can't list the code on here. Like I have said I used to work for ticketmaster.

It makes no difference! There is no magic way to get tickets (I used to audit ticketmaster and its systems). If you go to a ticketmaster retail outlet, you rely on the agent getting on the booking system at the right moment-essentially these outlet places are doing the same thing as you would do at home. If you go to the venue box office it depends on the venue-they all have different line systems. Some use lotteries ie. they give 50 tickets out to the first 50 people in line and you essentially draw a lot. This does not even mean you will get a ticket! Typically, they will hold a small allotment of around 100 tickets and every person gets to pick what they want. The tickets here are no better than anywhere else. Sadly, most of the best tickets have already been allocated to the band, promoters, sponsors etc...sadly coldplay are using ticketmaster auctions for the best seats. So it will be really hard to get anything within the 1st ten rows.