Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Free Eurovision tickets. After much waiting, Brits will have the chance tomorrow to get their hands on tickets for the Eurovision 2023 UK shows taking place in Liverpool.
Eager fans will need to head to Ticketmaster’s website from 12pm on Tuesday 7th March, to bag tickets for one of nine shows.
There will be a total of six previews and three shows televised live on TV – including the grand final – and the ticket price will range from £30 to £380. A maximum of four tickets can be purchased per order, but orders can only be made for one show at a time.
Ahead of the mad scramble for tickets, Alex Tofts, broadband expert at Broadband Genie, has offered some advice on how to beat the competition and maximise your chances of securing a spot.
“It has been 25 years since Eurovision was last hosted in the UK, so thousands will be gearing up to get their hands on some tickets tomorrow. To ensure you’re one of the lucky ones, there are a few things you can do to prepare.
“Prior to the tickets going live, make sure you have set up a Ticketmaster account. You cannot buy tickets without one and they can only be bought through the website, not the app.
“Once that’s all sorted, it might be worth setting up an alert on your phone or an alarm to go off 10 minutes before the tickets go live, as you may end up forgetting and regretting later on.
“It will also save time if you have your payment method and details to hand. Ticketmaster often gives customers a countdown timer to finalise and pay once your chosen seats are in the basket.”
“All of your prep work will be for nothing if your internet decides to crash mid-purchase. But there are some simple things to make sure that doesn’t happen before you join the virtual queue.
“If your internet isn’t performing as well as it should, try moving closer to your router and disconnect any unnecessary devices. You can also log in to your router to check what’s connected to the Wi-Fi. Don’t hesitate to boot anything off that you don’t recognise.
“For that short time, ask anyone else in the house to turn off their Wi-Fi and switch to their mobile network.
“If none of the above helps, you could try running a speed test in the morning to test your connection. Check a site such as DownDetector in case you suspect you are having a broadband outage. It may be worth contacting your broadband provider to see if there’s an issue.
“When the tickets go live at 12pm on Tuesday many will also be working, so if you are in the office, take advantage of its broadband, as you’re less likely to experience any problems and may even enjoy faster speeds.
“It can be tempting to press the refresh button on your browser if it feels like you’re not moving forward in the queue or your order isn’t processing, but doing so could lose your place and take you back to square one.
“With so many people on the ticket website at once, your order will just take more time to go through so patience is a virtue in this situation.
“If the website has crashed due to the volume of people on the site, a message will usually appear on your browser. With people trying to get them from all over the world, it could result in tickets appearing falsely unavailable, so don’t be so quick to lose hope.”
“To ensure all eventualities are covered, get some friends in on it too.
“Set up a Whatsapp or Messenger group chat involving everyone who wants a ticket and make sure you’re all ready when they go live.
“If you’re having trouble but someone else manages to get through, you can ask them to buy your ticket for you.
“Remember, tickets can only be purchased through the Ticketmaster homepage and aren’t even available on the app either
“If you’re purchasing tickets from any other website, it could very well be a scam. Do your due diligence when buying elsewhere as you could end up losing hundreds of pounds.
“Make sure there is a padlock icon in the address bar of the website you are using, as this indicates that you are using a secure connection.
“When all of the tickets do sell out, keep an eye on the Ticketmaster website for resale options, as you could find them that way. Be wary about offers for tickets to a sold-out event, as the tickets may not be genuine, or might not even arrive.”
Read our guide to avoiding scams here.
I wouldn’t pay 426 pound for tickets that is ment to be free