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Protect Yourself and Your Wallet When Purchasing Event Tickets!

Salt Lake County Arts & Culture

Swifties (Taylor Swift fans) are not the only ticket buyers that suffer at the hand of questionable ticket sales practices! In the coming months, several highly anticipated events are coming to Eccles Theater, including Dear Evan Hansen, Les Misérables, and Ringo Starr. Tickets are in high demand and unethical ticket resellers and brokers are working hard to take your money.  

Salt Lake County Arts & Culture, Broadway at the Eccles, Live at the Eccles, and Utah Cultural Alliance are working together to promote safe ticket purchasing guidance for ticket buyers for these and other events. In the past months we all have seen a significant increase in fraudulent ticket sales from what appears to be a larger fraud scheme using stolen credit cards. These questionable sales tactics means more and more patrons are at risk of losing their money. Salt Lake County Arts & Culture operates Abravanel Hall, Capitol Theatre, Eccles Theater, and the Mid-Valley & Rose Wagner Performing Arts Centers and hosts both Broadway and Live events.

For events at the Eccles specifically, the best way to protect yourself from purchasing fraudulent tickets is to buy directly from ArtTix or saltlakecity.broadway.com, the only authorized ticket sellers for events at that venue.

“The truth is buying from third party sellers puts patrons at risk for fraud and counterfeit tickets. There has been a large uptick in criminal fraud that takes advantage of ticket buyers, especially for high-demand events,” said Victor Hamburger, Vice President, Mountain, Broadway Across America. “Buying from third parties also puts you at risk of paying well over face value for a ticket, paying exorbitant fees, buying tickets to non-existent seats, or even the same tickets being sold to multiple people.” 

Another common tactic is to sell tickets before the event is on sale to the public. All of these tactics leave unsuspecting patrons paying more than they should have, or worse – showing up to the theater and not being able to see the show because their ticket isn’t real.

“This happens all the time, and not just for big touring events,” said MagicSpace Entertainment’s Bruce Granath. “We encourage fans to join official mailing lists for organizations they support whether it is the Utah Jazz or the Utah Symphony. You’ll get access to presales, easy access to authorized ticketing and save hundreds of dollars on tickets.”

“Salt Lake County’s Arts & Culture Division owns and operates ArtTix, and we sell authorized tickets for events in all of our venues, otherwise, you can only purchase authorized tickets directly from presenting organizations,” said Matthew Castillo, Arts & Culture’s Division Director. “We see so many fraudulent tickets and it is hard to watch people lose their hard-earned money to ticket re-sellers.”

This is not just a problem at Arts & Culture theatres, it happens at venues all over Utah. There is an increasing interest, both in Utah and at the national level, for the government to step in and look at stronger protections surrounding ticket reselling practices.

Utah Cultural Alliance, the industry association for arts and culture businesses statewide, and Utah Senator Scott Sandall, are addressing the issue of fraudulent ticket sales and unethical business practices in the 2023 Utah State Legislative session. In January, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee held the first in a series of anticipated hearings on the topic. Utah’s own Sen. Lee is a member of this committee and spoke powerfully about the need to address rampant fraud.

“Ticket reselling is a bit like the wild, wild west right now and we need to put up strong fencing to protect our industry and our patrons,” said Crystal Young, Executive Director of Utah Cultural Alliance. “Resellers come into town and take money from both patrons and the arts organizations that depend on ticket sales to keep their companies active and competitive. We appreciate the efforts of our legislators to take steps to protect patrons and businesses from unethical business practices, especially Senator Mike Lee and Utah Senator Sandall for taking leadership roles in this very important discussion.”

In the immediate future, here are some suggestions to ensure you are purchasing legitimate tickets for events at Eccles Theater, Abravanel Hall, Capitol Theatre, and Mid-Valley & Rose Wagner Performing Arts Centers. 

Buy ArtTix tickets

·        In Person. Purchase tickets in person at the ArtTix windows at either Eccles Theater or Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center. 

·        Online. The official ArtTix website is saltlakecountyarts.org or arttix.org You will see the Salt Lake County logo in the footer of the website.

·        By Phone. Call ArtTix at 801-355-ARTS (2787) and talk to our ticket sellers.

·        From the Event Presenter. Buy directly from the presenting organization at their website or official points of contact.

If you are in doubt about a ticket, contact ArtTix directly BEFORE you buy! 

  • ArtTix is owned and operated by Salt Lake County, as are the venues listed above. If you purchase tickets online, be sure you confirm that you are on the right website – saltlakecountyarts.org or arttix.org. You should see the Salt Lake County logo in the footer of the webpage. 
  • If you buy tickets directly from the presenting organization, they may provide a link to ArtTix from their website. If you click that link, be sure that you are directed to saltlakecountyarts.org or arttix.org.
  • ArtTix ticket sellers can help you determine if the ticket is genuine with just a few bits of key information on the ticket. Call ArtTix at 801-355-ARTS (2787).

Visit NowPlayingUtah.com

NowPlayingUtah.com provides a list of events and happening across Utah and links directly to the authorized ticket seller for purchasing tickets, including events at Salt Lake County Arts & Culture venues.