Incensed by this, Richard Marks set up ScarletMist.com, a website which he hoped would put the touts out of business. Richard was convinced that there were plenty of genuine people who had brought tickets that they wouldn't be able to use for one reason or another. He also figured that Glastonbury fans would rather give their tickets to a fellow festival-goer than to a tout (or to use the American terminology, a Scalper). He had a long-standing personal dislike of touts. And he named it after his favourite girls name.
The website was cobbled together in a week, and was kickstarted by eFestivals on the 8th April. The site was designed to look like an online Dating Agency. Tickets were submitted to a database, and were then matched up with potential buyers. Locally whenever possible. It never claimed to be totally safe - buying second hand tickets is always dodgy - but it offered some measure of protection. It also raised money from grateful buyers for Oxfam, Greenpeace and Water Aid (Glastonbury's "good causes").
The first few weeks were scary. The software kept crashing under the unexpectedly heavy load. A few touts tried to use the service - they were threatened with being "Publicly Outed". Some very amateur attempts were made to hack the site. The hackers looking to cheat the system were carefully matched up with the known touts. There is some justice in this world!
By the middle of June, the site had 20,000 regular users. The biggest rush for tickets came in the two weeks before the Festival opened. And the most grateful users turned out to be the sellers, who discovered that they could sell their (not inexpensive) tickets at very short notice. One seller struck down by chicken pox used Scarlet Mist to find a buyer, who came to his house to collect them. Another seller had been dumped his girlfriend, and sold her ticket for revenge. And in total, almost 800 festival tickets changed hands via the site. A pretty impressive figure, and proof that Glastonbury fans are prepared to put their money where their mouth is.
There is a serious political message behind Scarlet Mist. As John Peel eloquently put it "...People are being exploited left right and centre, and anything which saves them from exploitation has got to be good." Festival fans are sick of being ripped off by touts and the so-called "agencies" (ie touts with flashy offices). The Australian government is clamping down on ticket touts. Maybe it's time we followed suit?
After the success at Glastonbury, Scarlet Mist was adapted to cover all the other festivals this summer. The greatest number of spare tickets offered for sale were for Leeds. The most sought-after festival was the Big Chill. This autumn, the site had a much-needed cosmetic facelift and has expanded to cover major gigs. See for yourself what is on offer at www.scarletmist.com.
article written by (and thanks to!) Richard Marks