Ticketek website back online, but crash frustrates promoters and buyers

Ticketing website Ticketek Australia is back online after a significant outage meant the Australian and New Zealand websites were unavailable and displaying error messages.

In a message posted on the homepage of the Australian website, Ticketek said the site was down for “maintenance”.

The Ticketek website is currently down for “maintenance”, frustrating concertgoers and promoters.Credit: Simon Schluter

“We apologise that the update is taking longer than anticipated,” the message read.

“Users may experience temporary disruptions. Our teams are working hard to complete the update, please check back again later.”

The website was inaccessible on Monday and into Tuesday, and came back online after 11am on Tuesday. Ticketek Australia did not make any comment through a spokesperson or via its social media channels until the website came back online.

According to Ticketek’s social media post, the unexplained outage was “a precautionary measure in response to system monitoring indicating a heightened threat level”.

Despite the website being accessible and running from late Tuesday morning, frustrated users took to social media to complain about a lack of communication from the company.

In addition to being unable to purchase tickets for sporting events, concerts and other performances, users said they couldn’t log in to access existing tickets for upcoming events.

Ticketek Australia is currently selling tickets to events this weekend, including the A-League’s unite round.

Following today’s maintenance, several Ticketek customers contacted this masthead, claiming their internet security providers had alerted them that their personal information had been leaked due to a breach from Teg.com.au - Ticketek’s parent company. It is unclear if this is related to the recent outage.

Earlier this year, Ticketek Australia suffered a significant data breach that exposed the personal information of over 17 million customers.

The maintenance also frustrated promoters who rely on the Ticketek website to sell tickets. One promoter told this masthead he had received no advice or contact from Ticketek and was at the time unsure when he would be able to sell tickets for tours he is promoting.

Ticketek is currently promoting several high-profile shows, including Jack White’s tour of Australia, the Laneway Festival and Katy Perry’s 2025 stadium tour.

As a result of Ticketek Australia’s maintenance, Frontier Touring has moved ticketing agencies for Tuesday’s pre-sale for White’s shows in Melbourne and Sydney in December. Tickets to those shows will now be sold through AXS and TicketSearch.

Amyl and the Sniffers is one band affected by Ticketek’s website maintenance.Credit: Rhett Wyman

In a statement, a spokesperson for Frontier said: “Frontier Touring became aware the Ticketek website went into ‘maintenance’ in the early hours of Monday for security reasons. As a result, we postponed yesterday’s planned pre-sale for Sydney and Melbourne shows by US rocker Jack White.

“As of this morning, the Ticketek site is still not able to sell tickets, so the rescheduled Jack White pre-sale has been moved to alternative ticketing agencies AXS (Melbourne) and TicketSearch (Sydney).

“We are also cancelling today’s presale for Roisin Murphy, moving the onsale for Alexisonfire and pre-sales for Ado. Fans should check frontiertouring.com and our socials for ongoing updates.”

Ticketek Australia has been approached for comment.

More to come

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