F1 fans left furious after Viagogo ticket failure
Dozens of Formula 1 fans who spent enormous sums, including one couple who spent £16,173, have been left furious after Viagogo tickets failed to deliver promised entry to the Abu Dhabi post-race concerts, City PM understands.
The concerts – headlined by Benson Boone, Metallica, Post Malone and Katy Perry – were explicitly advertised on the official F1 website as included with race tickets.
But a fan told City PM: “We purchased tickets for the Sunday race with access to the Katy Perry concert. When we got to the front of the queue, we were told our tickets didn’t include concert access.”
“Thousands of people were in the same position”, they added. “Viagogo customer service said there was nothing they could do because the event had passed.”
Fans queued for hours, scrambling to contact Viagogo via chat and over the phone, only to be met with unhelpful responses and dead ends.
Screenshots from customer chats and Trustpilot complaints, seen by City PM, depict widespread frustration, met with little but a shrug from the ticketing giant.
What’s more, the tickets in question were purchased months in advance, some at eye-watering prices.
One couple told City PM they spent £16,173 for two tickets, expecting full race-and-concert access. Instead, after travelling all the way from the UK, they were denied entry to Katy Perry’s show.
Viagogo responds
Viagogo maintains that only a “small number” of four-day pass holders faced issues and that access to the post-race concerts “varied by ticket type.”
A spokesperson told City PM: “Access to the post-race concerts varied by ticket type, and not all tickets included concert entry. We are currently assessing orders and reaching out to impacted customers to resolve the issue.”
However, the discrepancy lies in the messaging on the official F1 site, which clearly states: “All race tickets include entry to these nighttime concerts. For a closer experience, fans can purchase Golden Circle upgrades for front-stage access.”
Customers expected this promise to apply to all tickets sold on the secondary market.
The same customer told City PM: “We tried to contact them immediately, but there was no signal and thousands of people were attempting the same thing. Staff on-site just scanned our tickets and told us to contact Viagogo, but the tickets we were sent didn’t include concert access.”
Viagogo also emphasised that primary ticket packages sold by F1 included concert access, and only a few four-day passes sold via Viagogo had problems.
But fans argue that the platform’s failure to clearly communicate ticket entitlements created mass confusion.
Bad timing
The Abu Dhabi fiasco comes as UK ministers prepare to outlaw the resale of live event tickets above face value, a crackdown aimed squarely at secondary platforms like Viagogo.
Since last month, the government has intended to cap service fees and restrict the number of tickets resold, citing repeated instances of inflated prices and consumer harm.
A similar platform, StubHub, has warned that capping resale prices could push transactions onto unregulated black markets.
Meanwhile, Viagogo has argued that price caps in other countries have led to higher fraud rates.
The UK crackdown follows public outrage over inflated prices for high-demand events such as Oasis’ Wembley reunion, where fans paid thousands for tickets originally under £200.”
While Viagogo touts its “safe, secure, and regulated marketplace”, and offers a guarantee to replace tickets or refund money, this Abu Dhabi incident exposes a major gap.
When a secondary seller’s promise clashes with official event communications, fans can be left high and dry.
And, for those who flew thousands of miles hoping to catch Formula 1 and world-class concerts, the experience was anything but secure.
“We travelled all that way to see the race and Katy Perry.”