The Prince Aus Tour Ticketing Saga Is An Exercise In Heartbreak & Hysteria

Tickets for Prince's imminent Piano & A Microphone tour of Australia went on sale at midday today, and it's safe to say that the consequent results have been pretty damn divisive — seemingly even more so than usual when this sort of thing comes to town.

As expected, countless Aussies flocked to online outlets to secure their pass to see The Purple One in action in just a few days' time and, also as expected, the vendors' websites couldn't handle the volume of traffic hitting their servers. Virtual queuing times stretched north of an hour-and-a-half in some cases, according to the punters stuck waiting in vain hope for pages to refresh and tell them that, yes, they had a date with the artist formerly known as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.

The fact that Telstra has also confirmed their network was today hit by a "mass" outage affecting multiple states (shout-out to the guy who asked them if they'd tried turning it off and turning it on again) probably didn't help matters — though it's unlikely that, even if the telco had been fully operational, the Prince situation would have been much better, if the stream of unfiltered feelings being proffered on social media is anything to go by.

In the seeming blink of an eye, reasonably priced tickets ($99.90) were snapped up by those fortunate enough to break through and snag their passes, selling out in a flash while others were left feeling bewildered and frustrated, leaving pretty much only the near-$400 stubs (and even more expensive VIP packages, capping out at an utterly ludicrous — even for Prince — $968.36) available to the poor sods left hanging by the frankly habitual shitting of the bed by the tour's Australian ticketing sellers.

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Twitter, especially, simultaneously became a celebration ground and a graveyard of dreams for Prince's local fans; an emotional roller-coaster of boundless joy, unbridled despair and bubbling anger as people come to terms with their individual realities regarding their prospects of seeing Prince.

If you're into schadenfreude, this one's for you.

team ‘I’m in heaven’

Not sure how I managed to both score second row Prince tickets and dodge #telstra outage but am feeling like a right happy arsehole today.
— Neil McMahon (@NeilMcMahon) February 9, 2016

AFTER 300 MULTIPLE SITE CRASHES...I GOT TICKETS....1HR 40 MINS LATER #Prince #fuckYeaaaaah
— Jonty (@SpiffingFrocks) February 9, 2016

Whew. Two #Prince tickets at the Sydney Opera House $800. #purplepain
— Martin Aungle (@maungle) February 9, 2016

#Prince I got two golden #Prince tickets, this will be amazing.
— Matt Burr (@footlair) February 9, 2016

I got Prince tickets. I'm probably going to dress like this. pic.twitter.com/UDvPrUmupm
— Declan Fay (@declanf) February 9, 2016

*breathes a big sigh of relief* Prince tickets :)
— BobbieAnt (@bobbieskates) February 9, 2016

Got one of the bastards! #Prince #tickets #mayhem #nevertypedsofastonmyphoneinmylife
— Paul Andrews (@PaulAndrews2043) February 9, 2016

I GOT PRINCE TICKETS I GOT PRINCE TICKETS I GOT PRINCE TICKETS SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
— Isabelle Oderberg (@yodaberg) February 9, 2016

Birthday gift to myself #PRINCE TICKETS!!!! I can not contain my excitement!!… https://t.co/zDtqSf5S7o
— Vaya G (@VayaG) February 9, 2016

team ‘I’m in hell’

Wondering how anyone managed to book #Prince tickets today. Very unimpressed with constant crashing sites @Ticketek_AU @SydOperaHouse
— SarahLittlefairMyers (@slittlefairm) February 9, 2016

Telstra confirms mass outage for mobile users across Australia at exactly the same time Lush is trying to get PRINCE Tickets .Bastards.!!!
— Lush (@lushscreamqueen) February 9, 2016

I'm sad I couldn't get Prince tickets #WhenNivinCries pic.twitter.com/zJFMTpLLbq
— Nivoncé (@kingnivin) February 9, 2016

Telstra outage and ticketek website getting hammered. I think I'm gonna miss out on Prince tickets #1hour30mins #stillbooking
— Dain McConnell (@invzimAUS) February 9, 2016

For every one person that got #Prince tickets for Melb shows there are 50 of us over here crying in the corner that didn't #gutted
— Caroline Dekker (@Caroline_Dekker) February 9, 2016

Been waiting an hour! I hope i haven't missed out on getting my mum tickets #prince #crushed pic.twitter.com/COHnZurkvD
— Nina Neale (@neeenah) February 9, 2016

Can't get Prince tickets. Website keeps refreshing and telling me I'm in a queue #princeinoz #shattered
— Livvy (@Crackrobat) February 9, 2016

@Ticketmaster_AU your hopeless online ticketing system left me high and dry for #Prince tickets. Utterly disappointed.
— Brinny (@ynnirb) February 9, 2016

@Ticketek_AU couldn't even get on the site to buy tickets to Prince, as usual!
— Keone Henderson (@keonie) February 9, 2016

@Ticketmaster_AU I'm in the q for melb Prince tickets and it's been saying "less than 2 mins" for 40 mins now - has it sold out?
— Sarah Smith (@sarah_smithie) February 9, 2016

Spent way too long trying to get Prince tickets. Missed out. Wahhhh.
— Susan Sherwood (@susan_sherwood) February 9, 2016

@Prince3EG PRINCE bby I missed tickets to your melbourne piano and microphone gigs :( PLEASE do more shows x
— Courtney King (@fave_grohl) February 9, 2016

Did anyone actually get Prince tickets? Did I just spend the better part of an hour proving to Ticketmaster I'm not a robot for nothing?
— Stacey Ryall (@StaceyRace) February 9, 2016

So this is what it sounds like when Sarah punches her computer #princetickets
— Sarah Smith (@sarah_smithie) February 9, 2016

when you miss out on prince tickets pic.twitter.com/5owSHglKiB
— Poncho (@PonchoMelb) February 9, 2016

team both

There are tears, trauma and happiness in the office @3RRRFM in equal parts after Prince tickets went on sale.
— Michelle Bennett (@mm_bennett) February 9, 2016

team ‘$400? Get fucked, mate’

$400 for Prince tickets at the Opera House. pic.twitter.com/BVlE5kxuB6
— Billy Posters (@Aqualec) February 9, 2016

The only Prince tickets left are 400, 700 or 900. Alas....just can't justify that on any level.
— Marquis (@MarquisO) February 9, 2016

I was joking when I said Prince tickets were $500 days ago (a lame attempt at humour... real price $390 The Jokes on me!
— Ant Timpson (@Timpson) February 9, 2016

Wow Prince Aussie tickets, what ripoff price, a lot of ppl won't buy them at that price.
— Gryphon Music (@GryphonMusic) February 9, 2016

Ticketek send me email offering Prince tickets at either $749.90 or $949.90… and they still want to charge an extra $8.50 booking fee. FMD.
— Kevin Airs (@KevinAirs442) February 9, 2016

Only premium tickets for #prince #sydney left-only costs you $820 for 2 tix after transaction fee and credit card surcharge #NotThatKeen
— DAWN (@DT_urchin) February 9, 2016