Member Ticket Sales 2019
Online ticket sales for the 39th Shetland Folk Festival will open to early members on Monday 18th March at 6pm (UK time).
Early members have the opportunity to order their tickets before they go on sale to the general public on 1st April, but please note that we do expect some concerts to be in high demand and many concerts will sell out very quickly.
Membership Numbers
To purchase members' tickets, you will need to enter membership number(s) and membership name(s) as input at the time of purchase and as detailed in your confirmation email. Spelling mistakes do happen so please check! If you did not receive a membership number email from us after completing membership payment, please use our Membership Reminder Form. If you still haven't received your email, it is essential that you check your spam folder prior to contacting us.
Notes on PayPal Checkout
In the past, a number of our members contacted us to let us know that they couldn't pay for their membership by credit/debit card on PayPal. We got in touch with PayPal who have given the following guidance:
- There is a limit to how many times a customer can pay as a guest before the system will prompt the customer to create an account
- If PayPal associates the user's computer with an existing PayPal account, it will prompt for this to be used instead of the Guest checkout option
- Non-UK customers are not eligible to use the Guest checkout option
What this all means is that it is no longer guaranteed that you will get the Guest checkout option on PayPal. This is a change to previous years, and we'll be looking to move to another payment processor in the future as we know this is an inconvenience to our members. However, we're not in a position to change this at the moment, so all members should be prepared to create a PayPal account while ordering tickets or you may choose to create this account in advance. While we hope that the lack of guest checkout won't be the case for the majority, we anticipate there will be some who will have to do this. We apologise for the inconvenience.
Join the Queue!
As we did in previous years, we have put a queuing system in place for the opening of the members' ticket sales.
When you visit our site to buy your tickets after 6pm on Monday, you'll automatically be placed in the queue. You don't need to do anything else - when it is your turn to access the booking system, you'll be automatically redirected to the booking page, and will be able to purchase your tickets.
To manage website traffic we will also be opening the "pre-queue" 15 minutes before the ticket sales open. This means you can visit the link below after 5:45pm on Monday to automatically join the "pre-queue":
Join the Queue >
Joining the pre-queue before ticket sales open at 6pm doesn't guarantee your position in the queue - all users in the pre-queue at 6pm get a random queue number. This means that there's no difference between joining at 5:45pm or joining at 5:59pm - but you'll be placed ahead of someone joining at 6pm.
Having the queuing system in place last year worked well. It is also a fair "first-come-first-serve" system, used all over the world by organisations such as Carnegie Hall, the Royal Opera House and Legoland, and we hope it will provide a much better ticket buying experience for our members. If joining the queue at 6pm, please note that the initial estimate of your queue time is likely to be significantly higher than actual queue time.
Notes
- Each member may only purchase one afternoon concert ticket and one evening concert ticket per festival day
- At least one child concession should be added to an order for a family concert
- Concession price tickets are available to seniors (over 65s), children, students and those in receipt of means-tested benefits. Please note that any holders of concessionary tickets may be asked to provide proof of eligibility at the door of the venue.
- Tickets are sold on a strictly first come first serve basis.
All orders from international addresses will default to a collection only option. Tickets will be ready for collection from 11am on Thursday 2nd May.
The collection only option is NOT available to orders from Shetland. All ticket orders to Shetland addresses will be posted.
Tips
- Have your membership numbers ready!
- Once a member has been checked, you can quickly autofill their details by clicking on their name when it appears.
- Some concerts will sell out very quickly. If purchasing for a large group, you may wish to prioritise the tickets you want to purchase, and make separate orders if necessary. Please note that you will be re-queued once an order is complete.
- A £1 postage charge is added to orders where tickets are to be posted.
- Once you have clicked the "Buy Now" button and have been taken to PayPal to make your payment, do not click the back button. The details you entered previously will no longer be populating the order form.
- Once you have clicked the "Buy Now" button, your tickets will be in the system, although won't be confirmed until after payment has been made. If your payment fails, or you decide to cancel, you will be unable to re-purchase those same tickets for 15 minutes. This is to prevent overselling, so make sure you check your selected tickets carefully, and complete your purchase at the PayPal stage.