Edinburgh Fringe ticket site dead as a parrot
Edinburgh Fringe festival organisers admitted yesterday that their box office system is still out of action more than 48 hours after tickets went on sale. In the meantime the company has been telling customers: “All website, telephone and counter sales will remain suspended until we reopen the box office tomorrow [12 June].” …
This topic is closed for new posts.
so can you confirm...
whether it actually runs on Windows or not?
100% defect free?
According to the Pivotal Integration website, they're software is 100% defect-free. Sounds like someone's telling porkies...
windows - no
given the fringe are recruiting for ubuntu, tomcat and jboss support staff i'd say they are not using windows
IT policy for public-facing twitnets
Come to think of it, the Reg comment system doesn't accept even low grade html or formatting. How crap is that? Must be broken.
Vulture eyes dead parrot sketch..
.. it's inevitable really, that El Reg would see a dead parrot as the finest in haute cuisine.
Incorrect choice!
As has already been pointed out, whilst the edfringe.com site has been down all week, the big four venues' websites are all happily selling tickets. These four venues are all using VIA ticketing software from Red61, rather than the Pivotal product selected by the Fringe.
Ironically, the fringe put the contract out to tender at the end of last year and Red61 submitted a tender, but lost out, despite having the support of four venues who account for about half of all tickets sold on the Fringe. So why did the Fringe Office pick Pivotal? Surely there would have been synergies with using the same system as the big four (which, with the benefit of hindsight, has proved itself to be more robust)?
Empire building...
@incorrect choice: Methinks someone might be trying to have a go at building an empire...
How quickly we forget...
This time last year it was Red61 having problems:
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1580595.0.ticket_chaos_looms_for_fringe.php
I also remember something about their system failing to be able to sell simple tickets at an Ice Rink...
Clearly, Red61 have had a year to fix those problems.
Oh and let's not forget that there's a direct financial link between at least one of the venues and Red61.
... And seen in context
Reading the article link posted, it appears to me that much of what they are talking about is simply down to the same shows being setup on two ticketing systems rather than issues with the other system
I would agree with the comment posted by "Ivan Toby Allen, Union City" - One system that works it better that two different systems
How quickly we seek to divert attention
I'm all for forums and allowing people to express themselves. Sadly though it's a form of communication that is all too easy to abuse.
I don't know who posted the first comment to mention Red61, but I've got a good idea who posted the second. You've got my number, feel free to call any time you want to chat.
So, in the interests of putting the record straight.
Yes Red61 did experience issues last year due to an unscheduled increase in the amount of work required to complete the project.
The projects operational requirements changed substantially 6 weeks before we went live which necessitated the integration of two new payment applications and the development of additional functionality. The majority of you reading this will understand the implications of that and the huge amount of additional work that was required as a result.
Unfortunately that had a knock on effect on our development schedule and significantly reduced our installation and testing time. We found ourselves 'developing on the move' and were under extreme pressure from May through to the end of August.
Although it was a very testing time, we discovered a level of resilience and dedication in the technical and development team that went far beyond the remit of their job description. I've thanked them personally, but I'd like to take this opportunity to thank them publicly for all the hard work they put in to get us through last year.
We also proved the resilience of our VIA ticketing system. I haven't looked at the article, the link to which was so helpfully provided in the previous commenter, but I seem to remember a prediction of the ending of the world and utter 'ticket chaos'. Well you should know by now that you shouldn't believe anything you read in the press, even the Sunday Herald. VIA successfully sold just under 400,000 tickets for Fringe07, processing £3m worth of business for a three and a half week festival. That's a level of business that's equivalent to what some large venues do in a year and in a much more complicated environment.
This year we expect to sell some 600,000 tickets which will be around one third of all the tickets sold for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world.
I'm not sure what is implied by bringing up the fact that there is a financial link between some venues and Red61. It is a positive endorsement of our business that some of our clients have such a high level of confidence in us and wish to get involved and help to develop what they see as an attractive business opportunity. I don't see how that has a bearing on the problems the Fringe office are facing at the moment.
I wish the Fringe office luck in solving their current problems. We fully understand what they are going through at the moment.
I any one else would like to make comment on Red61, preferably on what's actually happening at the moment, rather than a pathetic attempt to drag up a minor and temporary problem that happened 2 and a half years ago (the ice rink jibe for those of you who are not in the know), please feel free to do so. But at least have the balls to put your name on it.
Sorry, didn't say who I was!
My apologies. I should have mentioned that I'm the MD of Red61.
This topic is closed for new posts.
