Another comic protests booking fees

Dave Gorman has joined the growing band of comedians boycotting theatres which charge ‘unreasonable’ booking fees.

He has revealed that he will not play Glasgow and Oxford during his 2014 tour because venues there fleece fans for up to £9 a ticket in additional charges.

His move follows similar protests from Sarah Millican and Jason Manford over the ‘whopping’ fees charged by the Ambassadors Theatre Group, which sells tickets through its subsidiary ATG tickets.

The group manages the New Theatre and Old Fire Station in Oxford in Oxford and the King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal in Glasgow s well as 11 West End theatres and around 20 others around the country.

Writing on his blog last night, Gorman explained: ‘In both cases [Glasgow and Oxford] I've said no to doing the show there because the venues concerned charge punters booking fees etc that I think are unreasonable

‘They're both venues that are run by The Ambassadors Theatre Group. At every other venue on the tour, I think the booking fees are between 50p and £3 but somehow in an ATG venue it works out at an extra £6 to £9 per ticket.

‘I am sorry not to be playing those venues. But it's a simple choice to make. I don't think the charges are fair. So I don't want to condone them by playing there.’

He added that he was ‘trying to avoid making a stink about it’ but wanted to explain why he wasn’t playing those cities.

Last month, Manford told his fans not to come and see him in Oxford after he discovered the level of booking fees charged by the theatre.

On Facebook,he blasted the charges as a rip-off that made his ‘blood boil’, and wondered what the agency ‘parasites’ were doing for the money, since theatre-goes book online and print off their own tickets.

A typical bill comprises a £3.90 per ticket booking fee, a £1-per-ticket ‘theatre restoration levy’, and £4 per booking transaction fee.

And when Sarah Millican announced her current Home Bird tour, she said: ‘I don’t agree with the extra charges ATG put on top of the face value ticket price to you the customer and a number of other restrictions they have in place so that’s why I’ve avoided their venues.’

ATG say: ‘ATG's ticketing operation is selling tickets on behalf of the producers of shows bringing their shows to our venues. All, or the vast majority, of the sales income from the ticket goes to the producer, hence the need to charge for ticketing operations separately.

‘ATG and its ticketing arm also provide an extremely high level of customer service and the ticketing fees cover the costs of providing this service including the staffing, systems, UK-based call centre and associated administration costs. However booking fees only apply to customers who buy on the phone or online. The range of fees can vary depending on show genre and ticket price.’

Published: 17 Oct 2013