Results tagged “tickets”

Many of you were unhappy with the outcome of this year's new lottery system to get tickets to the traditional White House Easter Egg Roll. Just read through the comments of this post for an idea of how annoyed local folks were that the ticketing system was opened up to the entire country, via the Internet. Then get ready to do the same thing all over again for the lighting of the White House Christmas tree.

Megabus and BoltBus are seemingly now the biggest players in the saturated and ever growing D.C.-NYC coach bus market. People may argue about which is better in terms of service, but when it comes to leaving early in the morning, Megabus is hands down the top choice. They’re the only carrier that offers pre-dawn options to New York, leaving from D.C. at 5:15 and 6:15 a.m. Just don’t try to show up for an early morning bus without a reservation.

Virginia Railway Express is thinking about no longer selling its discounted youth tickets because they believe more and more adults are abusing the system by pretending to be younger than they really are, the Examiner reports today. Currently, anyone under 21 can get VRE tickets for half-price, so it's not too hard to imagine a number of 20-somethings are getting away with paying less than they should. There will have to be a public hearing before anything more happens, but VRE is proposing raising the age of children who ride for free when accompanied by an adult to 10, up from 6, in order to make up for the change. The commuter rail agency estimates eliminating the youth discount could generate $300,000 per year.

Venerable D.C. music venue the Black Cat announced today that it will stop selling advance tickets through Ticketmaster, instead switching to competitor Ticket Alternative. The change will become effective September 25, so all shows that are taking place after that date are already on sale via Ticket Alternative.

It's day two of the Washington Post raking the Redskins and their ticket office over the coals. When the paper ran a front page feature on “The Toughest Ticket in Town” yesterday, there was no indication that readers were being treated to an investigative series. We got the story, we got the Redskins' lawyer responding by saying that the Post needs "to sell newspapers, and God love 'em, circulation is down," and we were ready to move on, still loving—or loathing—the burgundy and gold as we see fit.

Those of you most interested in the Post's Redskins ticketing exposé have no doubt already read the article and vented your bile, but it's probably worth taking a moment to explain to everyone else just why this is so irritating. The short version: the team's much-vaunted waiting list for season tickets may be recognized as a sham, but to preserve the illusion, *someone* in the 'Skins sales office entered into quiet arrangements to unload hard-to-sell premium tickets in bundles with more sought-after lower bowl seats, bypassing the long line of fans who'd be happy to buy those seats. The counterparties to these deals? Your friends and mine: the men and women of the secondary ticket market, aka scalpers-with-websites, aka the goddamn scum of the earth.

Does all this talk about new injections of talent into the Nationals organization have you yearning to take in a game at the stadium? Well, you're in luck -- to celebrate the signing of Stephen Strasburg, the Nats will be offering tickets (while supplies last, of course) for Friday's game against the Brewers at the low, low price of a buck. Fans can get $1 tickets -- located in Sections 108, 110, 135 through 137, 103 through 107, 201 through 205, and 223 through 235, so actually half-decent seats -- through this page at the Nationals website. The cheap tickets go on sale starting at noon today, so get clicking. The Nationals will also be introducing their new star pitcher in a press conference on the field at 2 p.m. on Friday -- fans with tickets to the game will be allowed in early to watch Strasburg pose for photos in his new jersey, and participate in a half-hour Q&A session. Since the presser is a solid five hours before game time, though, you might want to just catch it on television.

Just when you thought the District's willingness to give out tickets couldn't get any more zealous, the District Department of Transportation has just completed training their first batch of Traffic Control Officers who are now authorized to issue traffic citations, according to a news release.

This year's Virgin Mobile Festival's plan to give out tickets for free worked like a charm. The concert's organizers say 35,000 free tickets were gobbled up in minutes when they went on "sale" this weekend.

We'd heard the rumors and speculated ourselves, and today the folks behind the Virgin Mobile Festival announced that its shortened schedule and new venue this year will have one pretty great thing going for it: it's going to be totally free.

You've seen the posters at bus stops all over town, and now tickets to the 2009 Capital Fringe Festival are officially on sale. You know the deal with Fringe: due to its non-curated philosophy, there's basically no way to know in advance if anything showing during the festival will be awesome or a huge flop. But with individual show tickets at $15 a piece and multi-show Fringe Passes ranging from $50 to $300, it's worth it to peruse this year's schedule and consider purchasing in advance. Tickets are available here (don't forget the $5 Fringe Button). The Capital Fringe Festival runs July 9-26.

So, Madrid's bringing in Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo, eh? In that case, it looks like D.C. United lucked out in nailing down Real Madrid for their August 9th friendly at FedEx Field. The European football world is all upside down with possibilities due to the second wave of galacticos at Madrid; but regardless of the dominoes that are yet to fall across the pond, soccer fans here will be able to see two of world's consensus top five players (unless, of course, Madrid adds another -- hey, you never know) when Los Merengues roll into town later this summer. And hey, right on cue, individual tickets just went on sale at 10 a.m. -- well played, United. You can get yours here -- we wouldn't recommend procrastinating for too long.

Every concertgoer, no matter their musical preferences, can agree on one thing: service charges are way the eff out of control. Say, for example, you wanted to buy a pair of tickets to see Tori Amos at DAR Constitution Hall on Aug. 1. You have no real choice but to go to Ticketmaster.com and cough up $45 for each ticket, plus an $11.15 "convenience" charge per ticket, plus another $1.50 each for something called the "building facility charge." They even try to charge you $4.75 for the privilege of printing your own ticket at home, and then, in the checkout process, add on an extra "order processing charge" of $5.60, bringing the grand total for two people to attend this single concert to a whopping $125.65. It's hard to fathom how getting ripped off to the tune of more than $30 qualifies as "convenience."

The Washington Times today carries news that will surely embolden area drivers and challenge District parking authorities.

Whew, we can all breathe a little easier now. After what seemed like weeks of incessantly meaningless bickering, D.C. Wire reports that the Mayor's office handed over 19 Nationals seats to the City Council today, in what I'm sure new City Administrator Neil O. Albert is going to remember fondly as his first official duty in said capacity. Vincent Gray & Co. will be able to use the seats in Suite 61 at Nationals Park starting on Wednesday against Pittsburgh. (Hey, just in time to watch the Nationals and Pirates battle for the title of most incompetent National League franchise!) Post scribe Nikita Stewart, who broke the story, wonders about the timing of the exchange: "[t]he tickets could be a peace offering as Fenty tries to convince the council to restore some of his original budget proposal before a final vote on the budget support act." Uh, sure, tickets are nice and all, but if the Mayor thinks that giving the Council Nats tickets which they already believed were theirs is really going to grease the wheels, he probably has not seen a lot of Nationals games this season. (Springsteen tickets probably would have been a better choice.) But hey, that's beside the point here -- at least now we won't have to hear about this nonsense again until there's something interesting happening at the Verizon Center.

Bruuuuutal. TicketsNow.com, the resale company owned by Ticketmaster, oversold the upcoming Bruce Springsteen concert at the Verizon Center, WTOP's Mark Segraves reports. The company is in the middle of contacting customers who thought they had awesome seats to the show and letting them know that their dream night with the Boss won't come true. TicketsNow is giving refunds, and some customers are also being offered free tickets in the nosebleed section. The concert is set for Monday, May 18; only the D.C. Springsteen show reportedly saw the overselling problem.

Assuming the game doesn't get rained out, the Nationals are offering $3 off any ticket worth $10 or more to fans who take Metro to tonight's game, in honor of Earth Day. All you have to do is show your SmarTrip card or paper Metro farecard at the box office to receive your discount. And no, those of you who already bought tickets can't show up at the box office and demand $3—the ticket promotion is good on day of game sales only.

The Nationals finally won a game last night (8-2 over the world champion Phillies!), but it looks like members of the D.C. Council weren't there to enjoy it. No, instead, the epically ridiculous, second-year-in-a-row Mayor/Council dispute over friggin' baseball tickets is still going on. This morning, Council chair Vince Gray showed up on FOX 5 to give the mayor a big fat spanking over the whole thing. The local news station does a nice job juxtaposing clips of Fenty from his appearance yesterday, looking sweaty, irritated and irrational, with cool as a cucumber Gray, who calmly explains that the mayor is crazy if he thinks he can describe his relationship with the Council as "fantastic." Take a look.

This is just kind of sad. While it has yet to be officially announced by the team, it's long been reported that, schedule permitting, President Barack Obama will throw out the first pitch at the Nationals home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday, April 13. Yes, the home opener is a weekday afternoon game (3:05 p.m.), but considering the one-two punch of the Nats playing the world champion Phillies and the promise that the wildly popular Obama will be there, you'd think our pathetic little baseball franchise wouldn't have any trouble selling tickets to at least this one game. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong.

The White House says it released tickets to the annual Easter Egg Roll online today, but it's hard to say whether anyone actually successfully got any. WTOP is reporting constant site crashes at www.whitehouse.gov/eastereggroll/.

The White House today announced that it will distribute tickets for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll online for the first time, doing away with the decades-old tradition of Washington families who line up for hours on the Ellipse the weekend before the event to receive their tickets.

Itching to get a glimpse of the post-Bowden, Skinny Screech'd Washington Nationals this coming season? Or maybe just morbidly curious to watch the struggling team take on the world champion Philadelphia Phillies in their home opener on April 13? Nats single game tickets went on sale at 9 a.m. this morning, and we were still able to score some reasonably priced opening day tickets around 10:30 a.m. One tip—if at first the system tells you there are no tickets available in the price range you requested, try again in another area. The web site kept trying to insist all that was left were $55 tickets for a while, but after 10 minutes we bought four $20 tickets with no problem.

D.C. Department of Public Works spokesperson Nancee Lyons sent out the message posted below to neighborhood email lists today.

Dear Neighbors,

Continue reading "DPW Threatening To Give 12,000 Residents the Boot"

A tip of the hat to Loose Lips Daily for pointing us to this nugget from NBC4 on Friday: Ward 2 D.C. Council member Jack Evans says he wants the District to "reconsider" its cell phone driving ban. Now, we've written before about how most D.C. area drivers appear to be ignoring the law and how while the number of tickets issued keeps going up every year, enforcement is still pretty lax and certainly doesn't seem to be discouraging many people from breaking the law.

The Washington Nationals sent out this email to fans today. It's hard to say what's more at play here—the recession, or the lack of popularity of the Nats. Click here to get your season tickets on an E-Z installment plan!

Attention all inaugural ticket holders who are still smarting over harrowing security gate experiences: the Presidential Inaugural Committee really does feel bad. To prove it, they are offering to give you free stuff. Said stuff is said to be copies of the Swearing-In invitation and program, photos of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, and a color print of the ceremony itself. Does this free stuff make up for you feeling super disappointed/having been actually frightened by an angry mob/spending money and time on something that you didn't get to experience? You tell us.

DCist's Amanda Mattos reports from the "orange" ticketholders entrance at the Swearing-In Ceremony, which is near C street at the entrance to the Rayburn HOB. She says she was shuffled into a long, winding line that was supposedly leading to the security entrance, but when she actually reached the gate, there was nobody monitoring the entrance to the security tent, and it seemed like people could have cut to the front of the line without anyone stopping them -- except, as it turned out, the angry mob. A family did try to cut in line, and Amanda says the crowd responded by calling them "Bush"! Apparently shouting "Bush!" is the official insult of Inauguration Day.

DCist Weekend Editor Kriston Capps tweets from the Inaugural scene: "Cops saying they're seeing a lot of fake tickets. I am shocked, shocked!" From day one, the Presidential Inaugural Committee has been warning folks not to purchase Inauguration tickets from third-party vendors for precisely this reason. In fact, the entire kerfuffle with the pick-up of Inaugural tickets yesterday was designed to prevent this kind of situation -- but it appears as if some people couldn't resist and may end up losing some serious cash, with some third-party tickets going for several thousand dollars.

WJLA reports on the long lines today on Capitol Hill, as people went down to House and Senate offices to pick up their tickets to the Swearing-In ceremony—the tickets each member of Congress had for constituents were barred from being distributed until today. Most people the local news channel spoke to took the crowds, and the wait, in stride, but one tipster told us it all resulted in a big mess at Capitol South Metro station. "Absolute madness," wrote Matthew Savener in an email to tips(at)dcist.com at around 1:15 p.m. "Pile-up at turnstiles got so bad -- approaching dangerous -- that they just opened the gates and let everyone through. Not sure how the fare works on that. The HOBs are swamped. Lines EVERYWHERE on every street. If ticket-holders aren't here yet they are prob screwed."