Hi chaps,

We have to charge a booking fee because every way we have of selling you a ticket pre-festival costs us money.

The company we are using this year is a small independent one, not Ticketmaster. It's called Ticket Solve, and the service they provide is fast, reliable and seems to easily cope with all the vagaries of Sidmouth's complex ticketing structure.

We make no profit at all from the booking fee, which works on a sliding scale, and is capped. This is what the Festival Chief Exec, John Braithwaite, says:

"In an attempt to keep our customers' costs down, we have held our booking fee at a very low, fixed level per order for a number of years (which actually penalises customers buying limited numbers of concert tickets).

When changing to a new booking system, which works out booking fees on a more equitable basis related to order value, we checked levels charged by other comparable events, before setting the rate so that we were not out of line.

We appreciate that the new basis, although capped, will give higher fees for some customers which is unwelcome. Please be assured that we use our income to keep down ticket prices as far as possible, and improve the Festival line up and facilities, as we are not a commercially driven company."


Tam's point is exactly why we decided to make the costs transparent, rather than burying them in the cost of the tickets: we thought it was fairer for people to know what they're paying for. We thought that including it in the cost of the tickets would constitute something of a "stealth tax". If, however, there is enough feedback to the contrary and people would prefer to know the all-in price at the outset, we will respond accordingly next year.

Probably more effective to go through official channels to register that feedback, rather than putting it on this thread, though - it's guaranteed to be seen by the Board if you either send it through the contact e-mail on the festival website, or put it on a feedback form at the festival.

Thanks.