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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Katherine Heslop

Ticketmaster website crashes as Eurovision fans rush to buy tickets for Liverpool 2023

Ticketmaster has crashed as Eurovision fans attempt to snap up tickets for the event in May.

Tickets went on sale today at midday for nine live shows, with outages reported at Ticketmaster spiking after 11am.

Fans eager to snap up tickets are sharing their experience on Twitter and screenshots of the crashed website, with one person commenting: "Seems like I'm not the only one facing a 500 Internal Server Error when aiming for #Eurovision tickets. Godspeed to all tho!"

Another said: "Not ticketmaster crashing 1 min before eurovision tickets go onsale omg."

There are tickets for nine shows in total, which include previews for the semi-finals, and of course the grand final itself, watched by millions across Europe.

Prices range from £30 to £290 for the semi-finals, and then £80 to £380 for the grand final, all being held at M&S Bank Arena, on the Queen's Dock.

After the victory of Kalush Orchestra in Turin, Ukraine should traditionally host the Eurovision Song Contest this year.

However, due to to Russia's invasion of the country, this is not possible and the UK, which came second with Sam Ryder's entry, stepped up, with Liverpool chosen among rival cities.

Last month, it was announced that Graham Norton and Alesha Dixon will host the evening.

Kalush Orchestra, representing Ukraine, won last year (AFP via Getty Images)

Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham will also host alongside Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina.

Presenting trio Alesha, Hannah, and Julia will front the two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May, with Graham Norton joining them for the grand final on Saturday, 13 May.

More than 160 million are expected to watch the competition globally.

Emmy-award winning actress Waddingham said it was 'a great privilege' to be involved.

It's one of the world's greatest music festivals," the Game of Thrones and Sex Education actress added.

Longstanding Eurovision commentator Graham Norton will join the three hosts for the grand final, describing it as 'the greatest show on earth'.

"Every year that I'm involved it's a huge honour," he said. "This year is even more special and I personally feel a big responsibility to make our Ukrainian colleagues proud."

"But this year, perhaps more than ever, it is such a great honour to be standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, a country which has carried itself with such strength and unity.

Thousands of tickets for the music spectacular are set to be allocated to Ukrainians who have been forced from their homes and are living in the UK.

As part of the UK’s commitment to honour Ukraine at the song contest, around 3,000 tickets will be made available to displaced Ukrainians so they can attend the live shows.

The UK government also announced £10 million in funding to "help ensure the event truly showcases Ukrainian culture" on the anniversary of Russia ’s invasion of the country.

Ukrainian broadcaster Timur Miroshnychenko, who has commentated on Eurovision in Ukraine since 2007, will appear during the live shows to give insight from Ukraine’s commentary box in the Liverpool Arena.

A spokesperson for Ticketmaster told The Mirror: "The Ticketmaster site did not crash today – rather a very small number of fans experienced issues accessing the queue. Ticket sales were unaffected, and thousands of fans secured their seats for the Eurovision Song Contest, which is now sold out."

Meanwhile, a BBC spokesperson added: "As expected demand for Eurovision Song Contest tickets was extremely high and tickets for all nine shows sold out in 90 minutes. Congratulations to those who secured their seats to Liverpool Arena in May. We are now looking forward to putting on a brilliant show for our global TV audience and those watching on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK."

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