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- "Nutcracker" from the hammer: ticket operators do not believe in the success of the auction
"Nutcracker" from the hammer: ticket operators do not believe in the success of the auction
In the chat room of the Bolshoi Theater people are actively discussing whether it is realistic to buy tickets for "The Nutcracker" staged by Yuri Grigorovich under the new system of realization. This year passes for the most popular New Year's performance went on sale later than usual. To avoid the crush at the theater box office , for the first time they will be purchased through the GABT website. And part of the seats in the parterre will be put up for auction. "Izvestia" learned whether these measures are sufficient to combat speculators and what are the prospects for innovation.
The first in the theater
With the arrival of new management in the Bolshoi, fans of the main theater of the country do not get tired of being surprised by the scale of Valery Gergiev's activities. So, ways to eradicate speculation of tickets for "The Nutcracker" in the GABT discussed with the Ministry of Culture and the mayor's office of Moscow.
"We have a whole series of "Nutcrackers" ahead of us," the theater's general director told reporters. - We want to make meetings with the brightest performance possible for a large number of people together with the Ministry of Culture, with the mayor's office of Moscow. Therefore, these issues are now being discussed. Let's hope for a festive December and the first half of January. "Nutcrackers" will be offered to our audience quite a lot".
A scene from "The Nutcracker" at the Bolshoi Theater
To curb the actions of resellers, the management of the Bolshoi Theater has formed a special program for the sale of seats for the most popular New Year'sperformance .December 2 at 10:00 Moscow time GABT will open ticket sales for the performance, the show which will be held on December 17 at 19:00. Tickets will be available for purchase only on the official website through the "Personal Cabinet". At the same time, their sale on different days will not be carried out at once, but in accordance with the schedule posted on the official website of the theater.
The minimum cost of a pass for "The Nutcracker" - 1250 rubles (for the program "Youth" (14-22).
The cost of a pass for the programs "Pushkin Card", "Places of low price category", "60 plus" - 5000 rubles.
To prevent speculation, from October 1, 2024 only personalized tickets can be purchased for all performances of the Bolshoi Theatre. In the case of "The Nutcracker" such a practice has been in place for several years. But this does not stop resellers.
There are also restrictions on the number of passes purchased - no more than four in one hand. In this case, one of the tickets must be issued to the holder of the office. Passport data, entered in the pass, will be reflected in the passage to the theater, so you must have a document with you.
Separately 1.5 thousand seats the theater will transfer to the participants of the SWO and their families.
Ticket attraction
Another innovation of the GABT is an auction for individuals and legal entities. For the first time a part of tickets to the parterre will go under the hammer at a commercial auction through the electronic platform of the bank - a partner of the theater. As Izvestia was informed by the Ministry of Culture, the volume of passes put up for auction will amount to 12% of the entire hall. The Bolshoi believes that this mechanism will make it possible to channel some of the funds raised into additional support for artists.
A scene from "The Nutcracker" at the Bolshoi Theater
To participate in the auction, you need to register on the site - there is a video instruction. At the same time, the user attaches a scan copy of the 2nd and 3rd pages of the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation. On the auction page you can familiarize yourself with the scheme of the auditorium and lots. A participant has the right to apply only for bidding for one lot - a seat in the auditorium. The sale is a procedure of increasing the initial price per ticket in increments of 5 thousand rubles. The starting price of a lot is Br50 thousand for a seat in the parterre. Two tickets - 100 thousand.
- Auctions, created to buy tickets for "The Nutcracker", are more interested in resellers, the average person does not need them - said "Izvestia" general director of "MTS Live" Mikhail Minin. - There are 17 auctions announced for December alone. Speculators will probably bargain for tickets among themselves. And to begin with, they will meet on a patch of ground near the Bolshoi Theater and agree that they will not raise prices against each other, because they all know each other.
According to the head of one of the largest ticketing services in Russia, for resellers the emergence of auctions is, on the contrary, transparency. Starting with the fact that it is easy to register in the commercial bidding system.
- Large speculators have under a hundred couriers, and everyone will officially purchase tickets from their accounts, - continues Mikhail Minin. - Commercial bidding is not a method of fighting against resellers. It is rather a method to regulate pricing. And the theater, thus, removes responsibility for the high prices for "The Nutcracker". By the way, as soon as the auctions were announced, the bidding site immediately went down. I assume that ordinary viewers to buy passes online will also be difficult.
The expert suggests that the site of the Bolshoi Theater will be attacked by bots 30-40 companies that sell tickets. And while the bots will buy passes, the average viewer will not be able to go to the site.
Good to complain
One can only speculate where the seats bought up by bots and auctioned off will end up later. Ticket speculators have twin sites through which they sell passes for "The Nutcracker" at inflated prices.
According to information provided to Izvestia by Roskomnadzor, in 2024, on the basis of court decisions, access is restricted to 17 Internet resources containing information on the illegal sale of official tickets for performances at the State Academic Bolshoi Theater, including the ballet "The Nutcracker". Attackers created "mirror" platforms, which are difficult to distinguish from the official website of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, and sold passes there at an inflated price, which violates the rights of consumers to receive necessary and reliable information about a product or service, manufacturer, seller, performer.
"Izvestia" told how the Obraztsov Puppet Theater managed to identify the organizers of such fraudulent schemes of sale and start legal proceedings against them.
Appeals to the agency of those who suffered from speculators are not of a mass character. According to the Ministry of Culture, their number is decreasing every year. But where to run to when you have already been cheated?
- Since the Ministry of Culture of Russia does not have the authority to investigate the facts of offenses, a quicker effect will be given by appealing to the authorized law enforcement agencies. When citizens contact the Ministry, it informs the relevant internal affairs agencies about these facts. And if information is received about the activities of twin or clone sites, the information is transferred to Roskomnadzor," the ministry told Izvestia.
Roskomnadzor's press service told Izvestia that after the court decisions get to the agency, links with banned information are entered into a single register. A notification is sent to the hosting provider. By law, the owner of the Internet resource is obliged to remove illegal content within 24 hours. If this does not happen, Roskomnadzor restricts access to the Internet page.
A scene from "The Nutcracker" at the Bolshoi Theater
According to the recommendations of the Ministry of Culture of Russia, the websites of FGBUK (federal state budgetary cultural institutions) contain information warning viewers that if they purchase tickets from third-party organizations, they risk being deceived.
- It is recommended to buy tickets exclusively at box offices, on the websites of institutions and official partners," the ministry explained to Izvestia.
This year, "The Nutcracker" can also be seen in a hundred cinemas in the country. For the first time on December 30 at 19:00 and December 31 at 12:00 there will be live broadcasts of the performance from the historic building of the Bolshoi Theater. Tickets will cost from 1,150 to 1,600 rubles at the Oktyabr movie theater in the capital. And for those who will not have this opportunity, the GABT will show the broadcast of the ballet on December 31 at 20:00 on the page of the official community of the theater in "VKontakte".
