DENVER — The Great American Beer Fest kicked off Thursday afternoon at the Colorado Convention Center.
Each year, tickets for the popular event sell out within hours if not minutes. But beer enthusiasts aren’t the only ones snagging tickets; scalpers are making it hard to get tickets even tougher to come by.
Some would argue it’s the biggest ticket in town. On tap are more than 700 American breweries and more than 3,000 beers. Beer lovers from all over the country are pouring in, including Chris Burch from Tennessee who almost didn’t get the golden ticket.
“It was like overwhelmed by the server. The server like bogged out completely,” Burch said about his experience when he logged on to buy two GABF tickets.
They went on sale in July. The festival sold out on Ticketmaster in less than two hours. Burch went through another ticket online vendor and said he paid $40 over face value.
“It was kind of worth it because we had already bought plane tickets and everything,” Burch said.
He is not alone. The event is infamous for selling out fast.
” I don’t know if you have to have special magic or anything. But as soon as you log on, they’re gone,” Damon Aguirrechu said.
He bought his on Craigslist on Tuesday. After doing some research he said he was lucky to have paid face value. But some people who did get tickets right away probably won’t attend the event. Scalpers get their hands on tickets too.
“Just like any popular sporting event or music concert, any event that ticket brokers or scalpers suspect is going to sell out, they tend to target,” said Barbara Fusco with the Colorado Brewers Association.
She said her organization works with Ticketmaster to try to minimize ticket scalping abuse by limiting ticket quantities and have credit card fraud measures in place.
“Unfortunately, scalpers are in the business of overcoming those systems,” Fusco said. “At the end of the day, it’s a very difficult problem to overcome.”
Fusco recommends only buying GABF tickets though authorized vendors. Denver Police Department officers will be on the lookout for scalpers over the course of the event.