Eurovision 2017 tickets finally go on sale

The long-anticipated tickets for the Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv went on sale on the evening of Feb. 14.

The tickets can be purchased online on the Concert.ua ticketing agency website. Tickets to the Grand Final that will take place on May 13 sell for Hr 1,000 – 15,999 (34 euros to 553 euros).

Purchasing a ticket isn’t all that simple. The clients are put in an online queue, where they wait for their turn to enter the page. As of 9 p.m. on Feb. 14, an hour after the sales started, the waiting time was above one hour, and nearly 8,000 people were in the queue.

Nearly 70,000 tickets for this year’s Eurovision are coming on sale for nine Eurovision shows – six rehearsals, two semi-finals and the Grand Final.

The tickets for semi-finals or rehearsals aren’t available on the website yet. The semi-finals will take place on May 9 and 11.

Earlier the sale of Eurovision tickets was put on hold after the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine canceled on Feb. 6 the result of the tender, in which the National Television Company of Ukraine selected a ticket distributor for Eurovision, saying the process hadn’t been transparent.

Pavlo Hrytsak, deputy general of the National Broadcasting Company of Ukraine, denied any wrongdoing during in regards to the tender but said the company will fulfill the Antimonopoly Committee’s decision.

The new tender to select a Eurovision ticket vendor was scheduled to take place on Feb. 15. The National Television Company of Ukraine couldn’t comment on why the Eurovision ticket sales started despite the dismissal of tender results by the Antimonopoly Committee.

At the same time, Agniya Zahrebelska from Ukraine’s Antimonopoly Committee told the Kyiv Post that on Feb. 14 the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU)  signed the agreement with the V Ticket ticket agency for the symbolic sum of Hr 1.20. Since the sum was so low, NTUavoided having the tender, according to Zahrebelska.