why is this still happening long after covid?

[wcijfdot]

I go to a lot of stand up comedy shows and during covid they had this thing where you had to leave a space between seats so you were not sitting right next to someone.. I don't mean they were doing shows but say if you went to buy a ticket for the year after etc..

Tried to buy tickets for Peter Kay in Bolton yesterday and was put in a queue (11k before me lol) and obviously they sold out.

Went back to the site last night and it was showing one available seat in the second row, the only ticket, tried to add it to my basket and it wouldn't let me saying 'you need to leave a space between seats' just checked now and the ticket is gone.

why are they still doing this long after covid? it means people like me who go to shows alone a lot of the time can't buy a ticket?

anyone else miss out because of this?

I've been to a lot of shows and gigs since COVID and I haven't seen anywhere that was deliberately leaving seats unused.

I think it's much more likely that the website was glitching and have you an erroneous warning message.

I would assume it is a booking system glitch. Venues are trying to cram as many people in as possible to make money these days, there are definitely no seats being deliberately left empty.

What I have found quite often is that systems won't allow you to book a seat/seats if that would leave a gap of just one seat between you and the next occupied seat, as single seats are supposedly harder to sell. I have once or twice in the past found systems that won't let you book a single seat online, it has to be two or more, but that was a while back.

Yes cinema sites do this for me because otherwise you end up with loads of single seats left between other groups.

OP I would recommend Twickets. Allows people to resell tickets for no more than they paid themselves so no gouging. Single tickets will come up for resale, especially as the gig date gets closer. You can set an alert for specific performers and venues.

@wcijfdot have you phoned them? That will probably get it resolved straight away and you can probably have that ticket.

Not seen this. Went to small theatre last weekend and it felt like we almost sitting in each others laps.

I’ve found the opposite - you can’t book a ticket or group of tickets if it would then leave a single seat unsold in the row. It’s a pain as I often want to book one seat on my own, and end up having to buy further back than I’d like so I don’t split a pair of seats. I think you just encountered a glitchy website.

I tried buying tickets for the same show yesterday, the website was very glitchy, it told me one of the performances wasn't yet on sale, it sold out in less than 16 min (that's how long I was in the queue). I suspect bots got most of the tickets, the amount of people I know who tried and didn't get tickets WAY out weighs those who did.