As irritating as Ed Sheeran might be to those who don't worship at his ginger altar, it's good to see an artist finally taking a stand against ticket touts.
With tickets for his UK/Irish stadium tour going on sale (and selling out) last week, it's been reported that Sheeran has already cancelled 10,000 tickets being sold on re-sale sites at hugely inflated prices.
Some of the unofficial sites selling/touting the tickets included Viagogo and edsheerantickets2018.com. These tickets will now be rendered invalid and will be made available for sale once again via official channels. The move sends a message to both touts and people who might be tempted to pay ridiculous prices for tickets: don't do it.
"Most profiteering companies heeded promoters' warnings not to trade and resell tickets that would instantly be cancelled," a spokesman for the singer told The Mirror. "This resulted in 90% of tickets being delivered into fans' hands at the face value. The process of analysing sales and cancelling tickets purchased for purposes for resale will continue until the tour takes place."
It's not yet known whether any of the tickets being re-sold via unofficial channels for Sheeran's nine Irish dates next year have been affected, but measures have already been put in place to combat touting - including the requirement for valid photo ID which matches the name printed on the ticket, before you are allowed to enter.