DISAPPOINTED DUNDEE music fans have been inundating Radio 1’s website—as well as The Courier and MSPs—to complain about the apparent lack of Big Weekend tickets reaching Dundee households.

Radio 1 were forced to clarify their ticket allocation details on their website due to the sheer numbers contacting the site to complain.

And despite initially promising that music fans from the Dundee area would get “priority” in the ticket ballot, the station have now admitted that less than half of the available tickets were sent to people in the DD postcode area.

Several readers have contacted The Courier saying they knew of no one else who had been lucky in the ballot, including an irate father of a Dundee High School pupil who claimed none of her friends knew of anyone at the school who had received tickets.

Another reader, Morag MacLachlan, said she had done a straw poll of friends who work in the major employment centres in Dundee—call centres, shops and utilities—but none knew of anyone with tickets.

Ms MacLachlan also complained that, despite her being younger than many of the Radio 1 DJs, she was considered too old to be given a ticket by the station.

Radio 1’s website stated, “85% of the tickets were sent to people in Scotland. Of these half were sent to people in the Dundee area.

“Tickets were mailed out first class on Friday, May 5, and Saturday, May 6, by our ticket agency who are one of the biggest ticket agencies in the country with a lot of experience of events like this.

It added, “300,000 people applied for tickets. We sent out 14,000 pairs. That sadly means 286,000 people were unlucky.

“A further 1000 pairs were kept back. Most of these were for Radio 1 competitions. Others have been given to local partners who are working on the festival with us for their own competitions.”

Working on those figures, it appears Dundee households were sent only 2975 pairs of tickets each day, a total of 5950 letters with a pair of tickets in each, or 11,900 tickets covering the weekend.

The statement also covered the question of why they chose not to inform the ballot winners in advance.

“Past experience has shown some people who receive Email confirmation sell their tickets and ask for a second pair claiming the originals were lost in the post.

“We have stated on all tickets ‘not for re-sale.’ Before entering the draw everyone had to accept terms and conditions banning them from selling the tickets.

“We will be doing random ID checks on people entering the venue. Anyone who cannot prove they were the original recipient of the tickets will not be allowed in.

“However, as is the case with all UK music and events promoters, we do not have control over what eBay accepts for sale.”

Despite their efforts, DJ Scott Mills pointed out on his show that Big Weekend tickets made up seven pages on the eBay internet auction site and commented on the weak excuses—including having to work, illness or their car breaking down— being used by the sellers for putting them up for sale.

Dundee West MSP Kate Maclean said last night she had contacted Royal Mail in London to ask them to check how many letters they had received from Radio 1 and said she would be attempting to trace where they had all gone.

“I have been inundated with calls and Emails from constituents saying that not only had they or their family and friends not got any tickets but they knew of no one else either,” she said.

“I would stress that I’m not making any accusations against postal workers, as I know the vast majority of postmen and women deliver mail of sentimental value and intrinsic value properly on a daily basis and would never dream of interfering with it.”

She added, “This is a fantastic event coming to Dundee and it is a shame that the perception is that things haven’t been done properly and a lot of people have been left feeling that something’s happened and they’ve not got their tickets.”