Online ticket sellers cash in by charging £250 for the Chelsea Flower Show
CHELSEA Flower Show organisers today accused online ticket agencies of charging extortionate prices for entry to the sold-out event.
The agencies are asking more than £250 for tickets - six times their face value. Dozens are cashing in on huge demand after all 157,000 tickets were sold in record time.
Viagogo.com is offering tickets for up to £253 each. Its price includes a £31 booking fee. Getmein.com is charging up to £243 each, including a "processing fee" of £36 and £9 postage. Ticketlister.com is quoting up to £196.50 - £145, plus transaction fees of £43.50 and £8 postage. Tickets are also fetching £250 per pair on eBay.
Royal Horticultural Society director general Sue Biggs urged gardeners not to buy tickets from touts, and warned online buyers they would be denied entry if their tickets turned out to be fakes.
The RHS originally charged £45 for all-day passes, £25 for afternoon entry and £19 for the morning. All the tickets went by May 6, 18 days before the show opens to the public on May 24. Ms Biggs said: "RHS Chelsea tickets have now sold out, so can I please ask people to not spend extortionate money via touts on tickets that may not be authentic and risk being refused entry."
Although reselling legitimate tickets online is legal, RHS spokesman Phil McCann said that they would be checking websites and working closely with police.
"Anyone selling Chelsea tickets is being monitored and the police will crack down on anyone selling them near the site."
The prolonged warm weather is creating problems for designers as plants bloom up to a month early. They are being forced into late changes to gardens, costing up to £250,000, that had been planned months ahead of the annual showpiece.
Many are swapping spring flowers for summer varieties rarely seen before at the show, which promises to be one of the most colourful as a result.
Growers have also had to swap greenhouses for fridges to try to stop popular varieties such as iris, lilacs, wisteria and lupins blooming too early. Experts predict that tulips and peonies, normally Chelsea staples, will be exchanged for salvias and roses, which naturally peak in June.
