Theatregoers have been unable to buy tickets for the Edinburgh
Fringe Festival following technical issues with the Edinburgh
Fringe's ticket booking service.
A spokesman for the fringe festival said difficulties with the
box office system had disrupted advanced ticket sales for the
festival, which starts on 3 August.
The festival organisers said in a statement, "We recognise that
the service we have provided over the last week has not been
acceptable. We will continue to work over the weekend and we
apologise for the inconvenience this has caused."
One disgruntled customer told Computer Weekly that he had been
trying to buy tickets for the fringe for a week. He said he had
been unable to get through to the organisers because customers were
jamming the switch board.
Each week that the website was unavailable increased the
likelihood that it will be overloaded by customers when it is
finally up and running, he said. "The simple fact is it is going to
be a mighty panic."
The festival says it is working to sort its technical problems
out, and is planning to make another statement on Monday
morning.
"Despite all of our efforts this week we are unable to open our
box office," it said. "We are determined to have box office
services operational as soon as possible and we will post a further
update on Monday 16 June at 10am."
The festival has been working with software supplier Pivotal
Integration. The company declined to comment.