Eurovision fans crash Ticketmaster as tickets sold out in just over 30 minutes

Eurovision fans crashed part of the Ticketmaster website as they attempted to secure tickets to the live shows in May.

Tickets for the international music event went on sale at midday on Tuesday - with nine different live shows available.

The dedicated website page appeared to crash shortly before tickets were due to become available, with issues continuing throughout the sale.

Some were met with a "500 - Internal Server Error" message while others reported receiving a message saying their session had expired "due to inactivity" while they were waiting in the queue.

The international singing competition will take place at the 11,000-capacity Liverpool Arena later this year, culminating in the grand final on May 13.

The event is being held in the city after the UK was chosen to host the competition on behalf of war-torn 2022 winner Ukraine.

Tickets for the semi-final shows are priced from £30 to £290, with the cost increasing to between #80 and #380 for the grand final shows.

ITV Granada attempted to buy tickets only to find they sold out before reaching the front of the queue.

A Eurovision statement said: "Following a competitive tender process the BBC appointed Ticketmaster, who are specialists in ticket sales for events of this size and nature."

Ticketmaster added that the site did not crash, ticket sales were unaffected. They say a very small number of fans experienced issues accessing the queue.

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