Beat Scalpers at Their Own Game: Why Festival Owners Should Own the Secondary Market
By: Holly Owen, FestForums and Mell Leis, Bryn Garcia, WMT Digital | September 17th, 2025
The secondary ticket market is often seen as a challenge for festivals — but it’s also one of the biggest missed opportunities in live events today. This channel is only growing, and with the right approach, it can work for you rather than against you.
What if you could control your brand's presence on these platforms? What if you could protect your fans' experience, your revenue, and your data by owning the narrative in the secondary market?
And here’s why this matters: the next generation of fans is already slipping away. 49.4% of Gen Z has admitted to skipping live events entirely because of inflated costs*. If you don’t control pricing, you’re not just losing sales, you’re losing loyalty.
The Power Move: Control Your Own Inventory
Here's the game-changer that most festival owners don't realize: you can distribute your own tickets on secondary marketplaces. By maintaining control over a portion of your inventory and releasing it strategically on these platforms at fair market prices, you effectively knock scalpers out of the game.
Think about it from the fan’s perspective:
– Option A: $150 ticket, purchased from your festival via SeatGeek.
– Option B: $400+ ticket from a scalper.
The choice is obvious.
How This Changes Everything
When you control your presence on secondary markets, you:
Protect your fans from predatory pricing
Maintain brand consistency across all sales channels
Retain valuable customer data instead of losing it to brokers
Capture revenue that would otherwise go to scalpers
Create fair market dynamics between you and your audience
This isn't about dynamic pricing or squeezing more money from fans. It's about strategic inventory management that puts you back in control.
The Bottom Line
Secondary markets aren't going anywhere, they're a reality of live events. The question is: will you let scalpers control the narrative around your festival, or will you own it?
Want to explore how your festival can take control of the secondary market?
Reach out at any time:! I’d love to chat ~ mell.l@wmt.digital
*https://www.emarketer.com/content/gen-z-consumers-turned-off-by-high-priced-events