Harvest Music Festival resumes ticket sales without glitches

Music fans were finally able to purchase Harvest Music Festival tickets Tuesday after website glitches earlier this month postponed the sale.

"Everything is smooth as pie. It went off exactly as planned," said Brent Staeban, the festival's music director.

One of the website's issues was related to the landing page's coding. It couldn't be changed in the middle of the sale last week.

But members of the local IT community helped the organizers test the site before going live, once again, Tuesday.

"Clearly, it worked," Staeban said.

Camping outside for tickets more rewarding

Rob Agar lives in Fredericton and is a music buff who's been attending local shows for decades.

After a disappointing experience a couple of weeks ago while trying to purchase Harvest Festival tickets, he was able to get them today.

"But this is a small festival in a small town. It shouldn't be that difficult to buy tickets," he said.

During the past few years Agar said he's had to buy tickets for the Harvest Music Festival from scalpers in Ontario.

He says he misses the excitement that comes from waiting in line to buy tickets for local shows.

"That was the reward for living in a town where the show would take place. Locals would get first crack at the tickets."

He knows a lot of people would disagree with his suggestion of starting sales of tickets at local box offices. But he still suggested it to Harvest organizers.

He said their response was an emphatic 'No'.

"I waited for Tragically Hip Tickets at Harbour Station [in Saint John] for over 24 hours. We slept in sleeping bags and lawn chairs. It was the early 90s. It was the fun thing to do."

Quick sellouts

Staeban said he's had calls from dozens of fans who have purchased tickets.

The ultimate passes for the festival were sold out quickly.

Tickets for the most popular shows this year, July Talk and Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit, also went fast.

But the site is live and music fans will be able to access it to purchase tickets for other shows until September.