Eurovision tickets to cost €18-250; Measures in place to limit resale price gouging

The tickets for the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam will range between 18.50 euros for a place with limited visibility during a rehearsal to and 248.50 euros for a standing place in Ahoy at the final.  The song festival will be presented by Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley, and Jan Smit. The organizers are also taking various measures to limit ticket resale as much as possible, RTL Nieuws reports.

Executive producer Sietse Bakker acknowledged that the ticket prices for the finals are hefty. But compared to other Eurovision editions, they are not too bad, she said to the broadcaster. "The previous host city Tel Aviv had much higher prices and that meant that some shows were not even sold out. We wanted more attractive prices."

A total of around 65 thousand tickets will be sold for nine shows - rehearsals, semi-finals, and finals. They will be sold in three phases, the first of which starts at noon on December 12th. The remaining tickets will be sold at the end of January and mid-March. 

Two-thirds of the tickets will go into free sale, the remaining third is for delegations from the participating countries. Low-income residents of the municipality of Rotterdam stand a chance to win free entry. Eurovision is setting aside 500 tickets for the final and 1 thousand for the semi-finals and rehearsals for this group. More information on how these tickets will be distributed, will be released at a later date. 

To avoid tickets being resold for crazy sums, tickets will be registered to the buyer's name. A maximum of four tickets can be bought per person. And identification may be requested at the entrance of Ahoy, the organizers announced. "We want do hinder companies that just want to make money off it", Bakker said. 

The Eurovision semi-finals will be held on May 12 and 14, with the finals following on May 16.