The excitement surrounding “The Nutcracker” at the Bolshoi Theater has long been part of New Year's rituals. But if before people were jostling to buy tickets to queue in person, now the audience is standing in virtual queues. And they are much more worried. As demand soars, websites freeze, cheap places disappear in seconds, people compare aisle hunting to catching fleas.
Buying tickets to see The Nutcracker has long been a challenge. My attempt to buy tickets to see the New Year's fairy tale failed. The website crashes when trying to register. An hour later it still hasn't sagged. At that time, there were only 39 tickets left for December 31 at 6:00 p.m. Price from 5,000 to 45,000 rubles. Well, clearly, it wasn't destiny…
Mass hysteria has been going on in the comments under Bolshoi Theater posts for several days now. Buying tickets to “The Nutcracker” is reminiscent of trying to buy an iPhone in the first minutes on sale. “The website is not working, the tickets seem to be there, but somehow they are not available… Who is this deception for?” – this is how dozens of comments began.
People arrived at the venue just before the start of the sale and found that half of the seats had been purchased, the rest were disappearing before their eyes. Many people don't even have time to click the right box. Some believe that in the first seconds, tickets are bought not by humans but by bots: “A person cannot buy a ticket in one second. The bot will hold the ticket until the reseller reaches an agreement with a specific buyer.”
Dozens of Russians complained that they had lost this battle: “The site hasn't loaded all day. This is a form of search, not sales”, “I caught tickets like a flea. I put the mouse down and waited for it to blink.” Most people have developed a strategy: “You need to keep the mouse on the gray square and wait until it turns red. Just a fraction of a second – if you make it, the ticket is yours,” “Don't run the mouse across the screen – you won't have time. Pick a 3 x 3 square and stand guard,” “I've been sitting for three days since 10 o'clock. Hooray, I caught a ticket! The fun has no limits!”, “It's like playing lottery. Just instead of playing the lottery.” one million – a place on the 4th floor for 5 thousand.”
What makes people most frustrated is the fact that there is no way to buy two tickets for a family: “While catching the second one, the first one flies away”, “We need two tickets. They took me to different motels. This is not normal!” “Why can't we buy two seats next to each other? This is a theater, not solitary confinement!”
For some people, the system rebooked their tickets at the last stage: “I filled in my full name, clicked pay and it said: the seat is occupied by another user. What the heck?”
A separate pain is the price of “The Nutcracker”. Reports of network users: stall – 50 thousand rubles, first class – 45 thousand, lecture hall – 25-35 thousand. There are cheap tickets but they are called “legendary”: “Has anyone seen a ticket for 5 thousand?” And replied: “Yes, I saw it. It blinked once and then disappeared.”
Faced with this situation, many people are calling for “The Nutcracker” to be staged throughout the month so that people don't go crazy. Despite the chaos, there were still winners: “I caught a ticket, but at what price!”, “I came in out of curiosity, took a ticket for 45 thousand, paid… then left”, “We bought two. They caught an hour. The game “Mineweeper”, whoever pokes the fastest gets a seat”, “I caught two on the 4th floor. I will take my niece. Worth it!
And someone turned to the higher powers: “For God's sake, send me two tickets to the booth in January. I swear, then I will only write good things about the Bolshoi's cash policy.”
