Stanley Park Bright Nights sells out in 24 hours; site experiences technical difficulties

Vancouver’s hugely popular Stanley Park Bright Nights event has sold out, less than 24 hours after tickets went on sale online.

Tickets went on sale at noon Friday, with users online claiming they waited in queue for hours or got kicked out due to system errors.

In a Facebook post, the Stanley Park Railway says tickets sold out around 9 a.m. Saturday, and they recognize the challenges and wait times that some users encountered while trying to buy tickets.

“Our ticket provider experienced technical difficulties due to the high volume of people entering the queue,” said Stanley Park Railway. “To manage the demand, the site was temporarily paused at times, which caused longer-than-expected wait times.”

Hundreds of angry comments flooded the post, with users claiming the experience was “gut-wrenching” and laid the blame on ticket provider Showpass.

“The ticket seller should be able to handle the volumes of Vancouverites trying to buy tickets OR you should find another provider with a website that can do the job,” said commenter Lynette Tetlow.

“It’s just not right that people should be waiting hours to buy tickets online.”

Showpass spokesperson Katelyn Marchyshyn says over 100,000 people were trying to get tickets at the same time, and it slowed down their website.

“There were so many people trying to get tickets at once, and then it was also, like, so incredibly busy,” said Marchyshyn. “Last year, we actually experienced this where it was super high demand, but this blew it out of the water.”

Despite the rush of people, Marchyshyn maintains that Showpass can handle the amount of people trying to get tickets for Stanley Park events. In this instance, Marchyshyn says problems came up due to the way the ticket on-sale was set up and thanks people for their patience.

“We are just really thankful for everyone who did take a second to kind of step back from the emotion of it and realize… both us and the Stanley Park Trains are trying to get everyone their tickets as soon as possible.”

While the train tickets have sold out, the Stanley Park Railway says the holiday lights display and activities will still be open to the public during event hours by donation to the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund, with no ticket required.