Frustration for Fender fans as ‘bot attack’ sees ticket sale cancelled

Sam Fender ticket sales have been hit by website problems.

There has been frustration for Sam Fender fans hoping to get tickets for his much-anticipated St James’ Park gig – with the pre-sale now being cancelled. 

Tickets went on pre-sale this morning to fans who had pre-ordered Fender’s next album, but social media was soon awash with complaints reporting that the ticket-selling website Gigantic was repeatedly crashing.

Some fans reported buying tickets, only to receive refunds moments later. 

Sam Fender has taken to social media to explain that the pre-sale has been postponed due to a “sophisticated bot attack” on the website. 

Sam Fender took to social media to explain the website crashes

The pre-sale will be reopened at 9:30am tomorrow, with fans hoping it’ll run a little more smoothly than today. 

The postponement only affects the St James’ Park dates, with tickets for Fender’s Manchester and London events being sold by Ticketmaster without issue. 

A ‘bot attack’ is when a third party sends a significant amount of website traffic to a site in the hope of rendering the site unusable, but can also be caused by software used by ticket touts to buy tickets in large numbers to resell at inflated prices. 

Gigantic have been contacted for comment.