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My husband and I are going to be in the Tampa/St. Pete area the week of April 21-26, 2004. I believe Jimmy is playing in Tampa the 22nd. I am a loyal parrothead but have never been to a show (I know it's hard to believe) and we would just go crazy if we could see him in person. Is there any chance of getting tickets? Would y'all be so kind as to tell me the best/safest way to get a pair? Or does anyone have some for sale? Or is it just impossible?

Thanks in advance for any safe advice. I'm a virgin ticket scrounger and would appreciate any honest advice. Thankyou!!

right now your chances are about the same as everyone else's chances -- tickets don't go on sale until Saturday the 28th!

I've found great tips reading through this forum. One of the best was to have multiple options open -- people in line at TM locations; people on the web. We had 5 people trying for tix via the web last year for Great Woods and only 1 pulled through -- my 10 year old son! Everyone else got hung up in the dreaded TM blackhole.

If you can not get online or inline for the initial sale, don't give up. Keep trying online until late in the day -- some tix do become available. If by the end of the day you don't have any, resign yourself to either this forum, ticket agencies, or eBay (wait a few weeks if the prices are too high for you right now). There will always be tickets available, they just might not be at the price you want to pay.

Good luck,

if you don't get tickets thru tickemaster, or any other way, just show up at the venue the day of the show. there is always somebody with extras. you should also learn the art of negotiation. meaning, know where you want to sit, know the price of the ticket, and decide how much over that you want to go.
also helps to look at a seating chart. i would think of e bay as a last resort.

"listen to the stories i could tell"

member of the parrothead nation

I'll be in line at 9:30 at our ticketmaster.. Supposedly there is never a line.

i wouldn't worry too much about it if you don't get tickets. just show up if your gonna be in the area anyways and i am sure you will find someone with an extra pair. i have never once bought tickets beforehand, and have numerous times drove cross country for a show. i got tickets everytime, and only once did i pay over face value.

Tix are almost always on eBay too, for decent prices a lot of the time

Thanks for the tips! I live in a landlocked midwestern state. Is my ticketmaster going to sell tickets to the Tampa concert or am I better off going online only?

You all have been really helpful and my hopes are high that for once and for all, this dream might actually come true.

Is Tampa a good venue? I went online and saw the seating chart but wondered what kind of show to expect.

Thanks again for all of your prompt and good advice. You guys rock!!!

Unless you are in the Tampa area, I don't think your local TM location will sell tickets. Your options are on-line and on the phone. You should try to do both. Also see if you can recruit some friends to try as well. The more phone and computers you have going, the better your chances.

Another hint is to ask for an odd number of seats (especially on line). Most people ask for 2, 4, 6. There might be singles seats or even 3 seats available at the end of a row.

Good luck.

We never had a problem getting Tampa tiks ( Ticketmaster on-line) and we are way up North of the Border they were however behnd the stage both years ..but that wasn't as bad as I thought . You are very close to Jimmy and he turns around and does a couple of tunes you could almost reach and and shake his hand.

Remember Buffetnews.com also has a Ticket Exchange... it will come in handy either way - if you don't get tickets tomorrow, or if you somehow get too many. The rules say they can only be traded or sold for face value or less.

Good luck!

I decided at the last minute to go to the Tampa show last February. I ended up getting really good seats thru Ticketmaster the morning of the show. Same thing happened at Merriweather in July. I decided to surprise my parents with tickets for their anniversary & got them orchestra seats thru Ticketmaster the morning of the show. So, if you dont get any the day they go on sale, I would say wait until the day of the show and try to get them either thru Ticketmaster or at the venue from people who have extras and/or check with the box office for extras.

Hope this helps!

You guys are accelerating my excitement!!! This could be H U G E!!! I have always wanted to see Jimmy live and this opportunity is like a dream come true....just to think that we had arranged to be in Tampa that week, of all weeks, NOT knowing anything about the concert. I feel good karma here! I am going to use all of your advice! I'm bribing my brothers to get online tomorrow morning as well!!! The more the better!! It's gonna cost me but heck, they are relatives!

My Mom died two years ago. When I went to visit my Dad, I took Tues, Thurs and Sat cd and "A Pirate Looks at Fifty"with me because "Pencil Thin Mustache" is his type of song! I thought if I got the chance, I would play it for him just to break the sadness he was feeling. It was a gamble; I loved the cd but did not know if he would. One evening when we were alone, I asked if I could play this song that I think he might like. We put it on the cd player. It turned out that he loved it. I had even printed out the words so he could follow along to PTMoustache and the entire cd.

For the next week, in his sadness, he and I would take a break and play TTS. He read Pirate every night! (My Dad used to be a pilot/plane owner and a beach guy. Jimmy's life was of interest for sure.) The look on his face as he read the book or read along with my lyrics printout singing softly with a smile on his face, his foot tapping hit me hard and I will never forget how Jimmy brought to him a little peace in a very sad time. I even wrote to Jimmy and told him so. His music and spirit made a big difference. My Dad is now a "senior" parrothead and has a collection of tees and cds, books and fins! If I get seats, I'm bringing him with us. It will be a memory worth working for.

Some advice on using Ticketmaster online: I have had good success using the Mozilla internet browser (free download) that allows you to open multiple pages on separate tabs. I open 5 or 6 connections to Ticketmaster and simply move from tab to tab in rapid succession, hitting the request tickets page, and I have always been able to get through on at least one connection. I've even been able to get Atlanta tickets, which are close to impossible to get. I should mention, though, that a broadband connection is VERY helpful for this.

((((((((((JustaPHan)))))))))))

I wish you all the best in getting the opportunity to share the concert experience with your dad!

I have done both internet purchases and have camped out at the venue for ticketmaster tickets. I have found that I do better over the internet than being at the location in person. Its pretty stressful, but I've always ended up with tickets...the closest I came to not getting tickets was camping out at the venue. Also, I have read too many horror stories about people going to ticketmaster satelite locations and the system being down or the people running it being late logging on. I feel like I can do just as good at my computer using the same system they use to get tickets. At least that way if I don't get tickets and its because of an error, its my fault and I'm not blaming another person I don't know who could care less if I got tickets.

I'm also wondering how hard it will be to get tickets this time around. Since the dates were announced recently, I'm not sure people that aren't diehards really know about the tour...at least thats what I'm hoping.

Best of Luck! I'll be at the Charlotte show one way or the other!

I'm going to be putting on the full court press to get as many tickets as possible. Since it doesn't look like Orlando is going to happen this year, I might some extras and if so, I'd be honored to offer them to you and you're dad. I'll let you know tomorrow how I do. Best of luck!!!

you are all awesome...par8hed you are bringing me to tears! This is amazing. I have all the hope in the world now. My fingers are crossed. I'm hoping my husband will download mozilla as my old computer is too darn slow. I'll be trying on it, tho...ya never know! Maybe I'll put him on the old geizer and I can slam through mozilla windows on his broadband!! ("honest, honey I won't break anything!!")

PA par8hed: great tip we'll need 3 seats anyway so I'm trying for 3.

well this should be interesting, could use some advice from you guys. I posted this in another thread, so ignore the deja vu

I'll be with family in California when the Alpine tix go on sale (Alpine goes on sale on March 20, 2004). I KNOW they only have AOL as a connection. So I don't think I can get the jump on the masses with a fast computer connection, and I can't wait in a line in Wisconsin.................any thoughts about breaking through to ticketb*st*rd?

Any luck JustAPhan?