Tickets are still available for The Shoji Tabuchi Show: American Dream Tour, despite a posting on the website of an online ticket outlet.
Beth Brumley, executive director of Main Street El Dorado — who is presenting the show at 2 p.m. Sunday in the El Dorado Municipal Auditorium, 100 W. Eighth —, said organizers discovered that someone was fraudulently selling tickets on the Internet platform Eventbrite.
Eventbrite allows users to plan events, promote and sell tickets and post the events on social media sites.
Brumley said MSE learned about the fraud Wednesday afternoon after being contacted by its ad agency, who had alerted on an email from someone who said they had purchased a ticket for the show and had not received a receipt.
Brumley said MSE heard five tickets were sold, but organizers were able to confirm three sales.
“An email defaulted to our website. Somebody did some kind of hack and they were acting like they were Main Street. It was weird,” Brumley said.
Show organizers immediately contacted Eventbrite.
“When they contacted us, they said they would rectify it,” Brumley said.
She said Eventbrite refunded the money for the fraudulent purchases, shut down the ticket sales and posted an apology on its website, with a statement reading, “Tickets are no longer available for this show.”
Brumley said Main Street appreciates Eventbrite’s swift actions, noting that organizers were going to honor the tickets, though neither Main Street nor Eventbrite would have profited from the bogus sales.
“But it says tickets are no longer available, so now everyone thinks it’s sold out and it’s not,” Brumley said, referring to the message that appears on the Evenbrite website.
She said about 1,100 floor seats have been sold for the Tabuchi show, with many of the sales coming from other south Arkansas cities and north Louisiana.
Brumley said a large group is expected to travel from Dumas to see a relative who performs with the Tabuchi show.
For three decades, Tabuchi, a country music fiddler, has been one of the main draws in Branson, Missouri, known as the Live Entertainment Capital of the World.
His family-oriented variety show includes not only country music, but also several other musical styles — rock, gospel, rap, Cajun and others — and choreography.
Brumley noted that the person who fraudulently set up the event and sold tickets on Eventbrite promoted general admission tickets.
Tickets for the Tabuchi show are reserved seating only, with prices listed at $40 for orchestra (first 10 rows) and $30 for parquet (remaining house seats).
To purchase tickets, call the Main Street office at 870-862-4747 or visit www.mainstreeteldorado.org.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or tlyons@ eldoradonews.com.