If you've ever hesitated to buy a festival ticket because you weren't sure you could attend every day of the event, there's a new app that aims to satisfy both your fun and frugal sides.
FlipTix is a free mobile app that helps ticket buyers recoup some of their investment should they decide to leave a festival early. One of the first chances local music lovers have to use it is during the Kaaboo Texas festival May 10-12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Headliners include Sting, Kid Rock, Lionel Richie, and the Killers, as well as dozens of other bands, comedians and chefs.
Jaime Siegel, FlipTix's co-founder and CEO, spent several years in the music business as an intellectual property attorney. He noticed that concert attendees often leave a show early, and when his company did a study around this behavior, he found an even wider trend.
"On average, 30 percent of people leave events early," Siegel says. "It doesn't matter what the event is. It seemed like there was an opportunity to capitalize on those early departures."
FlipTix, which is free to download, enables those folks who leave a show early to pre-register their ticket in the app. When they depart, they can stop by the app's booth — at Kaaboo it will be located near the festival exit — and have it scanned to alert potential buyers that their ticket is on sale.
Those looking to buy a ticket first download the app and "like" the events they are hoping to attend. When a ticket goes on sale, they get a notification. Buyers get the ticket at a discount, which is calculated based on the time remaining in the festival and other factors, Siegel says. They also receive their tickets electronically through FlipTix, making for a more seamless experience, he adds.
Sellers receive compensation in the form of cash, credit, merchandise or gift cards, according to a release.
"There's nothing, other than us, that allows people to walk into an event and pay for what's left," Siegel says. "If you walked into a Texas Rangers game in the ninth inning, you're paying what it would cost to get there in the first inning."
FlipTix debuted in June 2018 and has since been used by about 10,000 people, according Siegel, but its appeal isn't just limited to concertgoers. Promotion companies such as AEG Presents, Danny Wimmer Presents and Front Gate Ticketing have contracted the company because it offers a new source of revenue for their events, which can often be costly to produce, he says.
"It effectively allows them to oversell events," Siegel says. "Even if it's sold out, people leave early and we can get new people in."
FlipTix made its Dallas debut at the Off the Rails country music festival in early May, and Siegel hopes it will be available at forthcoming festivals in D-FW. His company is also looking expand the service to other types of events as well, such as sports.
