METALLICA Indian Concert Organizers Warn Against Online Ticket Scams

According to Hindustan Times, a number of Facebook pages have popped up that claim to be giving out free tickets METALLICA's October concert in Gurgaon, India on October 28.

However, concert organizers say that authentic tickets can only be purchased from their official web site or ticketing partners. "Any other tickets are hoax and can put the fans in trouble," says Karuna Prithvi of Ticketgenie.com, the official ticketing partner for the concert.

A BPO employee in Bangalore recently fell victim to one such scam when he bought tickets for METALLICA's concert in Bangalore, to be held on October 30. He had come across a Facebook post from someone claiming to have extra tickets and offering to sell them, albeit at an inflated price. He deposited Rs 40,000 (approximately $816) for four backstand tickets (which had a total face value of Rs 6,600, or $135) a month ago, but has yet to receive his tickets.

"It's fine if someone wants to give out the tickets to a friend or a relative, but announcing the sale of tickets at a public portal without formal authorization is an offense," says Prithvi.

According to RadioAndMusic.com, MTV India will broadcast METALLICA's first-ever concert in India. The channel, in association with F1 Rocks, will telecast the one-hour special of historic METALLICA performance one week after the live event.

F1 Rocks and MTV have organized a nationwide band hunt where a lucky band selected through online voting will get an opportunity of a lifetime to perform at the concert. MTV will telecast this nationwide search as four half-hour episodes.

MTV India channel head Aditya Swamy said, "MTV reaches approximately 130 million people across 40 million homes and its a huge thing for MTV to broadcast the most awaited concert in India in association with F1 Rocks. METALLICA concert will boost the Indian economy as international acts tend to do well in the live-music circuit in an emerging economy like India.

METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo revealed the band's plans to play India in an April interview with the Inland Empire Weekly magazine.

"We are going to play India in October," he said. "That should be interesting, playing a place we never thought in our wildest dreams we'd [go] to play. It's an honor for all of us that we get to be a part of that whole music scene as a metal band sharing our music with fans in India at this incredible concert!

DNA Entertainment Networks, which has previously brought international names like IRON MAIDEN, MEGADETH, SCORPIONS, ROGER WATERS and DEEP PURPLE to Indian shores, was responsible for booking METALLICA's Indian concerts.