Massive Response to Live 8 Ticket Lottery
More than a million texts have been sent so far by music fans eager to win tickets for next month’s Live 8 gig in London‘s Hyde Park.
On current numbers, organisers of the poverty awareness concert predict they will have received up to 1.5m texts by midnight tonight.
In a statement issued this afternoon organisers said: “All of the systems were able to meet the demand and at its peak we received a total of 611 messages per second.” The concert – featuring top names including Paul McCartney, Elton John, U2 and Madonna – is part of Bob Geldof’s ongoing campaign to eradicate poverty in Africa.
The question giving punters the chance to win tickets for the gig was only revealed at 8am this morning and within hours had racked up a million entries. The ticket lottery closes at midnight on 12 June giving some 70,000 punters the chance to win a pair of tickets to the concert.
Texts to the competition cost £1.50 and this money is to be donated to Live 8. But O2 – which is Live 8’s “overall technology partner” – has been criticised for failing to waive its 10p-a-message admin fee for sending texts. The Evening Standard even quotes one MP as describing O2’s actions as “disgraceful”.
But the mobile phone outfit has rejected the report – which suggested it could make as much as £7m from the text-in – insisting that it will not make a penny from the event. A spokeswoman for O2 told us: “We are making no money whatsoever from this exercise. We estimate our total net contribution to the event will be between £250,000 and £500,000.
From The Register
More than a million people today responded to Bob Geldof’s call to change the world by backing a star-studded concert to help developing countries.The Live 8 event in London’s Hyde Park next month will feature stars such as Madonna, Robbie Williams and Sir Paul McCartney, highlighting the issue of poverty and debt in developing countries, days before the leaders of the world’s richest countries meet in Scotland.
Members of the public can win a pair of tickets to the concert by texting the answer to a straightforward question. By 5pm this afternoon, nine hours after the competition was launched, 1.5 million people had answered Geldof’s call, organisers said.
“Bob’s delighted. I’ve just told him and he said, “It’s great”,” a spokesman said.
Tens of thousands of entries were recorded in the 10 minutes after the competition was launched at 8am. Geldof had appeared live on GMTV to appeal to the British public to help bring an end to the spectre of “children dying on our television screens”. He told the programme: “This country can maybe stop that. It’s too great an opportunity to miss and I think we are going to do it. Please get on your texts. Go for it! We will, I promise you, tilt this world a little bit on its side.”
Mobile phone operator O2 said after the burst of texts this morning that a further peak was expected tonight after evening news programmes.
Geldof was in Southampton today to urge the sailing community to recreate Dunkirk by sailing across the Channel in support of his campaign. The former Boomtown Rats singer, whose plan is backed by yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur, said: “We are asking people to get into their boats in their thousands and pick up the people of France who wish to participate.”
From Scotsman.com