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Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Sun, Dec 22, 2024

Rush R40 Live 2015 tour pre-sales open thread

Fri, Jan 23, 2015@8:41AM | comments

UPDATE - 1/27@10:49AM: Some more information about how the VIP pre-sales/on-sales work are now available. After the initial VIP pre-sale that requires a password is over (usually on Monday at 5PM the week prior to the on-sale date) more VIP packages will become available for public on-sale without a password for a few days typically starting at 10AM the day after the pre-sale ends (so usually from 10AM Tuesday until 5PM Thursday) or until they run out. They will have a fresh supply of GOLD and SILVER packages available for the public on-sale, so even if they ran out for the pre-sale there should be more available for the public on-sale.

UPDATE - 1/25@7:59PM: All the FAN pre-sales are now sold out except for Tulsa and Houston. Also, VIP Nation is now indicating that all the Philly VIP pre-sales are sold out.

UPDATE - 1/24@9:08AM: FAN pre-sales for St. Paul, Dallas, Bristow, Boston, New York, Denver and San Jose are now SOLD OUT. VIP GOLD packages are SOLD OUT for all the shows sold through VIP Nation - Houston, Buffalo, Philly and Denver. It's harder to tell the status for the VIP presales through Ticketmaster, although it doesn't sound like there are many GOLD packages left for several of the dates.

UPDATE - 1/23@4:09PM: It looks like the Denver FAN pre-sale is now SOLD OUT. VIP GOLD packages look to be sold out for Houston, Buffalo and Philly, but SILVER packages are still available.

UPDATE - 1/23@1:07PM: All the FAN and VIP pre-sales for the first round of 14 dates are now underway. If you missed out on these pre-sales, remember that CITI, Live Nation and various other pre-sales for these shows will kick off next week.

UPDATE - 1/23@10:58AM: Fan and VIP pre-sales for Tulsa, St. Paul, Dallas, Houston and Chicago will be underway shortly! From fan reports, it looks like only VIP pre-sales sold through Ticketmaster let you know what seats you have. Any sold through VIP Nation directly just tell you that you will find out your seat when you pick up the tickets at will-call just like on the last tour.

UPDATE - 1/23@10:24AM: From fan reports, it looks like they actually TELL you where your seats are for the VIP pre-sales now (I've updated my post with the new info). Nice move.

UPDATE - 1/23@10:08AM: FAN and VIP pre-sales for Atlanta, Bristow, Buffalo, Boston, Philly, Newark and NYC are now underway! It looks like there is a 4-ticket limit and all the sites are experiencing fairly high traffic, especially the Tickets Today site.

Rush officially announced their 2015 R40 Live North American Tour yesterday. The tour will hit 34 cities across the US and Canada from May through August with ticket pre-sales for 14 of the shows kicking off today. VIP and FAN pre-sales for the following 14 cities begin this morning at 10AM local venue time:

10AM EST

May 26: Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre - Atlanta FAN | VIP
May 30: Jiffy Lube Live - Bristow FAN | VIP
Jun 10: First Niagara Center - Buffalo FAN | VIP
Jun 23: TD Garden - Boston FAN | VIP
Jun 25: Wells Fargo Center - Philadelphia FAN | VIP
Jun 27: Prudential Center - Newark FAN | VIP
Jun 29: Madison Square Garden - New York FAN | VIP

10AM CST (11AM EST)

May 8: BOK Center - Tulsa FAN | VIP
May 12: Xcel Energy Center - Saint Paul FAN | VIP
May 18: American Airlines Center - Dallas FAN | VIP
May 20: Toyota Center - Houston FAN | VIP
Jun 12: United Center - Chicago FAN | VIP

10 AM MST (12PM EST)

Jul 11: Pepsi Center - Denver FAN | VIP

10 AM PST (1PM EST)
Jul 23: SAP Center - San Jose FAN | VIP

FAN pre-sales are purchased through the Rush Tickets Today website with NO PASSWORD REQUIRED. VIP pre-sales are purchased through Ticketmaster (for venues that use Ticketmaster) or directly from VIP Nation for venues that do not use Ticketmaster (Houston, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Denver). VIP pre-sales REQUIRE A PASSWORD, and the password for today's pre-sales is RUSH2015. You can find all the direct links for the pre-sales for any particular date in the above list or in the tour section. Here's some information about the 2 pre-sales taken from my Rush Ticket Sales and Pre-sales Guide.

Music Today (Tickets Today) FAN pre-sales

Music Today/Tickets Today is the company that has been handling Rush's fan pre-sales for the last few tours. It looks like they recently re-branded themselves as Tickets Today although both musictoday.com and ticketstoday.com take you to the same site). To participate in these pre-sales you simply need to visit the Rush Tickets Today website; it is free, you do not need to be a member of any Rush fan club (there isn't any official Rush fan club), and there are no pre-sale passwords. The fan pre-sales for any given date generally occur the week leading up to the general on-sale date and usually run from 10AM Friday until 5PM Monday local venue time, or until the allotted number of tickets runs out (this often happens). To receive an announcement about the upcoming week's pre-sales, be sure to sign up for the Rush.com mailing list. When you are on the Rush Tickets Today site and a pre-sale is open, you will see a link to buy tickets on the Rush Tickets Today schedule. From that point things play out like most ticketing websites; you choose the level and number of seats (usually there is a max of 4 or 8) you want, they find tickets for you, you choose to either take the tickets or try again. If you decide to move forward with the purchase then you are asked to enter your payment information. Ticket prices are face value although the fees might make the final cost slightly different from Ticketmaster, but not significantly so. The system often runs very slowly - especially right when pre-sales begin. So you will often be presented with a no tickets currently available message. This doesn't mean they are sold out - it just means their system can't accommodate your request at that time. Just keep trying. It often takes several tries until any tickets come up. For past tours, when you purchased tickets you were given the option to pre-order some exclusive merchandise (usually a t-shirt and some other item). By purchasing tickets along with this merchandise, you were automatically entered into a contest where one winner from each tour stop will be selected for a meet-and-greet with Rush. It's not clear yet whether they are doing this for the 2015 tour. These pre-sales are called out as Fan pre-sales in the Rush is a Band tour section.

Rush VIP Premium Ticket Package pre-sales

The Rush VIP or Premium Ticket Package pre-sales simply allow ticket buyers to purchase a ticket bundle which guarantees a seat in the first 16 rows (1-10 for the GOLD package, 11-16 for the SILVER) along with a package of Rush swag as detailed here. These pre-sales are available for most Live Nation sponsored shows and run during the week leading up to the general on sale date. Most of the VIP pre-sales are just conducted through Ticketmaster, but for those venues that don't use Ticketmaster, the VIP Packages are sold directly by VIP Nation. For those pre-sales you will need to sign up for an account on their system at this link to purchase VIP ticket packages, so make sure to do that in advance. All VIP pre-sales require a password of RUSH2015 for the duration of the pre-sale. After this point they remain available for purchase without a password until they run out (there might be a delay of a few days after the pre-sale ends before they are available for public sale). Any VIP pre-sales sold through Ticketmaster will tell you where your seat is at the time of purchase, but those sold through VIP Nation do not; they instead tell you that you will find out where your seat is when you pick up the tickets at will-call on the day of the show. These pre-sales are called out as VIP pre-sales in the Rush is a Band tour section. The VIP package pre-sales begin at the same time as the fan pre-sales (typically 10AM on the Friday 1 week prior to the general on-sale date). The ticket packages will cost around $300 for the SILVER package and $400 for the GOLD package depending on the venue. Here are the package details:

VIP Gold Package

* One premium reserved ticket in rows 1 through 10 on the floor!
* Specially designed RUSH gift item (exclusive to VIPs)
* Tour Program
* Official VIP laminate
* Rush VIP Wooden Pick Set (limited edition, exclusive to VIPs)
* Crowd-free merchandise shopping
* Dedicated VIP entrance (where available)
* On-site VIP host

VIP Silver Package

* One premium reserved ticket in rows 11-16 on the floor or first 6 rows of lower bowl! *
* Specially designed RUSH gift item (exclusive to VIPs)
* Tour Program
* Rush VIP Wooden Pick Set (limited edition, exclusive to VIPs)
* Dedicated VIP entrance (where available)
* On-site VIP host

VIP Nation also has a nice FAQ that answers many of the typical questions. These pre-sales have no set end date, but typically sell out before general on-sales begin.

Next week there will be more pre-sales for these shows coming on line including the CITI Card pre-sales, Live Nation pre-sales, and various venue/radio pre-sales. You can learn more about those in my Rush Ticket Sales and Pre-sales Guide. Pre-sales for the remaining 21 shows will occur in the next couple of weeks, so just stay tuned to this site to find out when those will occur. As soon as I learn about any pre-sales I will add them to the tour section, so check there first. Use this thread to let everybody know about your experience with the pre-sales, ask questions, rant about ticket prices, share your good (or bad) fortune, etc. In light of the pre-sales, I won't be posting my usual Friday updates and other random Rush stuff post. Good luck everyone!