Ticketmaster and Oasis go up in smoke at UK Bonfire Night celebrations

Sparklers, mulled wine and standing around an open fire, admiring the night sky adorned with glorious colour – this is what Bonfire Nightis all about. Well, that and burning the likeness of anyone who has royally peeved you this year.

Every November 5th – or often the preceding weekend, because who can really relax on a school night – Brits light up the sky with fireworks and gather around bonfires, all in memory of Guy Fawkes, an infamous plotter who took “going out with a bang” to a whole new level.

In 1605, Guy and his band of English Catholics decided to blow up Parliament and King James I, his queen, and his eldest son, hoping to bring an end to the persecution of Catholics. Spoiler alert: they didn’t succeed, and their failure is marked each year with rockets and revelry.

Traditionally, kids would make effigies of Guy Fawkes, asking for “pennies for the guy” – a practice that’s evolved into sometimes monumental firework displays and neighbourhood bonfires. 

Some towns take the event particularly seriously, and even return to its political origins, throwing their least-favourite public servants on the fire – or, as the case was this year, rock band members and ticket sales sites.

Famous faces to have earned the badge of “celebrity Guy” over the years have included short lived Prime Minister Liz Truss, US former president and current contender Donald Trump, and floppy haired former PM Boris Johnson.

This year, the Edenbridge Bonfire Society in the English county of Kent directed its pyromaniacal tendencies towards not towards politicians, however.

On Saturday (November 2) the society set alight an 11-metre-tall effigy of Ticketmaster, flanked by Oasis brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher, who were depicted as puppets of the ticketing giant.

Represented by a man in a business suit, with cash spilling out of his pockets and references to exorbitant ticket prices and the mammoth online queue for tickets, the effigy was a pointed response to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing of tickets for next year’s Oasis reunion tour.

Oasis, Ticketmaster and LiveNation were accused of price gouging by not adequately warning fans that the concerts were subject to dynamic pricing.

Many expectant fans, for example,were surprised to find that the standing tickets, advertised for £135 (€160), were subject to dynamic pricing. At its peak, standing tickets rose to £355 (€421) by the time fans reached the online checkout.

Both the Competition and Markets Authority, the UK’s competition regulator, and Ireland’s Competition and Consumer Protection Commission have opened investigations into the way Oasis used dynamic pricing.

More than 50,000 tickets to the upcoming Oasis comeback tour are set to be cancelledby the band for being sold on secondary platforms.