In Cannes, the black market for invitations is in full swing, with ticket sales at more than 2,000 dollars to step on the red carpet and see the latest “Indiana Jones” or more than 20,000 to spend an evening in which Leonardo DiCaprio participates.
Accredited professionals and journalists have free access to the screenings by reserving their tickets online, but there are dozens of people, some already in tuxedos or ball gowns, stationed every night in front of the Palace of Festivals of this city of the French Riviera.
Everyone hopes to get a ticket that will allow them to climb the stairs like the stars and discover the selected feature films.
“I’ve already seen three movies without paying anything. Every time nice people have given me a ticket,” says Sienna, an Italian 30-something living in Berlin who holds up a small cardboard sign where she wrote: “I’m looking for tickets.”
For his part, a 25-year-old Finn, who wishes to remain anonymous, assures that he is willing to make “an effort” to see “one of Almodóvar or the last of Scorsese” despite having “little money.”
That night he was desperately looking for a place to see Karim Ainouz’s “Firebrand” when a young man from Cannes who claimed to be a “municipal employee” offered him a ticket.
whatsapp group
Others are trying to cash in on their tickets: an AFP journalist was offered a ticket to “Black Flies” on Thursday for 50 euros.
Not far from there, Jenny, a young American from Miami, explains that she is a member of a WhatsApp group that brings together “about 600 people, sellers and buyers of tickets and invitations.”
In several screenshots, conversations are seen in which payment invitations are offered, such as a ticket for the screening of the fifth installment of “Indiana Jones” for 2,000 euros.
“I have a ticket for the Campari party. I can give it,” writes a member of the group in English.
A certain Alex replies: “Could I have the ticket for Campari?” And the seller says: “Hello, yes, 300 euros. Can you pay with cryptocurrency?”
Another seller offers a party invitation with Leonardo DiCaprio at “20,000 euros per person” or other party invitations at prices ranging from 9,500 to 16,500 euros. (between 10,000 and 17,000 dollars).
Natalia “looks for two tickets for the red carpet on May 25” and Joe would like to have access to the private party of the luxury brand Chopard at the Martinez Hotel.
According to Jenny, the buyers of the most expensive tickets are “influencers with millions of followers who just want to be seen.”
“For them or for the brands they promote, 2,000 euros are nothing,” he says.
A regular at the festival who did not want to be identified explains that the invitations “brands offer them to professionals, they are not paid”.
“If these invitations, generally in the form of QR codes, end up on the black market, it is because they are resold by unscrupulous professionals who earn money in this way,” he says.
For their part, the organizers indicated that “as soon as the Cannes Film Festival learns of a proven ticket resale, we take action, in consultation with the police and judicial authorities.”
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