We really do understand the justified frustration and disappointment from so many people. We value our Members enormously and realise this day is an important and exciting moment for so many of you, so it really is not good enough that we’re having these catastrophic Members booking day issues again this year.
We expect higher standards of ourselves and our systems, and we will be revising how this is delivered next year. We feel you deserve an explanation. The technical issue we encountered today was not the same as any in previous years (all of which we had successfully addressed). Unfortunately, the nature of this new issue meant it wasn’t detected through simulated tests and only came to light as Members’ began booking. The impact was that some Members lost their place in the queue, and others saw the tickets held in their baskets disappear.
We want to assure you that our teams have been working closely with our supplier Audience View all day to understand the issues which caused technical faults with our LFF ticketing system. Audience View are hopeful these issues can be resolved in the next few hours, so that we can run further tests with the intention of going live with ticketing again tomorrow. We will be posting a further update and emailing Members once we are able to confirm the re-opening time.
Beyond immediate solutions for this year’s LFF, we are committed to improving our digital platforms longer term to ensure we can give you the reliable and easy-to-use experience you expect and deserve.
Once again please accept our apologies and we hope that you can enjoy a great Festival.
Ben Roberts
Chief Executive, BFI
Wednesday 7 September 2022