Ticketmaster and the Moody Center canceled and refunded Ariana Grande tickets that were released early because of a technical error, then reopened the Ticketmaster Request process for the singer’s three Austin shows.
The Moody Center at 2001 Robert Dedman Drive said in a post on X on Feb. 10 that tickets for Grande’s “Eternal Sunshine Tour” dates in Austin were made available ahead of the scheduled request window and that purchases made during the early access period would not be honored. "Due to a technical error, there was an inadvertent early release of Ariana Grande tickets yesterday ahead of the scheduled request window opening," wrote the Moody Center in a February 10 announcement on X. The venue said the affected transactions will be reversed. "All tickets purchased during this period are being cancelled and fully refunded. These tickets are only available through Ticketmaster Request. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience."
The shows are scheduled for June 24, June 26 and June 27 at the Moody Center, with the June 27 date added after the first two were announced, according to details posted by the venue and Ticketmaster. Fans seeking tickets were instructed to submit a new request through Ticketmaster, with the request period running through Thursday, Feb. 12, at 11 a.m. The venue and Ticketmaster noted that a request does not guarantee a ticket and that fulfillment depends on availability after the request window closes.
The early-release cancellation marked the second reset for some buyers after an earlier correction tied to resale enforcement. Ticketmaster and Grande’s team previously repossessed tickets that were obtained via resellers in violation of the platform’s terms, prompting fans to re-enter the process. In an Instagram statement about that enforcement action, Ticketmaster said it would give preference to customers whose purchases were undone due to a seller’s rule violation. "Fans whose resale tickets were due to a seller’s violation of our terms will be prioritized." Commenters responding to the Feb. 10 announcement raised concerns that repeated public updates could increase confusion and create openings for scams, while the companies reiterated that official access in this round is limited to the Ticketmaster Request system.
The churn left Austin-area concertgoers facing cancellations, refund processing and another application-style request for seats at one of the city’s largest arenas, and it complicated planning for travelers who had already begun making summer arrangements around the June dates. Ticketing problems can also have ripple effects for venues and local businesses that rely on predictable concert-night traffic, even when the performances themselves remain scheduled.
The Austin reset arrives as Ticketmaster continues to face scrutiny over high-demand onsales and pricing, including government and consumer complaints that intensified after Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” presale in 2022. Live Nation Chief Executive Officer Michael Rapino has defended the company’s handling of that failure in public testimony, disputing early internal assumptions about what caused the breakdown. “We thought demand overloaded the system,” said Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation. “It turned out not to be true.” Separately, a U.S. trade body has alleged Ticketmaster and Live Nation used tactics that inflated secondary-market prices, including deceptive pricing and misleading ticket limits, framing the dispute as an affordability and fairness issue in live entertainment.
Grande has previously addressed fan frustration over resale and access problems surrounding tour ticketing, saying she was working to move tickets from resellers to fans. “i've been on the phone every second of my free time fighting for a solution. i hear you and hopefully, we will be able to get more of these tickets into your hands instead of theirs,” said Ariana Grande, singer. “Of course, I am incredibly bothered by it,” said Ariana Grande, singer. Locally, the uncertainty lands in a live-music economy where access and cost have become recurring concerns—from free community series to major arena tours—as previously reported in Rock the Park’s return to Mueller and in coverage of venue capacity challenges such as the effort to revive Doris Miller Auditorium.
Ticketmaster and the Moody Center said the Ticketmaster Request window would remain open until Feb. 12 at 11 a.m., after which requests will be processed and qualifying customers notified according to the platform’s procedures; customers who purchased during the early-release period were told to expect cancellations and full refunds to their original payment method.
