Duane Hicks
If you hesitated about buying a passport for the 2017-18 “Tour de Fort” season, you’ve lost out.
“Tour de Fort” sold the last remaining passports it had available on Thursday–the final day of its early-bird pricing of $100 (as opposed to $125).
Organizers shut down the online sales Wednesday night and left the remaining passports for sale at “From the Grind Up.”
Then they received a call from Ben Morelli on Thursday morning to tell them he was sold out.
“We are overwhelmed at the response we have had this season,” John Payne, programming and hospitality director for “Tour de Fort,” said this morning.
“This is the first season that we have completely sold out for a long time, and I feel this validates what we are doing as a committee,” he added.
“Selling out the passports give us a little bit of freedom financially, and this may allow us different opportunities down the road to add additional shows or take our shows to other audiences that can’t make it to the theatre,” noted Payne.
For example, “Tour de Fort” took one of its shows last season right to the residents at Rainycrest here and it was very well-received.
“This is something that we would like to continue in the future,” said Payne.
Since all available passports have been sold, it’s not very likely individual show tickets will be available.
But there’s a slim chance some might.
“The shows are officially sold out as we have sold the maximum number of passports that we can sell,” Payne explained.
“Each artist has a set amount of ticket holds written into their contracts for them to use as they please, but they may be made available to us the day of the show,” he added.
“If this happens, we will have a very small number of tickets for sale at the box office the night of the show,” Payne said.
“There will be no individual advanced ticket sales for any of the shows.”
The best way to check to see if any tickets are available is to check Tour de Fort’s Facebook page or their website at www.tourdefort.com for updates the day of the show.
The box office opens at 6:30 the day of the show and tickets, if available, will be $35 and sold on a first come, first served basis, noted Payne. There will be no holds on any tickets.
This season’s lineup includes “The Way We Feel,” a concert celebration of the songs of Gordon Lightfoot (Sept. 25), Glass Tiger with opening act Jonathan Roy (Oct. 19), Samantha Martin and Delta Sugar (Nov. 3), The Fugitives (Jan. 18), “Prisoner of Tehran” (Feb. 13), and The Dirty Dishes (April 11).
“We are very excited about the upcoming lineup and hope everyone enjoys it,” said Payne.
“We can’t stress enough how much we appreciate the support of our sponsors, Canadian Heritage, and the community that comes out to the shows because without them, this series wouldn’t be possible,” he stressed.
All performances are at 7:30 p.m. at the Townshend Theatre.
Doors open at 7 p.m.
Passports will be available for pickup at the Townshend Theatre prior to the first show Sept. 25.
