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How did tickets to Whiskey in the Winter sell out so quickly? —Barry P., St. Louis
"It was an immediate sell out," says event organizer Amit Dhawan of Synergy Productions. "The last event [in 2019] sold out in 43 minutes. This time, it was closer to 43 seconds."
Dhawan says the ticket process was as fair as possible. "All of the addresses were legitimate," he says. "There were no bots, no secret promo codes." Dhawan adds that this year, there was enough ticket demand "to fill a small arena." One ticket buyer compared the super-quick sellout to "BTS announcing they'd be appearing at The Pageant."
On the event's Facebook, Dhawan wrote: "We are speechless. Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming interest in Whiskey In The Winter. There was incredible demand this year, well above the number of people the event can accommodate. We wish that everyone who tried to purchase tickets could attend and because of that we are looking at hosting a multi-day event next year."
“We understand and sympathize that even after following all the directions and logging in at 11 o’clock, people were frustrated they still were unable to get tickets,” adds Jennifer Schaefering, senior director of experiential at Synergy. “Hopefully that will change when we switch to a multi-day event.”
Considering the quick sellout in 2019, Dhawan thought demand might be at an all-time high after the hiatus during the pandemic and given the pent-up demand. So Whiskey in the Winter used ticket platform SquadUp to host ticket-purchasing, which all but eliminated the possibility of a website crash, Dhawan says. In addition, ticket requests were placed into a cart where buyers had 10 minutes to complete the transactions (with a valid credit card), or the tickets would go back into the pool—and some in fact did, which is why people were still able to acquire tickets in the first 15 minutes or so.
For those who weren't able to secure tickets, there is still hope: SLM is partnering with Synergy Productions to give away two VIP tickets to the festival. Enter the giveaway here.
And on October 21, from 5–9 p.m., the St. Louis Bourbon Society is hosting The St. Louis Bourbon Festival, a one-night, multi-venue event that includes tastings of more than 450 bourbons, whiskeys, and Scotches. There will also be live music, food trucks, custom cocktails, bourbon celebrity meet-and-greets, premium tastings, as well as auctions and raffles to benefit St. Louis Hero Network for First Responders. General admission tickets are $90, and designated driver tickets are $45; tickets are available here.
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