Sam Fender moves Newcastle pre-sale after reported bot attack

Sam Fender has postponed the pre-sale for his Newcastle homecoming concerts after what he described as a sophisticated bot attack affected ticketing website Gigantic. The sale for his St James’ Park shows has been moved back 24 hours to 9:30 a.m. GMT on Thursday, October 29.

The singer said on Instagram that promoters had informed him of the disruption to Wednesday’s planned sale. He said the postponement was intended to give genuine fans the opportunity to secure tickets, rather than proceeding while the website was affected.

The Newcastle concerts are scheduled for June 3 and June 5, 2027, as the opening dates of Fender’s Proper Massive Stadium Tour. The wider itinerary also includes Cardiff, London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Manchester, making the homecoming shows the first stop on the announced run.

An official Universal Music UK support notice confirmed the replacement Newcastle pre-sale would begin on Thursday morning. It said fans could use the same unique access code they had received for the original sale, providing a route back into the process without obtaining another code.

However, the notice also set out a restriction for anyone who had already used their code successfully. Fans who purchased pre-sale tickets for another show with that code on Wednesday would not be able to use it again for the rescheduled St James’ Park sale.

The reported disruption was specifically linked to the Newcastle pre-sale, rather than announced as a problem affecting the whole tour. BBC reporting said Fender had not identified other venues as affected, and cited a buyer who had been able to purchase tickets for London without difficulty.

The description of the incident came from Fender’s account of what promoters had told him. The available reports did not establish the technical method, scale or origin of the alleged attack, and Gigantic had been approached for comment. Those limits leave the precise circumstances behind the disruption unclear.

The postponement follows a separate dispute over ticket prices for the tour. Fender had objected to a premium front-standing category and subsequently said it had been removed, meaning standing ticket holders would have the same opportunity to get close to the stage rather than paying for a separate section.

Together, the pricing intervention and delayed pre-sale have put access for fans at the centre of the tour’s ticket launch. They concern different issues: the earlier change addressed the structure of standing-ticket prices, while the Newcastle postponement was presented as a response to interference with the purchasing process.

The next scheduled step is the replacement Newcastle pre-sale on Thursday, followed by the advertised general sale on Friday, October 30. Fans returning for the earlier access window will need to observe the code restrictions set out by Universal Music UK, while further information from Gigantic would be needed to clarify the reported attack.