Sam Fender pre-sale moved after 'bot attack'

Sam Fender has rescheduled the pre-sale for his tour's homecoming show after a "sophisticated bot attack" reportedly affected a ticketing website.

In a post on Instagram, the 32-year-old said he had been told the site Gigantic had been hit for his shows at St James' Park in Newcastle in summer 2027, prompting him to move the sale back 24 hours to 09:30 GMT on Thursday.

It came days after he removed a ticket category from sale due to his unhappiness with the costs for fans, which he said were out of his control.

Gigantic said its system had detected an "unusually high volume of suspicious activity" resulting in error messages on its site and it had halted the pre-sale to protect fans.

Fender announced his Proper Massive Stadium Tour last week, which will visit Newcastle, Cardiff, London, Edinburgh, Dublin and Manchester.

The musician from North Shields did not give details for any other venues being affected by the "bot attack", but a source told the BBC they did not have any issues buying tickets for the London show.

Fender wrote: "Being told that there's been a sophisticated bot attack to the Gigantic ticket site which is impacting the St James' Park pre-sale.

"We're going to have to move the Newcastle pre-sale to 09:30 tomorrow to ensure real fans get the tickets."

Gigantic said in a statement: "We know how frustrating this morning was for many of you, and we're sorry.

"Fans should be able to buy tickets fairly, and that is what we're working to make sure happens."

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