Peter Kay live tour: Huge queues for tickets leave many fans disappointed - despite three more Sheffield dates

The comic was originally due to do two shows at Utilita Arena Sheffield as part of what will be his first tour in 12 years, but a third night was added on Thursday and three more in 2024 were announced today as tickets went on general sale. Peter Kay will now perform at Utilita Arena Sheffield on February 17, 2023; August 11, 2023; August 12, 2023; February 23, 2024; July 12, 2024; and September 6, 2024.

Tickets for the arena tour beginning next month went on general release at 10am today, Saturday, November 12, and Peter Kay fans desperate to see him in the flesh on his long-awaited comeback tour faced huge online queues. As of 2pm today, all the Sheffield dates were listed as ‘low’ or ‘limited’ availability and anyone attempting to join the queue on Ticketmaster would find there were more than 200,000 people ahead of them in the virtual line.

Peter Kay now playing six dates in Sheffield, including three shows in 2024

Among those queuing was Sheffield’s Dan Walker, with the Channel 5 News presenter tweeting: “Trying to get Peter Kay tickets is like trying to get an appointment at the GP! ‘Please hold… there are currently 170,000 people ahead of you in the queue’.” He was relatively lucky, with one person telling how they found themselves 235,000th in the queue and several telling how they had joined the queue only to be ‘kicked off’ the website and put to the back of the rapidly-growing waiting line.

Peter Kay had said tickets for the live tour would be frozen at the same prices as the last time he took to the stage more than a decade ago, but many fans reported that the cheapest £35 seats were quickly snapped up, leaving them with only much more expensive options. One person wrote on Facebook: “So much for £35 tickets...... Finally got through and the tickets was £75 each and not even near the front .. No thanks. My Ricky Gervais ones only cost £39 in a smaller more intimate venue and he's the king of comedy.”

Peter Kay tickets advertised on Viagogo for more than £700 each

Another fan wrote: “Don’t waste your time…. I queued for three hours. By the time it was my turn (the tickets were) all sold out.” And a third commented: “After wasting almost 3 hours of my life I will never get back I'm admitting defeat. What a stupid system to allow upwards of 300,000 people to remain in a "queue" for a venue with capacity of 100x times less. Don't know why I'm so surprised that after waiting so long, there are now no tickets to any venue (except the ones selling for £1000!). Ridiculous, pointless, total waste of time and energy.”

Another person commented: “Given up trying to get tickets - how they can sell 10 per person and not care that straight after ticket touts are selling them on for over £300 a ticket - absolute farce with O2 presale the other day and Ticketmaster today.”

The rush for tickets led to the hashtags #PeterKayTour and #Ticketmaster trending on Twitter. This afternoon, tickets were already being re-sold on Viagogo, with prices advertised there for the Sheffield dates of up to £707 per ticket.

Peter Kay cancelled his last tour in December 2017, citing ‘unforeseen family circumstances’, before returning to the stage in August 2021 for two charity events to raise money for Laura Nuttall, a then-20-year-old with an aggressive type of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme. In January 2021 he appeared on BBC Radio 2 to chat to Cat Deeley about his love of music, mixtapes and the musical Mamma Mia. He also made a surprise appearance at a charity screening of his series Car Share in 2018.