BY LINDSAY VANHULLE
TRAVERSE CITY -- Carole Trahan almost had every ticket she wanted to this year's Traverse City Film Festival. Almost.
The computer system crashed as soon as she logged on to purchase seats, and Trahan lost them all -- including tickets to the hard-to-get opening and closing night films.
She eventually found seats for most of her desired screenings, but she never did get tickets to the bookend films.
"That's part of the game," said Trahan, who bought a Friends of the Traverse City Film Festival membership that allowed her to purchase tickets a week early.
Tickets to a number of films are still available, but it varies by venue. The festival's box office in the downtown Radio Centre building can help people looking for last-minute seats.
Also available is Ticket Swap, linked from the festival's Web site. Free registration allows moviegoers to buy or sell tickets from other users.
If that doesn't work, standby lines form outside sold-out venues about an hour before showtime. If any seats are open with 10 minutes to spare, standby patrons could be seated.
Roughly a third of all festival tickets went to Friends, said Travis Fink, the event's box office manager. High demand for some films means some people won't get all the tickets they want.
"It's hard to explain that to people," he said. "For the most part, people are understanding."
Members of the Friends organization count on early ticket sales as a perk for membership, which ranges from $25 to $100,000.
But several said buying tickets online presented a host of problems: The server timed out, and some movies were reported as sold out when they weren't.
A bank server overloaded, so credit card requests took time to process, Fink said. The staff also holds back a certain number of tickets to release gradually, especially for popular films.
"Sometimes there will be a lag between what shows up and what's actually available," he said. "Every year, we've had some sort of incident."
Last year, sales temporarily stopped after a power outage shut down much of the financial district in Vancouver, British Columbia, where the festival's server is housed.
Festival employees will look for a new online ticket vendor at the conclusion of this year's event, Fink said, adding that the company, TixSys, has been the best option for its price range.
Jack Gillen, of Traverse City, placed a phone order Tuesday morning and picked up tickets to five shows that afternoon.
He buys tickets every year at "the very last minute," which isn't foolproof, but said this year he got tickets to all his preferred screenings.
Sold out?
Here’s how to find tickets to screenings at this year’s Traverse City Film Festival:
-- Ticket Swap is a free forum for users to buy or sell tickets from other moviegoers. Link to it from www.traversecityfilmfest.org/attending.
-- Join standby lines outside the venues up to an hour before showtime. If a seat is open with 10 minutes to go, you might get in.
-- Tickets to films that aren’t sold out will be available up to 30 minutes beforehand at the festival box office in the Radio Centre building on E. Front Street, near Park Street. After that, they will be available at the individual venues. Cash, checks or credit cards will be accepted.
