Don't pay for tickets to free Carver County Fair concerts, officials warn

WACONIA, Minn. — A county fair in the west metro has a warning for concertgoers: beware of tickets on sale for free shows.

The Carver County Fair wants to make sure you hold onto your money.

Next week the fairgrounds in Waconia will be full of vendors and visitors as they kick off the 112th year of the fair.

"We have entertainment, we have animals, tractor pulls, demolition derby," said board president Jim Klein.

This year, he has more on his mind.

"We've never had that happen here before," Klein said.

Tickets on a resale site for fair concerts listed for $53 — concerts that are free with your $9 admission.

"We try to run a good ship here and stuff like that, try to be fair to everybody and give them a good day of fun and I just hope that people aren't getting hooked on buying one of those tickets," Klein said.

Republican state Rep. Jim Nash, who's the former mayor of Waconia, contacted WCCO to get the word out.

"Whether it's an oversight orif  it's actually a scam, people need to know that you don't have to pay for these tickets," Nash said.

He says he wants concertgoers to keep their money and the fair to keep its reputation.

"We wanted to make sure that people in a different county or maybe who come from out of state to see a band, that you don't have to pay for that band, it's part of getting in through the door," Nash said.

WCCO found the ticket listings on vividseats.com — $53 for shows Tuesday through Sunday.

WCCO asked Vivid Seats why free tickets are listed on the site. A representative said: "Tickets to this event were briefly listed on the site in error by a seller and were removed immediately after the company was made aware. No tickets to that event were sold in that brief period of time."

They did say one show is still listed. It's the only ticketed event, the kickoff show the night before the fair starts. It's still listed at $53, when a VIP ticket is available for $30.

"It's a big concern to us," Klein said.

Klein says the only place to get an advance ticket to the fair itself is on the fair's website . And later you can buy at the door, again just $9.

"Be careful what you do out there today. We don't want the bad image to make you mad — to buy or purchase a ticket and you get here and there's no $53 tickets out there, you could've got in here for $9," Klein said.

The Vivid Seats representative also told WCCO that no tickets were actually sold to any of the shows.