Vieilles Charrues festival: AI facilitates a wave of counterfeit tickets, the festival warns

As the Vieilles Charrues festival approaches its opening, organizers are urging festival-goers to be extra vigilant in the face of a surge in counterfeit tickets circulating online. According to the festival, advances in artificial intelligence now make it possible to produce extremely convincing forgeries, to the point of being virtually indistinguishable from genuine tickets. This situation has prompted the Breton event to strengthen its recommendations and release additional tickets for sale through its official channels.

Counterfeits are becoming increasingly difficult to spot.

The 34th edition of the Vieilles Charrues festival, held from July 16th to 19th in Carhaix, is almost sold out, with only a few tickets available before the festival begins. This high demand is fueling a parallel market where numerous fraudulent offers circulate on social media and classifieds websites.

In a statement, the organizers warned about counterfeit tickets generated using artificial intelligence, which they described as "visually indistinguishable from real ones." Claire Malard, the festival's communications director, also emphasized to 20 Minutes These counterfeit tickets make scams particularly difficult to detect. The teams remind everyone that a counterfeit ticket will automatically result in being refused entry to concerts.

A preferred official ticketing service to avoid scams

To limit risks, the festival encourages attendees to use only its official ticketing system or its authorized resale platform, which guarantees transactions at the regulated price and the authenticity of tickets. A warning message is also displayed on the Vieilles Charrues website to discourage any purchases through unauthorized channels.

At the same time, in an effort to curb the black market, new tickets went on sale on July 15 for each of the four days. This initiative offers a final chance for those who missed out to join the approximately 280,000 festival-goers expected for this edition, which notably features concerts by Katy Perry, Aya Nakamura, Gims, Orelsan, Nick Cave, Vanessa Paradis, and Interpol.