Black eyed peas in Shanghai

The american hip hop band Black Eyed Peas came to Shanghai this week.  Managed to buy tickets on the day, which I thought was amazing.  They would have sold out months in advance in the UK.  Interestingly it looked like they had only sold half of the tickets by lunchtime that day of the concert.  30 minutes into the programme though, the place looked pretty full.  Leaving the metro station there were touts (red cows I believe they are called in chinese...) first buying spare tickets and then later selling excess tickets, all at a discount.

 

This in contrast to Beijing, where because the venue was much smaller it sold out before the start of the concert. 

 

I wonder how the touts know which concert will be a success.  Are they that in on the scene?  They seem to operate in a team.  I asked one buyer of tickets if I could instead buy a ticket from him.  He simply nodded me on, indicating that there would be plenty of others.  Also, when buying my ticket from the organiser, I was told to buy before 2pm.  Could it be that the unsold tickets at 2pm of the day were passed to a tout organisation at a discount?

 

I could write more about the feel of the concert and the party attitudes of the french and locals at the concert, but I have a few more diagrams to draw right now :)