Buyers face hours-long waits trying to snag Stanley Park Bright Nights tickets

Families faced frustratingly long waits Friday trying to score tickets to the upcoming Bright Nights holiday train in Stanley Park, as a massive influx of would-be buyers overwhelmed the ticketing website.

Some upset social media users said they entered the queue before ticket sales began at 12 p.m., but were still waiting for a chance to complete their purchase more than four hours later.

“Ugh, we’ve been in the queue since 11:30,” wrote X user Cathie Gee, shortly before 4 p.m. “At one point it said we only had a 10-minute wait, but it’s been hours.”

Demand for the popular event has skyrocketed since the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation announced the train was returning last year, following a string of outages related to mechanical issues and the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the 41,000 tickets made available for the 2023 Bright Nights event – offered first in a batch of 23,000, then another of 17,000 – sold out in about 2.5 hours, combined.

Showpass, the company contracted to handle ticket sales, said more than 100,000 people went online searching for tickets to the 2024 event on Friday.

Spokesperson Katelyn Marchyshyn told CTV News the company paused sales twice to ensure people going through checkout would be able to complete their purchases.

“The demand was bigger than we’ve ever seen,” she said. “Our phones lines had tens of thousand of people calling.”

Showpass said tickets were not sold out as of 5:30 p.m., but that thousands of people remained in the queue. Marchyshyn was not able to share the number of tickets still available early Friday evening.

She noted that the checkout process takes longer than it does for some events, as buyers have to select a date and timeslot, and in some cases register for an account, before completing their purchase.

Bright Nights is the largest fundraising event benefiting the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund, and uses nearly three million holiday lights to illuminate the Stanley Park Railway – set up and taken down with the help of approximately 1,200 off-duty firefighters.

Attending has become a beloved tradition for many families from across the Lower Mainland.

“It is a lot of fun,” said Jonny Staub, with the Surrey Fire Service. “I haven’t seen a single child or family member walk through here without a smile on their way out.”

Staub thanked everyone who waited in Friday’s queue for tickets, and said their patience will be rewarded with a great holiday experience.

Selling tens of thousands of online tickets is not the Burn Fund’s “bread and butter,” said Staub, who added that the contracted service provided is “the best we can do with what we have right now.”

Bright Nights is scheduled to run from Nov. 29 to Jan. 4, if all goes smoothly – last winter’s holiday train suffered some cancellations due to power outages, as did the Halloween Ghost Train last month.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson