Gord Downie Secret Path tickets sell out, sales website crashes

If you were one of the thousands of people hoping to get a ticket for Gord Downie's Secret Path concert in Halifax, you're out of luck, at least at the box office.

Tickets went on sale at 12 p.m. Thursday for the Nov. 29 show at Dalhousie University'sRebecca Cohn Auditorium, but sold out within minutes.

Traffic on the websitesfor Sonic Concerts, the promoter, and the Dalhousie Arts Centre was so high, it caused both sites to crash, according to Sonic Concerts' social media accounts.

By the time some fans were finally able to get through about 20 minutes later, all the tickets were sold out for the 1,023-seat venue.

Maria Graham lined up at the Rebecca CohnAuditorium Thursdaymorning to try and get tickets. She estimates she was about the 200th person in line, but only the first 50 or so were able to buy tickets before it was announced there were no more for sale.

"There were a lot of groans, a lot of people like, 'Ohno,'" she said."I was disappointed, of course. I think everybody was. It's a very special show."

Less than an hour after tickets had sold out, some people had already advertised them for sale on the buy-and-sell website Kijiji.

"I don't understand why anyone would do that for this show. To me, it's a really important show. It's political, it's tender," said Graham.

"I find it very discouraging and disappointing because I think it's unfair, but I also think it's in poor taste considering the project."

The album Secret Path is a set of songs and a graphic novel honouring Chanie Wenjack, a 12-year-old Ojibway boy who died from hunger and exposure after trying to find his way home from a residential school near Kenora, Ont., 50 years ago.

Proceeds fromSecret Pathwill be donated to The Gord Downie Secret Path Fund for Truth and Reconciliation through The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba.

Graham saidshe hopesanyone who profits off the tickets donates to Downie's project.

It was announced in May that Downie had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, a relatively rare but aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer.