Believing they were buying tickets for a concert by the famous Marseille rapper, and attracted by the attractive price of five euros, Jul’s fans stormed the online ticket office of a children’s show entitled “Jul och Kul” (“Jul och Kul” (“Jul och Kul”). Christmas and Fun”) in a town in southern Sweden.
Jul fans stormed the online ticket office of a children’s show called “Jul och Kul” (“Christmas and Fun”) in a town in southern Sweden, believing they were buying tickets to a concert by famous Marseille rapper. “We realized that something was happening when parents called us to tell us that they were sad that all the places were sold,” explained Matilda Skön, in charge of culture for the municipality, on Wednesday. from Kungälv, to AFP.
Scheduled for Saturday December 9, the performance given by students from the local performing arts school in the town of 50,000 inhabitants was held at the attractive price of 5 euros. A godsend for fans of the artist with millions of albums sold who usually fill the Stade Vélodrome by the thousands.
An error linked to artificial intelligence?
“We believe that an artificial intelligence is at the origin of the problem and which cross-referenced the data on our home page by extracting the word “Jul” (Christmas in Swedish editor’s note) and other terms which referred to hip-hop because it was part of the show” analyzes Matilda Skön. “Then there was a website that said Jul was coming to Kungälvs.”
When it realized the mistake, the town hall reacted immediately. “We sent an email to everyone who had bought tickets to explain the situation to them, that it would be children on stage and not Jul and that they could get a refund,” laughs Matilda Skön. The show finally took place without incident at 11:30 a.m. in front of 350 people. A schedule that could have alerted fans? “Maybe they thought it was for charity,” concludes the municipal employee.