Former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage thanked internet trolls that booked thousands of free tickets, and then didn’t show up, for his six-week “America’s Comeback” tour that “calls for free speech.”
“The Hoaxers who have booked fake tickets to my events in America have overplayed their hand. Thanks for the publicity, free speech will win,” Farage wrote Tuesday after only 21 people, including six from his team, turned up for a tour stop in Pittsburgh despite nearly 3,000 registered attendees, according to JOE.
The Hoaxers who have booked fake tickets to my events in America have overplayed their hand. Thanks for the publicity, free speech will win.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) May 17, 2021
Social media users — most notably, K-Pop fans — have been reserving a staggeringly high amount of free tickets with no intention of attending the events ever since the registration link was shared online, according to The Independent.
“Remember that time K-pop fans ruined Trump’s big election rally by booking free tickets they had no intention of ever using? On a completely unrelated topic, Nigel Farage is offering free tickets to his latest tour,” one Twitter user reportedly wrote, referring to former President Donald Trump’s June 2020 rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Many believed this rally was subject to a similar attack, according to The Independent.
Small update – 14 people actually attended. The other 6 were part of the Farage group.
In unrelated news 2981 people registered for the event but I assume they must have had some trouble getting there.
— RS Archer (@archer_rs) May 18, 2021
“When I began my tour a few weeks ago, the audiences that came to listen to me were about 250-strong. By last Friday in Kent County, Michigan over 750 people were present,” Farage wrote in a Tuesday piece published by The Telegraph.
“Yet unsurprisingly, in an age when many so-called liberals go out of their way to stifle any opinion or shut down any debate which they do not like, we have been subjected to dirty tricks,” he added. “As I understand it, over the last 24 hours, some 47,000 tickets have been booked for my next event in Pittsburgh. Many of these bookings are fake.”
“Thankfully, the Freedom Works organisation will be going through the IP addresses of every person who has applied for a ticket to attend my next rally. It won’t be very difficult to work out where the hoaxers are from. Those responsible have overplayed their hand. Ultimately, they have wasted their own time,” Farage claimed.
Tickets for Farage’s future events will now cost $20, The Independent reported.