A bot cyberattack interrupted the first day of sales for this summer’s Cheyenne Frontier Days’ concerts.
Tom Hirsig, CEO of Cheyenne Frontier Days, told Cowboy State Daily that a bot attack disrupted ticketing partner AXS’ sales platform and processes for selling tickets to this year’s Frontier Nights concert lineup as well as the festival’s Extreme Bulls competition from July 18-July 26.
“ON SALE POSTPONED,” read a banner on Frontier Days main website, cfdrodeo.com.
The cyberattack was discovered when AXS found about 270,000 users in the queue to buy tickets shortly after tickets went on sale at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Unfortunately, Hirsig said it was obvious that most of these 270,000 users were bots, not humans looking to go to a show.
“You can identify who are bots and who are not when they’re going through,” Hirsig said.
The bots were tying up ticket sales, which caused Frontier days to shut down and postpone ticket sales until next Monday.
First Day Always Great
In the past, Hirsig said Frontier Days has been able to sell a significant amount of tickets on the first day of sales for its shows.
This year’s lineup includes Ian Munsick, Brooks & Dunn with Chancey Williams, Luke Bryan, Cody Johnson, and Megan Moroney.
“The first day (of sales) is always a big day,” Hirsig said.
A few legitimate buyers were able to buy tickets before the attack, Hirsig said.
He’s unsure if the bot attack was limited to Frontier Days’ events or for all AXS concert and event ticket sales. AXS is a major national concert and event ticket distributor.
“This was really an unprecedented attack on AXS,” Hirsig said. “I don’t know why they targeted it.”
AXS did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to the company on X. Frontier Days said in a press release the vendor “is actively reinforcing measures to protect against automated purchases and ensure a fair buying process.”
Rise Of Artificial Intelligence
Natalie Demple, who runs marketing and public relations for cybersecurity firm CyberWyoming, said the ticket vendor Ticketmaster was also targeted in some breaches last year.
Dimple said bots and cyberattacks have increased recently due to the rise in artificial intelligence.
“While verification processes help protect customers from fraud, methods like dynamic QR codes, geolocalization, and blocking IPs or credit cards don’t always work and can be bypassed,” Demple said. “For example, dynamic QR codes from Ticketmaster and AXS have the ability to be reverse-engineered.”
Not The End Of The World
Hirsig said the setback won’t be significantly detrimental for Frontier Days, which will resume selling tickets at 9 a.m. MT on Monday.
“It’s frustrating to our customers but luckily we’re not doing anything for concerts until July,” he said.
Tickets for other rodeo events were already on sale on the Frontier Days website before Thursday but were also paused as a result of the bot attack. These tickets are still available on other third-party vendor sites.
Hirsig did express frustration that there already appeared to be a second-hand market developing for the Frontier Nights shows, mentioning how on Stubhub, tickets for the Cody Johnson show were going for as much as $474 each.
"I Hate Scalpers"
The irony of that is almost no actual tickets have been sold yet for the show due to the bot attack, so whoever is selling tickets second hand are likely trying to sell tickets they don’t even possess.
Although Frontier Days doesn’t allow its tickets to be resold, the second-hand market is nearly impossible to police and is not illegal under state law.
“There is nothing illegal about doing it, which is unfortunate,” Hirsig said. “I hate scalpers.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
