The BBU’s procedure for festival ticketing and hotel reservations is the same as last year. Read these instructions completely and carefully to avoid mistakes!
Ticket sales and hotel reservations opened on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 7pm EST. A current BBU membership is a requirement for reserving a room at the Sheraton Hotel. Click here to renew your membership or join today. Don’t lose your chance to make a timely room reservation because you need to establish or renew your membership at the last minute!
The BBU does not use membership numbers, and you will NOT be asked to enter a membership number or your membership expiration date. Wild Apricot maintains our membership database and only current members will be able to obtain hotel rooms at the Sheraton. If you receive your newsletter by postal mail, check the mailing label on your most recent Bluegrass Breakdown for your membership expiration date. If you receive your newsletter by Email, the cover message of the recent edition included your membership status. You can also check your membership status after you log in.
Hotel rooms at the Sheraton are available at a rate of $118 per night for up to four people per room, plus applicable taxes. There is a minimum two-night stay at the Sheraton and a 72-hour cancellation clause. Parking at the hotel is free. Remember, Monday after the festival is a holiday, so stick around Sunday night. All Sheraton Hotel patrons must be weekend ticket holders.
We strongly suggest making your reservations on Tuesday, November 19 at precisely 7pm EST. In recent years the hotel rooms have sold out in less than 2 minutes. Room reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no mail-in option for reserving hotel rooms. Plan in advance to have Internet and E-mail access on this date. If you don’t have access at that time, make arrangements with friends or family to perform online registration for you. Even if you log in exactly at 7 PM, many other people will also be doing the same thing, and there is a certain amount of chance in whether you will get through to get a room.
To try for a room at the Sheraton, go to the BBU ticketing page, https://bbu.wildapricot.org , and look at the Event list.
(1) Log in using your membership account. Only active BBU membership accounts will be able to obtain a hotel room. To check the validity of your account, you can complete the Free Test Purchase event in advance.
(2) Click on “Hotel Room – Picking – includes one Joe Val festival ticket – 2019” to try for a picking room, or “Hotel Room – Non-Picking – includes one Joe Val festival ticket – 2019” to try for a room on a quiet floor.
(3) Watch for the Register button to appear lower left at 7 PM (refresh the page often so you’ll see the button as soon as possible), then click on it and complete the purchase. If your attempt succeeds, you will have purchased one weekend ticket to the festival, and the hotel will call you in the next few weeks to arrange your reservation.
(4) More people will be clicking on the Register button at 7 PM than there are rooms available. So even if you do everything right, your attempt may fail. If your choice is sold out, you will be offered the Wait List. Some, but not all, of the people on the Wait List will eventually get a hotel room at the Sheraton, so we encourage people to sign up. You will not be charged for a ticket if you are on the Wait List.
(5) To purchase additional tickets, use the “35th Joe Val Bluegrass Festival” event.
If the room option is sold out, there is a “Join Wait List for Rooms at the Sheraton for Joe Val Fest 2020” that you can register for. You do not have to purchase any tickets to register for the Wait List. Some, but not all, of those on the Wait List will get a room.
Prior to the “opening bell” you may test out the system by clicking on the “Free Test Purchase for BBU Members 2020“. This will take you through the entire purchase process so you can see how it works, but it won’t result in either a ticket or hotel room reservation.
If you don’t need a room at the Sheraton, or if you want more than one weekend festival ticket, go to “The 31st Joe Val Bluegrass Festival” event to purchase those tickets. If you have just reserved a room, this will require a second transaction. Please understand that ticket sales are final. If you are not willing to attend the festival unless you have a hotel room, and rooms are sold out, do not buy additional tickets.
If you have successfully purchased the ticket and the right to a room, Sheraton personnel will call you in the following weeks at the number you provided to finish the reservation including any additional nights, bed type, special requests, etc. Patrons will be called in the order of their purchase. If your purchase of a ticket bundle went through, you will get a room, so please be patient – it may take a few weeks for the Sheraton to call everyone.
Friday-, Saturday-, and Sunday-only tickets will go on sale later, based on availability. All festival attendees must be ticket holders. Don’t wait to purchase tickets at the door for anyone in your party, as the festival may sell out, and these tickets may not be available.
Retain and print your ticket confirmation Email and bring it to the festival for wrist band exchange. Tickets are not mailed out. For all questions regarding ticket sales or membership status, contact [email protected] . For questions about hotel rooms, contact [email protected]
Everyone here at the BBU is looking forward to the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival. We appreciate your patience and understanding with the ticketing process as we strive to make it a fair and easy process for all.
General link to BBU’s Wild Apricot Ticketing System
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