BBC distances itself from Diana concert auction
PinkNews.co.uk Exclusive
BBC Children In Need has taken action against a listing on auction site eBay which was offering tickets for next year’s memorial concert for the late Princess Diana.
Tickets for the Concert for Diana sold out within two minutes of going on sale this morning, however, many immediately appeared on auction websites such as eBay, with bids reaching as high as £200,000.
One seller offered 10% of the proceedings to go to BBC charity Children In Need. However, the charity has quickly distanced itself from the listing, after PinkNews.co.uk brought it to the corporation’s attention.
A BBC spokeswoman told PinkNews.co.uk “People are free to donate money to Children in Need through sales on eBay, but if we deem a listing to be inappropriate then we can remove ourselves from it.”
eBay has since removed it, along with around 10 other offers, although more seem to reappear by the minute.
Yesterday, Princes William and Harry announced a memorial service to be held on August 31st, followed by a tribute concert on July 1st, their mother’s birthday.
Performers at the event, named Concert for Diana, to be held at Wembley Stadium, include gay singing legend Sir Elton John, who brought the nation to tears with his rendition of Candle in the Wind, at her funeral.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, the English National Ballet, Duran Duran and Joss Stone have also so far been named on the bill.
Sir Elton said: “I applaud Princes William and Harry for choosing to honour their mother with this concert. I am absolutely thrilled to be performing at this great event. Diana was a personal friend and someone I greatly admired for her tireless and enthusiastic work for charity.”
The Concert for Diana will raise money for Centrepoint and Sentebale as well as the Diana Memorial Fund and her five main charities that she was patron of, or had a great deal of interest in.
Meanwhile the BBC, ITV and Channel Five are reported to be in a bidding war of their own over who will broadcast the event.
The listings echo the saga surrounding Live8 tickets last summer, when competition winners sold their tickets online.
eBay has since adopted a policy of removing auctions of this kind.
