Eurovision song contest organisers have decided to issue tickets on name only in a bid to prevent exploitative prices on the black market, the AD reports.

Other measures include a maximum of four tickets per person and an obligation to carry ID. Although the official presale of tickets only starts next week, tickets are already being offered on the internet for as much as €799.

‘We want to nip any attempt by companies to make money out of this in the bud,’ executive producer Sietse Bakker told the paper. Bakker said people should only buy tickets via the official song contest site.

Tickets to the event, which will be held in Rotterdam in May next year, cost between €18.50 to €248.50. The cheapest seat is a place with a limited view at a rehearsal while the most expensive ticket guarantees a place near the podium during the final.

Bakker said the organisation had done everything to keep the event accessible, setting aside 500 tickets to the final and 1,000 tickets to other shows for Rotterdammers on low incomes. These will be raffled among the poorer fans at a date yet to be announced. ‘It shouldn’t be an event for the happy few,’ Bakker said.

In total some 65,000 tickets will be issued for rehearsals, semi-finals and the final. Ticket sales have been divided in three, with the first round starting at noon on December 12, and the second and third rounds in January and March respectively.