From queues at Victoria Eugenia to Kutxa.net: a sentimental journey

I’ve been attending this Film Festival for over 20 years now and I’ve seen it change (read ‘Jack Lemmon did never dine here’ by former Festival manager Diego Galan for an amusing story of a decade of celebrities, political violence and lots, lots of fun). And to me no change compares to the establishing of the online system for selling tickets by local Kutxa a few years ago. In the old times one would have to queue up at the Festival facilities or at the designated Kutxa office for getting tickets along the established timetable. All of that vanished the day tickets started being sold through the internet on a typical 24/7 basis.


The results were predictable: lots of sessions were sold out even before the Festival started. Non-adjusting oldtimers suddenly risked missing most expected titles because of the digital fever (the Ryanair model, I’d call it), so there was a pressing need to know what the most expected titles actually were just as they were announced by the Festival organisation. Webpages became therefore some kind of a treasure. I’d bet (though don’t know for sure) the rate of ticket sales rose through the roof as well – it’s so amazingly simple to get yours now.

But Donostia cares about its oldtimers, and wouldn’t turn its back on them by preventing them to enjoy the quiet walk towards the Festival HQs in order to buy a ticket from a human being. A given percentage of tickets shall always be available for direct sale before any film. So everyone happy (the bank above all, for it will charge a little extra expense for the online service) and free way to cinephilia for everyone.