UK PonyCon tickets will be released on Thursday!

Ponyfic Roundup has been pushed to Friday, partly for this and partly because I've been away for a couple of days.

Big news on Monday night from UK PonyCon: tickets are out this Thursday! In a change from last year, when they appeared in the middle of the day, they will be released at 7pm BST this time around. The hype train just kicked up another notch, if that isn't too horribly mixed a metaphor. (And even if it is.) Even more so now we have confirmation that live music will return on the Saturday night for the first time since 2019.

The other big news is how UKPC ticket tiers will work in 2022. There's a more detailed breakdown on the official ticket page, so here you're getting a quick summary and a few thoughts from me. For prices I'm concentrating on Adult Weekend tickets here, though as usual there will be one-day tickets available as well as the usual Child and Family options. Also as usual, and something I love UKPC for: no booking fees! The price you see is the price you pay. Yay!

Standard: £46.00 – no special quantity limits

This is the basic tier. It gets you entry to the con on both days, including the concert on Saturday night, as well as a con book and of course con badge. You get a plain blue lanyard to hold said badge around your neck. In past years a very popular on-the-day addon for Standard ticket holders has been to upgrade your lanyard to something more colourful – I hope that will still be an option in 2022, but I don't know for sure. (I'm sure some vendors will offer lanyards, anyway.)

Bronze: £64.99 – no special quantity limits

The first of the Sponsor tiers gets you an upgraded badge and lanyard, an exclusive button badge, a mention in the con book, a Bronze role and a dedicated channel in the UKPC Discord. This ticket also includes a £5 donation to long-time UK PonyCon charity the RDA. Finally, you get priority access to buy tickets to the Saturday night Supporters Dinner. A few extras aside, this tier is pretty similar to the Supporter level offered at several past UKPCs.

Silver: £119.99 – limited to 60 tickets

Somewhat similar to the VIP tier at recent conventions, Silver gets you the stuff in Bronze (though with an upgraded Discord level) and a £10 donation to the RDA, but you also get extra perks. An exclusive tote bag, T-shirt, wristband and art print start things off. There's also priority entry to both the main event and autograph/photo sessions, and with two tokens thrown in. Finally, front-of-house seats at the Mane Stage.

Gold: £369.99 – limited to 4 (four!) tickets

This brand new ultra-exclusive tier ups the RDA donation to £20 and your Discord level to Gold. You get all the stuff Silver sponsors do, but your art print is Gold-exclusive. Four tokens instead of two. Personalised thanks. A Supporters Dinner invitation is included, so no need to buy one. Not only that, but you can sit at the top table, which will include con special guest Kelly Sheridan! And on top of that, a mini Batannia plushie by enormously (and deservedly) popular creator Sewpoke.

Quick thoughts

UKPC has been able to hold its Standard admission price at 2021 levels, which is no mean feat as costs rise for all of us. I think that's really laudable. Mind you, the Bronze tier looks quite appealing and not a huge bump over Standard level, so if I can attend this year (I'm almost never quite sure this far out!) I may well see whether I can stretch to that. I doubt that any of the Silver and Gold tickets will still be on offer by the time I can purchase, so for me personally they're likely to be somewhat irrelevant.

Since VIP tickets have sold out fast in the past, I suspect the Silver tickets will go the same way, despite the price having risen significantly from 2021 VIP levels* (and nearly doubled since my own one and only VIP purchase in 2018). I really have no idea about Gold. It's very expensive, and the odd thing seems a little strange (is a Discord channel limited to four people really going to provide much conversation?), but several of its perks are major ones – and we saw last year that when a Pony fan wants something badly enough, they're willing to splash out to get it!

* Edit: UKPC chair Maz points out in a comment below that I wasn't entirely accurate there, since the format for premium tickets has changed. In fact, the effective rise from 2021 VIP to 2022 Silver is small.

However common it is in retail I do find "and 99p" pricing mildly irritating, especially when Standard doesn't use that format. Selling Gold at £369.99 makes it a princely 0.03% cheaper than if it had been £370! That's about the only thing that I can complain about, though. Obviously there are several other things that I just don't know yet, such as my comments above on the appeal of Gold tickets. Let's hope that a large number of us Pony fans are able to support UK PonyCon (at whatever tier is reasonable for them) because UKPC 2021 was quite a hard act to follow!