Harry Potter and the Cursed Child tickets: How to get tickets to see the new play

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child earned unanimously glowing reviews when it officially opened in London last week and now, 250,000 more tickets for JK Rowling’s sold-out play are going on sale.

Seats will be up for grabs from 11am on Thursday 4 August for an extended run at the Palace Theatre until December next year. Tickets for the two-part play start at £15 per part, with 300 tickets per performance costing under £20. To see the whole performance, you will need to purchase two tickets, one for each half.

To get them, visit the official ticketing website here, or call Nimax Theaters on 0330 333 4813. Be prepared to wait in line.

If the scramble proves too much (and with those reviews and the script now out in book form, expect it to be quite some scramble), fans will be reassured to know that 40 tickets are released every Friday for the following week’s performance. The Friday Forty are distributed through a raffle system, with the lucky winners securing tickets for parts one and two consecutively, priced at £20 per part.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has beaten Fifty Shades of Grey to become the fastest-selling book of the decade, with the script selling over 680,000 copies in the UK in just three days followings its midnight release on Sunday 31 July.

Set 19 years after the events of the seventh and final book, Cursed Child brings back Potter, now grown up and an employee at the Ministry of Magic. Harry and his wife Ginny Weasley wave their youngest son Albus Severus, named after former Hogwarts headmaster Professor Dumbledore and Potions guru Professor Snape, off to their old wizarding school. Once there, Albus struggles with the weight of his family legacy and goes to extreme and dangerous lengths to right the wrongs of the past.

The two-part play stretches over five hours and was co-devised by creator J.K. Rowling, written by Jack Thorne and directed by John Tiffany. Demand for tickets may be sky high but be warned, as fans have been warned that tickets bought from resale websites for up to £3,000 may be automatically void. Theatre-goers will need to show the credit or debit card used to buy the ticket, or the confirmation email, or they risk being refused entry.

Got sweaty palms already? Check out our handy tips for dealing with the demand:

1) Make sure you are ready and waiting with the web page up at least five minutes before 11am.

2) Do not let your computer, phone or whatever device holds the key to your happiness run out of battery.

3) Register your details with the website you are booking from in advance, if you can, but don’t panic if you haven’t left enough time as your tickets will be held while you fill out your information

4) Check how many tickets you are allowed to buy in one purchase. If you try to buy more than the limited number, your booking may be cancelled without notice, meaning no-one gets to go.

5) Get your friends to try too, but stay in contact in case you all succeed and end up with a bunch of tickets you didn’t want. If you do need to sell any on, do so at face value. No-one likes a tout.

6) Be patient and avoid refreshing or switching between browsers. Stick with one tab and have some faith! Be prepared to wait for an hour to get tickets.