Families faced frustrating and long waits Friday trying to get tickets for the upcoming Bright Nights Holiday Train to Stanley Park, as a massive influx of potential buyers overwhelmed the ticketing site.

Some unhappy social media users said they entered the queue before ticket sales began at midday, but were still waiting for a chance to complete their purchase more than four hours later.

“Ugh, we’ve been in line since 11:30,” X user Cathie Gee wrote shortly before 4 p.m. “At one point it was said we only had a 10 minute wait, but it felt like hours.”

Demand for the popular event has soared since the Vancouver Parks and Recreation Board announced the train’s return last year, following a series of breakdowns linked to mechanical issues and the pandemic of COVID-19.

But the 41,000 tickets made available for the Bright Nights 2023 event – ​​first offered in batches of 23,000, then another of 17,000 – sold out in about 2.5 hours in total.

Showpass, the company responsible for handling ticket sales, said more than 100,000 people went online Friday looking for tickets to the 2024 event.

Spokeswoman Katelyn Marchyshyn told CTV News the company suspended sales twice to ensure people checking out could complete their purchases.

“The demand was greater than ever,” she said. “Our phone lines were calling tens of thousands of people. »

Showpass said tickets were not sold out as of 5:30 p.m., but thousands of people remained in line. Marchyshyn was unable to share how many tickets were still available Friday evening.

She noted that the checkout process takes longer than some events because shoppers must select a date and time slot and, in some cases, create an account before completing their purchase.

Bright Nights is the largest fundraising event benefiting the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund and uses nearly three million Christmas lights to illuminate the Stanley Park Railway – installed and dismantled with the help of approximately 1,200 firefighters on rest.

Attending it has become a beloved tradition for many families in the Lower Mainland.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Jonny Staub of the Surrey Fire Department. “I haven’t seen a single child or family member walk by here without a smile on the way out.”

Staub thanked everyone who waited in line Friday for tickets and said their patience would be rewarded with a great vacation.

Selling tens of thousands of tickets online is not the Burn Fund’s “bread and butter,” said Staub, who added that the contracted service provided is “the best we can do with what we have right now.”

Bright Nights is scheduled to run from November 29 to January 4, if all goes well — last winter’s holiday train suffered a few cancellations due to power outages, as did the Halloween ghost train last month.

With files from Shannon Paterson of CTV News Vancouver