White House Easter Egg Roll 2009 Ticket Sales, First Time Online

This was a shot in very cold weather last Spring. If the public had to wait in line for tickets for the Easter Egg Race then they would find themselves frozen! Having tickets available on-line is a welcome feature. Of course, those visiting the Mall will also like to visit the many new war monuments, including this fairly recent WWII monument.

photoshed has contributed a photo to this story.

The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus performed at the Easter Egg Roll in 2007 and we were there to see them. The Jonas Brothers played at least twice on a fairly small stage and we were within 50 feet of the stage. It was a really wonderful time and the Jonas Brothers couldn't have been nicer, allowing me to take a picture of them with my son. You can see more of our experience at the 2007 Easter Egg Roll here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericjensen/sets/72157600071375197/

EKCJ has contributed a photo to this story.

To have the tickets available online only this year, is an egregious mistake on the part of the NPS. The Internet is vast and anonymous. How do they really know who is actually getting these tickets? I feel this process will be an open call to scalpers and ticket agencies to make a quick buck. I don't think this is how President Obama really intended to stimulate the economy. Ticket brokers have extremely fast Internet connections, most average Americans do not have access to a T2, , or WWW2, in their home or public library. Most people have at least 3 email accounts. How do you know, or make certain that an individual ONLY gets the MAXIMUM set number of tickets? Nor does an individual get multiple tickets using other email accounts? For instance, what is to prevent a systems engineer from Silicone Valley, who has access to a super processor, and hundreds of email accounts, form getting hundreds of tickets? How many times in the past have concerts "sold out" in a matter of seconds, due to ticket brokers. They have the technology to support their systems, an average home computer does not. How are you going to ensure that people of the middle class have access to these tickets. Waiting on line, in person, is fair and equitable. I live in NY, I am disabled. I take Chemo, and I have two children with a classification of Autism, yet, we were able to get tickets by waiting in line, last year. If this NEW system is to make it more accessible to more Americans, If I went last year, wasn't it accessible enough? This new system of giving out tickets will be just an opportunity for the greedy to get rich, and make a profit off of hard working families. Will the proper agencies have people surfing the web, and "buying" the scalped tickets? To then, reissue to real hard working Americans, who ARE going to be shut out by this new system. Why does Washington feel the need to reinvent the wheel and CHANGE things that obviously aren't broken?

Milleniummom, I could not have said it better myself.  I have indeed been a part of that line for 5 yrs, and guess what, it is a live human body in that line, not cyber world!  I too am not happy about this new process, as that "line waiting"  was a tradition for my friends and I each year.  Accessable to more americans, WRONG.  Easter is a well known holiday, you can plan ahead, get a sitter, camp out with us.  Everyone was welcomed and everyone had the same opportunity.  At least with the line, you were in control of your own destiny, online, the hackers and scalpers may be in control of your Egg Roll Destiny.  Good Luck today everyone!

Does any know what time the tickets become available? At least when they had the line to wait in you knew when to be there. I can't sit by my computer on this one page all day. :(

That's strange, it was 7:14 am when I sent my first comment above and it shows up on this site as 4:14!!!

Beverly,  I too have been waiting and nothing...7:35am

Same here...I keep hitting "Refresh"

When will the tickets become available?? I've been waiting ALL night!!

This was a hot mess, I got as far as putting in the code and was time out and tried to get back in and there are NO ticket.

I got all the way to putting the code in and it kicked me out! I understand what he's trying to do but my little girl is going to be very disappointed. She really wanted to attend for the 1st time!  She has never been so involved in a political process as she was with the Obama campaign.  As a resident of DC I feel that I've been slighted.  We weren't able to get "Free" tickets to the neighborhood inaugural ball and now we can't get "Free" tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll!!! Maybe technology is not everything its cracked up to be!

i, too, was one of those who slept outside on the ellipse to get tickets and i agree with the others who have posted before me that this pretty much stinks.  i have been checking this site pretty much every hour (increased to every 15-30 minutes since morning) since 12 am--since there was no indication what time this would start

Thank you to everybody who shared your photos and stories about previous Easter Egg Rolls!! 

Folks who are trying to get Tickets online are finding the ease the internet to be a web of problems and frustration.  The site Independenttickets.com witch is owned by Front Gate in Austin, TX does not have the ability to handle the inquiry.  Most  people are going away frustrated due to server timeouts and folks getting to the last screen to order and get a time out.  People are trying a minimum of two hours to get the front page to load. 

Next year the White House should use a company that has the ability to deal with large amounts of web traffic.

Source - Network Solutions provided web company information

Source- Baltimore Sun - Comments section 

Source- Whithouse.gov

Yes the web-site is a mess and yes I have also got to the final word entry screen before being unceremoniously dumped. The great thing is the concept- opening up an opportunity of a lifetime for all of the countries citizens, it looks like many of you have had the opportunity to attend before which is great, I am sure your memories will last a lifetime, now I am so glad that soemone has the foresight to not restrict this to the lucky few who live and work in DC and the surrounding area- kudos Obama

I for one am glad the tickets are being distributed online. We're traveling to DC with our kids, 5 and 7, and this is the only way we would have a chance at getting tickets. Granted, the process is very frustrating. This is an event that should be available to all Americans, not just those that live within the DC area. 

To those who are whining that this is the first time in 5 years they won't get tickets, too da#* bad. Give some others a chance.  My $.02.

I think it was a good idea to put the ticket online I got threw to the whole thing and got my six tickets to the 2009 white house easter egg roll.. I am so happy because this was my first time voting and this will be my first time attending the white house easter egg roll and I couldnt be more exicted.

Thanks, Tina, for this update on the WH Easter Egg Roll this year.