This year, for the first time, organizers of the Langley Cruise-In will be limiting the number of In-N-Out Burger tickets people can purchase.
The exact number has yet to be decided, but it will be somewhere between four and six per family, said Riccardo Sestito, head of the Cruise-In subcommittee that makes arrangement for In-N-Out Burger to bring its food truck from California to Langley.
Sestito said the restriction is a response to a sudden increase in people scalping the tickets at last year’s event.
In 2014, there had been a few instances of people re-selling tickets, but in 2015 things escalated, Sestito said.
The first two people in the line-up to buy the tickets last year purchased 25 of the $8 tickets apiece and there were more throughout the day.
“It caught us off guard,” he said.
When the scalpers were challenged by Cruise-In volunteers and In-N-Out staff, they claimed they were buying for family members.
“Everyone had a story,” Sestito said.
The re-sellers waited until all the In-N-Out tickets had been sold, then offered to sell theirs at a steep markup to disappointed would-be diners for as much as $25 each — more than three times their value.
The American company, which has no Canadian outlets, brings its own hamburger patties across the border with the In-N-Out Burger Cookout Trailer, the bright red, yellow and white semi-trailer truck that serves the chain’s legendary burgers, and shares the proceeds with the Cruise-In not-for-profit society.
In-N-Out contributes around $15,000 a year to Langley charities, about $13,000 in burger sales and another $2,500 from paying a sponsorship fee.
The 2016 Langley Cruise-In will be held on Saturday, Sept. 10 and the swap meet and car corral will be on Sunday, Sept. 11.
On Friday, Sept. 9, American Graffiti Returns, a ’50s style sock hop and outdoor movie night will take place at the Twilight Drive-In theatre in Aldergrove. It is hosted by the Ron Dunkley Memorial Society.