Clockwise from top left: The Southbank Centre, British Museum. National Theatre, The Globe

Clockwise from top left: The Southbank Centre, British Museum. National Theatre, The Globe

Photo: Credits Robin Stott, Eric Pouhier, Anthony O'Neil, N Chadwick

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IT outage hits arts and culture sector

Arts and culture organisations among industries worldwide affected by major IT outage.

Neil Puffett
2 min read

Ticketing systems for numerous arts and culture organisations have gone offline due to a global IT outage that is causing massive disruption to a wide range of services and operations.

Reports suggest that issues emerged across the globe after a cybersecurity company called Crowdstrike, which produces antivirus software, issued a software update that has affected Windows devices.

As of Friday morning (19 July), ticketing systems (including Tessitura and See Tickets) serving organisations including the National Theatre, Globe, Southampton Mayflower, Southbank Centre, Young Vic, Old Vic, Somerset House and the British Museum (for paid for exhibitions) were all down.

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Microsoft has said it is taking "mitigation action" to deal with "the lingering impact" of the outage.

A message on the Southbank Centre website said: "We are currently experiencing technical difficulties with our payment system."

It has asked customers to check back later if they would like to make an order, or to email them directly. 

A message on the National Theatre website said: "Ticket sales and exchanges are currently unavailable online and by phone. Sorry for the inconvenience; please check back later."

'Not a cyber attack'

Crowdstrike says a "defect" in one of its software updates hit Windows operating systems.

It says that while a fix has been deployed it "could be some time" before systems are fully back up and running.

In a statement posted on X, Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz said the company's customers "remain fully protected" despite the outage.

"Today was not a security or cyber incident. Our customers remain fully protected," he said.

"We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption. 

"We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on."