Our latest Member Feature is now live, featuring Aron Farkas, International Growth Manager at TicketSwap: Europe’s leading ethical secondary ticketing marketplace, bringing fans and experiences together in a safe and fair way. In the Q&A, Aron shares more about TicketSwap’s international growth, the importance of glocalisation, and how partnerships with local ticketing companies and event organisers are helping strengthen fan welfare and support local scenes.

1. Share a milestone or achievement for which your company is particularly proud.

We recently passed 20 million registered fans and 100+ integrated ticketing partners. What means most to me is the shift behind those numbers: when I joined the company during COVID, TicketSwap’s footprint was concentrated in the Benelux around our Amsterdam home base. Today, the majority of our fanbase and partner network is international – having introduced the concept of ethical resale to many new countries.

2. Name one trend in electronic music that is shaping your current business strategy.

Glocalisation. Global sounds and ideas travelling internationally in a truly localised way, and local scenes creating their own cross-border gravity. For example take our partnership with Open Ground in Wuppertal, Germany – a decommissioned war bunker transformed into one of the most extraordinary club spaces in Europe. Thanks to our collaboration and integration with their local ticket provider, we protect the local community from fraud and scalping, while also connecting the international fans that Open Ground’s reputation draws from across the continent.

3. Does your company collaborate with other industry stakeholders to drive growth and opportunities within the electronic music community? And if so, how and who?

Our partnerships with promoters and integrated ticketing partners are central to creating safe and fair ecosystems for fans and organisers alike. Beyond that, we actively participate in industry bodies and associations across every market we operate in. From contributing to government consultations on resale regulation, to hosting round table conversations and networking opportunities at industry events across the continent. We genuinely believe in the power of international collaboration and knowledge sharing to move the whole industry forward.

4. What does it mean for you to be a member of AFEM?

Electronic music has always built its own infrastructure from the underground up. AFEM represents the maturation of that spirit. A collective voice for an industry that genuinely cares about doing things right, together. For TicketSwap the alignment is natural: fan welfare, transparency, sustainability. Proud to be part of this community and the conversation.

5. One project, collaboration, or initiative you’re currently working on that you’re particularly excited about.

We recently launched ticketswap.bg, our fully localised Bulgarian platform. At a time when global streaming algorithms are actively marginalising Southeast European artists in favour of a homogenised catalogue, I’m proud that we are taking active steps to integrate these markets and their live events ecosystems into our international network. By bringing TicketSwap to markets like Bulgaria, we’re not just protecting fans from fraud, we’re helping put local culture on the international map. As someone who grew up in Eastern Europe, that one’s personal.

TicketSwap’s work shows how trust, transparency and local relevance can sit at the centre of a modern ticketing platform. By combining international reach with close partnerships on the ground, they are helping protect fans, support organisers and strengthen the live ecosystem in ways that feel both practical and community-led.