Tickets to this year’s Plexapalooza, featuring The Chainsmokers, sold out within two minutes of being available in the Robsham box office. Students took to social media to express their dismay over the unprecedentedly fast sell-out, complaining that the Campus Activities Board, which sponsors the event, did not handle the ticket-selling process properly. CAB president, Christine Cocce, CSOM ’16, responded to this criticism by stating that the Board is pleased about the enthusiasm, but also understands the frustration of those who were unable to buy a ticket.
Plexapalooza, as a concert that takes place in the Flynn Recreation Complex, is automatically limited in the amount of people to whom it can sell tickets. The venue can only hold 1,800 students due to fire and safety codes—a limitation inherent in the staging of the concert, as there are no legitimate alternatives.
If Conte Forum were to be used, further fire and safety regulations would force students to sit in the bleachers, essentially destroying the dancing aspect of the concert. With the Plex being the only possible venue for this concert, there is little that can be done to increase the maximum capacity for the concert.
Due to this severe limitation of venue capacity, it is to be expected that a popular concert will sell out. Based on the positive reaction CAB received upon its Dec. 15 announcement of the Chainsmokers’ performance, there should have been greater anticipation of the rate at which tickets would sell and further action taken.
The biggest issue with this rapid sell-out is the two-tickets-per-student-ID policy that CAB has typically instituted for the concert. This policy is problematic in that it allows BC students to buy tickets for their non-BC friends. While not an issue in itself, this becomes frustrating when large numbers of BC students cannot buy tickets due to a second ticket purchased by those before them.
As a group meant to promote on-campus activities for BC students, CAB’s priority should be ensuring that the greatest possible number of interested BC students are able to attend these events.
One option CAB has to improve the system for selling these tickets in the future is to limit the number of tickets sold per student ID to one ticket. When an event such as Plexapalooza is scheduled, for which great interest is expressed and ticket sales promise to be high, CAB should put this measure into place to prevent non-BC students from obtaining tickets while BC students are unable. Another aspect to this could be giving preference to juniors and seniors, further rewarding BC students who will soon leave campus.
While nothing can be done about the 1,800-person maximum capacity of the concert’s venue, this is a step that can be taken to improve the current ticket-selling system and mitigate student frustration for the next BC concert.
Featured Image by Marissa Venuto
