In a repeat of the Passion Pit concert in Chicago on April 2, the A&O Ball featuring the indie-electro performer and hip-hop artist Talib Kweli sold out.
This time, it took less than three hours.
Tickets went on sale at 10:30 a.m. on Friday and by 12:52 p.m., each of the approximately 2,000 tickets had been cinched, said Barry McCardel, co-director of promotions and public relations for A&O Productions.
“Sell-outs are great,” the Communication junior said. “At the same time that means there are people who’d like to go but couldn’t. It’s a gift and a curse. We’re always trying to find bigger venues.”
A&O chose the Riviera Theatre as the venue for this year’s show in order to accommodate more students. The Riviera has a capacity of about 2,200, which allowed room for about 800 more students to attend than would be possible in Patten Gymnasium, McCardel said.
Last year A&O was only able to offer about 1,500 tickets for the Ludacris concert at Patten, which sold out faster than Passion Pit.
A&O was happy with the longer sell-out time for Passion Pit, McCardel said.
“They were on sale long enough to allow people who were excited to get tickets,” he said.
Students were allowed to buy up to four tickets per account. A&O evaluates that number for each concert and thought it was an appropriate number given the larger capacity of the Riviera, McCardel said.
“The Riviera is great,” he said. “That being said, we are fighting to get into Welsh-Ryan … We are working with all parties to make that happen.”
The John Legend concert Fall Quarter and the 2005 Kanye West performance were both held in Welsh-Ryan Arena. A&O plans to put together a comprehensive campaign for getting access to the venue soon, McCardel said.
The online Norris University Center Box Office system didn’t have the same errors as it did when Tracy Morgan tickets went on sale Winter Quarter.
“Norris received almost no complaints,” McCardel said. “We’ve been really happy with that.”
A&O is unsure if they’ll be able to release more tickets.
“I would say at this point it’s unlikely, although not out of the question,” McCardel said. “We’re going to do our best.”[email protected]
