Students crowded the Hartman Union Building on Monday as early as 8 a.m. anticipating the opening of the Drake ticket sales, which officially began at 10 a.m. By the time tickets began selling, the HUB was overrun with students and the line stretched out of the HUB and down to Mary Lyon Residence Hall.
Annie Gagne, Treasurer of the Spring Fling Committee, discussed how the committee did not expect the crowd at all. It appears that the limited 700 storm and 700 guest pass tickets were in high demand among Plymouth State students.
Alex Moore, a first-year student, arrived at the HUB at 9:30 a.m. so he could get his own ticket and 2 guest passes.
Many students were cutting in line from the main entrance of the HUB and the stairs around the Fireplace Lounge. First-year student, Kevin A, waited nearly 3 hours to get his ticket.
“Everyone was cutting. There must have been 100 people in front of me when I got in line. By the time I got my ticket, 300 went through.”
Gagne stated, “Within 30 minutes I realized that it was beginning to become chaotic.” The Spring Fling Committee called University Police at 10:30 a.m. to help with crowd control for safety.
“They should have used ropes,” Kevin stated.
By 11 a.m., several poles had been borrowed from Sodexo, and ropes were purchased to try and organize the crowd.
“Normally, the crowd would get broken up into 4 lines alphabetically,” Gagne stated. “But this year, when the Spring Fling Committee received the master list from administration, it was organized based on class.” Gagne tried repeatedly to break the crowd into 4 lines, but people were not cooperating.
All 700-guest tickets were sold in 3 1/2 hours; 700 storm tickets purchased in 4 hours. By 2 p.m. on Monday, nearly 2,000 tickets were sold. Another 500 PSU student tickets were sold Tuesday.
The high demand guest and storm tickets went fast. Gagne stated, “I am very disappointed in several of my fellow seniors in the fact that they felt that since they were graduating they deserved to get the guest tickets and storm tickets over all other classes.”
Spring fling extends a courtesy to guests to come to the school to enjoy the concert. The concert is designated for PSU students.
A large portion of the PSU student body has proven with Monday’s hype that Drake is a hit. As the Spring Fling concert approaches, it is advised that students pay close attention to if the concert is moved to the storm location in the HUB Courtroom.
Gagne stated, “If the concert is moved to the HUB Courtroom based on bad weather, no guests will be allowed into the venue, and will be limited to the first 700 people that bought the storm tickets.”