With his fold-out chair and boombox, Devin Wilmot '10 came prepared for the wait. Though the additional Spring Weekend concert tickets did not go on sale until 5 p.m., Wilmot arrived at the George Street ticket booth just after noon. Soon, he was not alone.
By 4:30 p.m., the line for tickets had already wound completely around the block bounded by George, Brown, Benevolent and Magee streets.
The Brown Concert Agency announced Wednesday afternoon that both Spring Weekend concerts would be held outside on the Main Green, and that an additional 1,500 tickets would be released for sale. Between four and five hours after the ticket booth opened, all tickets had sold out, said BCA Administrative Chair Alex Spoto '11.
At this point, about 200 people were left in line, said BCA Director of Ticketing Sandy Ryza '12.
"I'm used to being No. 1, so it was just another conquest," Wilmot said. But others expressed greater frustration.
Waiting students — already angered by earlier troubles with online ticket sales — grew increasingly concerned about other students cutting in line.
Chantel Taylor '10, who had been waiting for tickets since 3:30 p.m., warned that if she did not get tickets because of people cutting in line she was "going to get feisty."
Emma Ramadan '13, a BCA staff member manning the ticket desk, said BCA had called the Department of Public Safety earlier about regulating the line. "DPS said there is nothing that they or we could do about cutting in line," she said.
At 8:30 p.m., the line still stretched from the booth on George Street to the front of Maddock. Emily Shelkowitz '12, who had been waiting since 4 p.m. for tickets, was still in line. "My friend got me food," she said.
"There is no valid reason for why it's taking so long," said Justin Wolfe '12, who had also been waiting since 4 p.m.
BCA "accepts responsibility for yesterday's long ticket wait," it wrote in a statement on its Web site. The line was "an order of magnitude larger than anticipated," it wrote.
BCA did not want to sell additional tickets online so that the sales would be "surcharge-free, equitable and immediate," according to the statement.
Students were allowed to hold up to three Brown ID cards and purchase one ticket for each concert per ID. As a result, some students gave their ID cards to friends who had a better position in line.
"Over 150 students sent e-mails about their inability to pick up tickets at release time," BCA wrote on its Web site. The three-ID policy "addressed this issue and ensured equitable distribution" of the newly available tickets.
BCA had only two sales positions open in the booth from which tickets were being sold. Each position was staffed by two BCA members.
Spoto said BCA needed to concentrate on the money transactions and checking ID cards in their computer program to make sure no one bought more tickets than they were allowed. Because the BCA members were handling "an extraordinary amount of money," Spoto said, they needed to ensure they were keeping track of everything.
"We wanted to have complete control over the money," Spoto said.
