Waka Flocka Flame sells out in 80 minutes

Tickets to see Waka Flocka Flame and DJ Whoo Kid at Fall Fest on Oct. 1 sold out one hour and 20 minutes after going on sale at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 19, according to Concert Board Co-Chair Alex Mitchell.

Of the 1,500 available tickets, 900 sold in the first 10 minutes, according to Mitchell, a junior.

Concert Board Co-Chair sophomore Gracie Kanigher was pleased with the high demand for tickets.

“We were really excited about Waka,” she said. “The concert was getting really positive reception, and it was our goal to sell out, so to have that happen in under two hours was amazing.”

Mitchell stressed that tickets to Fall Fest are non-transferable, and that students must present an ID that matches the name on the ticket.

“If you buy a ticket from somebody it’s at your own peril,” Mitchell said. “Of course, we always say that and then we see a bunch of posts go up [that say] ‘looking to buy a ticket’... if you spend a bunch of money on a ticket and don’t get in, it’s not our fault.”

Referencing comments from disappointed students without tickets, Mitchell explained that it was impossible to make the show bigger because of budgetary restrictions.

“The show is no different [than previous Cage Rages]," he said. "We don’t have the production budget to put on another Spring Fling. If we put on two big shows, than we wouldn’t be able to have one big show. So the show’s no different. It’s always been 1,500 tickets in the Cage in the fall. We spent the same amount of money, if not less than years past.”

According to Assistant Director for Campus Life and ProgrammingAshley Austin, Concert Board worked with a budget of approximately $60,000 to $70,000 to produce this year's Fall Fest and previous years' Cage Rages.

The cost of the production for Fall Fest is less than half the cost of Spring Fling, Mitchell said.

Austin reiterated that creating an event like Spring Fling that would accommodate more students was not possible.

“We couldn’t have another outdoor show. That increases the costs by thousands and thousands [of dollars],” she said.

According to Austin, rumors have been circulating that the discontinuation of Senior Pub Night as an event was due to its budget being diverted to fund Fall Fest. She stressed that the rumors were false.

“Something I saw on Facebook was... ‘I heard money from Senior [Pub] Nights went to Fall Fest’, and I just want people to know that Tufts Concert [Board's] budget is completely separate from any other Tufts budget,” Austin said. “So we would never use budget money from the senior class for the junior class, or for the Concert Board or for whatever.”

Mitchell noted that 40 to 50 Fall Fest tickets would be raffled off at VoteFest on Friday, Sept. 23 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on the Academic Quad.

“So VoteFest, if you didn’t get a ticket, that’s your next step,” he said.

Mitchell emphasized that students should make sure to arrive at the venue well before the doors close at 8:30 p.m., explaining that there would be a metal detector that could slow down the line.

“If you go at a normal time and not at the rush at 8:30, you’re going to be fine," he said. "You’ll get right in. There’s no use in being fashionably late this year.”