The announcement on Aug. 8 that the Hopkins Student Government Association (SGA) was sponsoring an Avicii concert at Pier Six Pavilion in Baltimore on Sept. 21 sent students rushing to purchase tickets. The event, which holds 4000 people, quickly sold out, leading to ticket scalping on sites such as Facebook and StubHub, a company owned by eBay.
This high profile concert was made possible through the work of sophomore Joshua Goodstein and senior Wyatt Larkin. Goodstein and Larkin, along with the assistance of Dean Susan Boswell and Janet Kirsch at the Office of Student Affairs as well as associates from the Pier Six Pavillion, spearheaded the organization of the concert.
“As members of Student Government last year, Wyatt and I believed bringing a major artist to Baltimore would be transformative to the student experience and to student life,” Goodstein said.
After the concert announcement, Hopkins students were given the chance to purchase tickets at the discounted price of $25. The organizing committee only reserved 1000 tickets to be offered at the discounted price; however, after high demand, the committee raised that number to 2000 tickets. The General Admissions tickets sold to the general public through the Pier Six Pavilion website sold for $45.
Now, in the days before the concert, students are eagerly seeking tickets to Avicii on Facebook and StubHub. The ticket scalping on these sites has led many to question just how much seeing Avicii live is worth.
As of Sept. 19, StubHub offers Avicii tickets ranging from $98 to $300. However, many students are reluctant to pay the StubHub prices. Ticket prices sold through the “AVICII COMES TO HOPKINS” Facebook group have gone from $50 to around $200.
While some of these prices may seem very reasonable, they are expensive compared to the original student price of $25.
“I didn’t think it was going to sell out so fast,” freshman Adam Eckstein, who missed the window to buy discounted tickets, said. “I was really looking forward to going.”
Eckstein is not alone. Across campus, a sentiment of frustration in the lack of affordable tickets has accompanied the general excitement of the student body.
Many students initially thought that ticket sales were exclusive to Hopkins students and that the event was not open to the public. Instead, due to negotiations with the Pier Six Pavilion, those who were proactive about purchasing their ticket, whether a Hopkins student or not, got the tickets.
“I guess what I didn’t realize was that this concert was open to the public. I thought it was just for Hopkins,” Eckstein said.
Goodstein and Larkin hope that the Avicii concert starts “a new Hopkins tradition” for Johns Hopkins Concerts, an organization that will be based out of the Office of Student Life.
“The high demand for tickets just goes to show what events like the Avicii concert are exactly what Hopkins students are looking for,” Larkin said.
