Connaissance offers students one last chance for Joel tickets

A final Connaissance contest will allow some students to win tickets to tomorrow's Billy Joel lecture that were not picked up by the winners of the original raffle. The first 39 undergraduate students to e-mail Joel@route66.resnet. upenn.edu at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning will win the remaining tickets to the show. "Thirty-nine raffle winners didn't pick up the tickets," explained Connaissance Co-Director Rich Archer, a Wharton junior. "We felt that this was the most efficient way to distribute the leftovers." Connaissance leaders also thought this contest would "cut some of the scalping out" because it is being held so close to the performance, Archer added. He said the deadline for winners to pick up their tickets was 3 p.m. Wednesday. Connaissance did not make exceptions for people who could not pick up their tickets, Archer added. "There were so many people with different reasons for why they couldn't come," he said. "We had to stick with policy." For the e-mail contest, students must include their name, phone number and class year in their message. And for the subject line, they must write which song they think Joel will play last tomorrow night. "Without giving the answer away, there's one song that Joel likes to finish all his concerts with," Archer explained. "It's the song he's most comfortable with -- a transition to say goodbye." Archer added that during the course of the lecture, if someone asks a question about this particular song, Joel will play it and most likely end the show -- regardless of how long the lecture has lasted. Archer said he and other Connaissance co-directors hope no one will ask a question about this song. Connaissance will notify winners of the e-mail contest by noon tomorrow. Doors will open at Irvine Auditorium tomorrow night at 7 p.m., with the show beginning at 7:30. No bags, cameras or recording equipment will be allowed inside Irvine. "If we see anyone with any of these things, he or she will be asked to leave," Archer warned. "It's in the contract, and also out of respect for a superstar." He added that audience members will not be allowed to re-enter if they choose to leave the lecture.

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