Students question new Fling seating

When College sophomore Sophie Feldman tried to purchase tickets for this year’s Spring Fling concert, she was “unpleasantly surprised” by the change in ticket sale policies from last year.

Unlike previous years, when students were allowed to pick their own general admission seats, tickets are now being sold in nine sections including the floor. Sales are also limited to four per person for general admission and two per person for the floor.

Upon learning of the change, Feldman and a group of 20 friends organized themselves to secure enough tickets in the same section. Due to the short notice and high demand for sections directly in front of the stage, she was only able to get eight seats together.

“We were really surprised because it wasn’t like that last year,” Feldman said. “I assume [the change] was for security reasons but I can’t understand why — last year’s concert seemed very secure to me.”

Jordan Sale, College junior and SPEC Concerts co-director, said the change in ticket sale policies arose from a series of administrative and security concerns.

Security officials will be checking tickets at the entrance of each section to ensure students are seated accordingly, she said. But once students are in the stands, there is going to be some mobility.

“We understand Fling isn’t like a concert where you’d want to go with reserved tickets, but this was the only way to keep the concert safe and secure,” Sale said. “It was simply too great of a risk to keep it as a general stand for over 7,000 students.”

Since the concert relocated to Franklin Field from the Perelman Quadrangle three years ago, the number of Fling-related violations have increased each year.

Last year, the Division of Public Safety responded to 51 incidents over Fling weekend, a 34-percent increase from 38 incidents the previous year. In 2008, Fling recorded 24 incidents.

Out of last year’s 51 incidents, 30 were alcohol related and 21 were classified as loud party disturbances.

This will be the first Fling concert to have assigned seating since SPEC began hosting the show seven years ago, Sale said.

However, this arrangement “is not set in stone” and SPEC plans to evaluate its effectiveness after the concert, she added.

College freshman Spencer Braun, who purchased his concert ticket on Tuesday, said he was frustrated by the ticket sales policy.

“Half of my friends bought tickets for one section and half for another, so it was hard to figure out which section to buy for,” Braun said.

“It’s really annoying that you might end up not going to the concert with friends because you didn’t plan [your ticket purchases] ahead of time,” said College freshman Jessica Warren, who added that she was skeptical about the security’s ability to enforce assigned seating in a setting like Fling.

“People are going to end up going where they want to go,” Warren said.

This year’s Spring Fling concert on April 15 will feature Ratatat, Flo Rida and Lupe Fiasco.

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