SPEC lowers concert ticket prices in an effort to sell last minute tickets

While students are gearing up for Spring Fling, the Social Planning and Events Committee is nearing the last stretch of their year-long concert planning process.

The Fling concert, which will feature 3LAU and Chance the Rapper, is the product of a process that starts soon after the SPEC Fall Concert in October. With less than 48 hours until the show, SPEC members are working to finalize artist demands and ticket sales.

“Last minute, we’re doing a lot of shopping trips to try to get ready with all the things the artist might need the day of show,” said SPEC Concerts Director and College senior Spencer Jaffe. “We’re doing some marketing promotion around Philly and other universities in the area to try to get some more students out.”

SPEC Concerts Director and Engineering junior Kelsey Simet also said that the organization works very closely with the artist to coordinate their schedule.

“We’re making sure they can get to and from the airport, and we make sure we have the merchandising all set up,” Simet said.

This year, SPEC is especially focused on promoting ticket sales, since they have been lower than last year. Currently, all floor passes, EE — the center section of Franklin Field — and most of ED have been sold. Other sections online have “sold a good amount of tickets,” Jaffe said.

“I think that rap itself as a genre is very polarizing,” Jaffe said regarding lower ticket sales. “A lot of people either like it or they don’t. We think that Chance the Rapper is an artist that has a little bit more of a niche audience, and since Penn is a pretty eclectic university, we thought that Chance fit the fold for a lot of different groups.”

Simet also noted that the lower ticket sales might be a reflection of a trend towards moving downtown for Fling.

“Unfortunately, I think people are hesitant to stay on campus due to increasing Liquor Control Board policies,” she said.

SPEC Concerts Director and College junior Paul DiNapoli also said that many other events are scheduled at the same time as the Fling concert.

“We’ve seen a huge uptake on downtown programing this year and multiple groups have planned their event directly in conflict with the concert — at the same time and the same price,” DiNapoli said. “Some people just don’t want to spend $40 on a Fling ticket and then $30 on another event.”

However, SPEC is working hard to promote ticket sales. Wednesday night, the organization announced a discount for all concert tickets. Penn students tickets were reduced from $40 to $25, while other university students with a .edu email can now buy Fling tickets for $40 instead of the original $55. Tickets for the general public reduced from $70 to $55.

“We’re issuing these new price tiers to kind of get kids to buy tickets last minute,” DiNapoli said. “A lot of people are on the fence. They’re thinking, I want to see Chance and I want to go to Spring Fling, but I don’t want to pay $40. And those are the people that we think we can swing to buy a $25 ticket so they can go to the concert.”

Simet also said that although ticket sales were lower than last year, SPEC was focused on getting the most relevant artists for the concert.

“We’re trying to set a sort of precedent,” she said. “Both of these are artists are probably people that no one listened to two years ago, but are on the cusp of being at the height of their career.”

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