Halloween Pub Ticket Sales Slow, Tradition Of Scalping Continues
By Josh Coles
Tickets for The Wave’s annual Halloween Shitshow Pub sold out in seven business days this year, compared to a single day last year.
While the first day of sales witnessed a whopping 598 tickets sold, the remaining tickets took an additional six business days to sell. Nonetheless, students who missed out, but are eager to join their friends on Wednesday night at The Wave are now willing to pay big bucks for tickets. In many cases, this amounts to at least double the regular selling price.
Last year, the sale of Halloween Pub tickets made waves around campus after nearly 1,000 available tickets sold out in a single day, with the exception of a dozen or so tickets that were available the next morning and snatched up immediately upon Mickey’s Place opening at 7:30am.
What changed?
Controversy surrounding the sale of tickets was raised at UPEISU council meetings following 2011’s Halloween Pub. In response, council agreed to undertake measures prohibiting students buying out large numbers of tickets only to scalp them for a higher price. Last year, rumours circulated of students buying tickets for prices well over $50 each - a full $37 more than the listed price.
This year, Mickey’s Place staff were instructed not to sell more than two tickets per student. The rule was only somewhat enforced.
“I mean, staff weren’t saying ‘HEY, I totally saw you buying tickets earlier, buddy!’” noted VP Activities Jon Millington.
“They also went on sale a full week earlier than last year, which is partly why I think it took longer. I don’t think the ticket price was a deterrent, either.”
Recent requests for tickets posted on social media websites work well to confirm that price is not a factor.
The following posts were made on either the UPEI NSO 2012 Facebook group or the Facebook event page for Wednesday’s show.
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