Ticket sales already top 2005

Spring Fling concert organizers have already sold twice as many tickets to this year's show as they did in total last year.

Nine hundred tickets to the Of A Revolution concert on April 7 have been sold as of yesterday, according to organizers.

Last year, the Social Planning and Events Committee sold about 400 tickets to the annual concert, which featured Sonic Youth, Cat Power and Citizen Cope.

Social Planning and Events Committee Concerts co-Chairman and Wharton and Engineering senior Matt Mizrahi said that about 1,100 tickets remain for sale at $25. They cost $20 last week.

If tickets remain unsold on the day of the show, they will cost $30.

Last year, SPEC lost about $37,000 on the concert. It would have had to sell 2,200 tickets to break even, according to SPEC Concerts officials.

College freshman Jessica Gartner said that she bought a ticket for this year's concert last Monday, the first day they went on sale.

OAR is "pretty big in central Jersey, where I'm from," Gartner said. Reserved seats to OAR shows in her area cost about $70 to $80, she added.

Students say that this year's tickets are appropriately priced.

"I didn't think it was too much to not buy" one, Gartner said. "I don't think it's unreasonable if they get big names."

The Fling concert is not designed to be a money maker, according to Mizrahi.

"The Fling concert doesn't make money. It never makes money, and it's not intended to," Mizrahi said.

If all the tickets sell out, however, SPEC Concerts will earn about $45,000 back, Mizrahi added.

OAR will perform for a sell-out crowd tomorrow night at Brandeis University. Tickets to that show cost $20.

But some other universities do not charge students for admission to spring festival concerts like Penn's.

For example, at Cornell's Slope Day concert -- which featured rapper Snoop Dogg last year -- admission is free for undergraduates.

According to Cornell's Slope Day Programming Board Chairman Jon Bellante, his organization receives funding from Cornell's student activities fee. Out of that, the Cornell senior said, $12 per student is allocated to Slope Day activities.

Admission to Yale University's Spring Fling concert in late April is also free. Last year, OAR headlined that show.

According to Yale Spring Fling co-Chairman and junior Chris McLaughry, funding for the show comes from an optional $50 student activities fee.

Students who do not pay the fee, however, can still attend Yale's Spring Fling concert.

At Brown University, students will have to pay $18 to see Wilco perform at their Spring Weekend in late April.

At Penn, Mizrahi said, ticket prices for the Fling concert have remained relatively stable over the past few years. Last year, tickets were also sold for $20 at first.

Mizrahi declined to comment on the price that SPEC Concerts is paying for OAR and opening band Scratch Track. His organization was allocated $60,000 from the University for last year's show.

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