Some people love that deep bass beating inside their chests and the incessant ringing in their ears so much that they are willing to pay thousands of dollars or spend countless hours competing in a contest in order to obtain those concert tickets.
On average, tickets are priced at $60, but when purchased from other resources, such as eBay, Stubhub, Ticketmaster, and TicketsNow, they could skyrocket into the thousands.
Charlotte Feinstein ’12 is well acquainted with the willingness to spend large sums of money for the opportunity to see her obsession, the Jonas Brothers, live. This obsession peaked in the eighth grade when she decided it would be a great idea to bid on Jonas Brothers’ tickets on eBay. “I guess I didn’t understand the concept of eBay or how the bidding worked, so I bid $2,000 on a Jonas Brothers ticket not thinking I would actually have to pay for it,” said Feinstein.
Eventually, her parents found out about the whole situation and were not pleased with the possibility of having to pay $2,000 for the ticket. In the end it all worked out when the seller reluctantly agreed to let the family off the hook for the ticket. But, there was no happily ever after for Feinstein, who didn’t get the ticket and lost her eBay privileges indefinitely.
However, for Feinstein, the punishment didn’t matter. “I would have done anything to go to their concert and be in the front row. I was completely in love with Nick Jonas, so I was basically blinded by him,” continued Feinstein. There was no fear about her parents’ reaction while purchasing the tickets, as long as Nick Jonas’ face was only an arm’s length away.
Ali Crofts ’12 and Adele Mackey ’12 also used the Internet as a source of getting tickets to a sought after Deadmau5 concert. But instead of eBay, they worked through the world of Craigslist. “We weren’t going to pay full price for the tickets, so we went on Craigslist to find a bargain,” said Crofts.
After searching through numerous adds on Craigslist, their wish for cheap tickets was granted. Finding the affordable tickets was crossed off the list and the only remaining task was actually getting the tickets before the concert, five days away.
The seller of the tickets lived inNew York Cityand in order to obtain them they would have to meet up in person. In the end Crofts’ mom met the seller inNew Yorkto do the exchange. Once it was completed, Crofts and Mackey were able to snag the $75 tickets and attend the concert, while the rest of their soccer team paid $125 for the same ones weeks earlier.
“Bieber Fever” tends to induce desperate measures for tickets. As it rings through the hearts of Kendall Rochlin ’15, Alexa Davis ’15, Emma Boland ’15, Colby Kranz ’15, and Olivia Lev ’15 one could only imagine their happiness to discover a contest that would allow them to see a Justin Bieber concert made into a movie called, “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” just by creating a video.
“We decided to make the video because we love Justin Bieber. We got a lot of views, so we made more and more videos, and we ended up winning,” Rochlin said. To them it didn’t matter that they had to spend hours rehearsing, taping, and editing all the videos they created. It was all worth it when they got to see their favorite musician, Bieber, performing in the movie.
Some die-hard fans are willing to do whatever it takes and go to wild extremes in order to have the opportunity to hear their favorite musicians live at a concert.
