Jason Mraz tickets worth the wait for students

At 7 a.m., Trabant University Center is usually empty and quiet, with the exception of university staff members starting their workday and a few students stopping by for breakfast before class. However, on Friday, hundreds of excited students packed into the student center, waiting for Jason Mraz tickets to go on sale at 10 a.m.

Sophomores Portland Small and Emily Holko arrived especially early in order to secure the first-place spot at the box office window.

"For a good hour, we were alone," Small said. "We sat outside until they let us in at 6:45 a.m."

The Student Centers Programming Advisory Board, which brings a number of entertainment acts to the university each semester, announced this summer that Jason Mraz will be performing at the Bob Carpenter Center on Sept. 28 at 8 p.m.

Students with valid UD ID cards can purchase up to four tickets for $20 each until student pricing ends Sept. 10. Tickets will then go on sale for the general public for $35 each, and will be available through the university box offices and Ticketmaster.

Caitlin Birney, vice president of major events for SCPAB, said she has high hopes for ticket sales for the concert. Last fall, tickets for a concert by Maroon 5 sold out after one week, a record for a SCPAB-sponsored concert, she said.

 "We have 4,000 available tickets and we hope it sells out," Birney said.

She said by 9:30 a.m. on Friday, there were approximately 160 people waiting for the box office to open in Trabant and approximately 100 waiting for tickets at the Bob Carpenter Center. Students were given numbered wristbands as soon as they entered to ensure no one cut ahead in line.

Graduate student Marc Guzman said he arrived at Trabant at 6:55 a.m. after waking up an hour earlier and sprinting from the School Lane apartments.

"I'm a big Jason Mraz fan," Guzman said. "I'd only wait on lines like this if it were a once-in-a-lifetime experience, like for Lady Gaga or Britney Spears."

Junior Alton Haynes arrived at the student center at 7:30 a.m. to join his friend, who was purchasing the maximum allowance of four tickets.

"I cheated—my friend's buying my ticket," Haynes said that morning. "I'd only wait on lines like this for certain people—definitely the Spice Girls. For Coldplay, I'd be here at 2 a.m."

Birney said although SCPAB did not advertise the concert extensively because tickets went on sale so early in the semester, the group featured Mraz on its website and members passed out free Mraz T-shirts on campus.

"We're pushing to get the word out through word of mouth," she said.

By the time the box office in Trabant closed Friday, all 500 wristbands available had been distributed and more students were still waiting in line—sans wristband.