“For two hours, Ed Sheeran mania gripped the campus,” said sophomore Lillian Sturhahn.
At 12 p.m. Monday, over 17,000 members of the Duke community successfully claimed a free ticket for the Ed Sheeran concert. The concert, which will take place in Wallace Wade Stadium Sept. 27, is part of the University's larger Founders’ Day Weekend. However, of the 70,000 eligible students, faculty and staff who had access to ticket registration, many students came up empty handed — unable to attend the highly-anticipated performance — and others shared concerns about the event’s assigned seating.
“I was excited to hear about Ed Sheeran coming to Duke, but they had a weird process this time,” said senior Aryan Mathur. “When I tried to get tickets at 12 today, there was a queue on the website. I don’t think they communicated it well … I don’t think I ended up getting tickets.”
Ticketing troubles
A Sept. 13 email from Duke University’s Centennial informed the Duke community that they would receive an email Monday at noon with a link to ticket registration, though some students noted receiving the email a few minutes after 12 p.m.
“More than 17,000 tickets to Duke’s Centennial Founders’ Day Program and Concert were successfully reserved Monday by Duke students, faculty, staff and alumni and guests,” wrote Jill Boy, executive director of the Centennial, in a Monday evening email to The Chronicle. “The ticketing link was sent to Duke active students, faculty and staff via their Duke emails.”
Like many other students, Sturhahn was in class when ticket registration opened. She said she managed to log on by 12:15 p.m.
“The website was really slow. None of the new pages would load,” she said, noting that she attempted ticket registration on three separate devices.
Sturhahn explained that many of her friends were having problems with ticket registration.
“People were running around comparing different ways that they’d gotten it,” she said. Sturhahn described that while individual seats appeared available for reservation, she was only able to successfully register by viewing tickets in a separate “price” tab.
Boy shared that “all available tickets have been distributed” and that all tickets were free. She added that tickets are “not transferable or eligible for resale.” She shared that alumni tickets were separately distributed by Alumni Engagement and Development.
Junior Nico Taber described that some of his friends did not receive a ticket after having issues with the website.
Sophomore Rose Cassidy said she had a “pretty positive” registration experience, having received a ticket after joining the queue early. However, she described that it was “hectic” trying to coordinate ticket reservations with her friends.
“I had people who logged in later than I did, and then they were further in line in front of me,” Cassidy said. She also had friends who were “kicked off the system” while trying to get tickets.
Taber noted that the ticket registration website was “clunky” and “slow to run.”
“Obviously, things like that are going to happen when thousands of people are going onto a website at the same time,” he said. “I did get my ticket, so it ended up working out fine.”
Assigned seating
Boy explained that rather than general admission, students have a reserved seat in one of the two “student sections.”
“Students have a reserved seat in one of two student sections in the Wallace Wade Stadium, and students can socialize within those sections,” Boy wrote. “Seating is limited for this special event because the stage and ticket holders cannot be on the field.”
She explained that this step will maintain the integrity of the field for the rivalry football game between the Blue Devils and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which takes place just one day after the concert.
“The safety of players is paramount,” Boy wrote.
Some students expressed frustration about the concert’s assigned seating.
“If you want to see Ed Sheeran, you would have to see it with strangers, which is an odd dynamic,” Taber said.
Sturhahn recalled hearing other students discuss plans to leave their assigned seat and sit with their friends. Taber hopes that Duke allows students to do so.
Although many students were unable to reserve tickets for the concert, Boy noted that “there are additional events planned throughout the weekend for Duke faculty, staff, students, alumni and special guests to celebrate Duke’s Centennial.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated Tuesday morning to reflect that over 70,000 Duke faculty, staff and students received the ticketing link Monday.
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Michael Austin is a Trinity junior and managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.