Because of low ticket sales, the 2019 Spring Concert, featuring lovelytheband, is now free to students and the general public.

University Board made the announcement Tuesday afternoon via social media.

Mariah Marlar, the president of UB, said anywhere from 50 to 100 tickets were sold, but she does not know the exact number.

She said since the ticket sales from the concerts help offset the cost for the performance, UB will take a hit, and the loss will roll over into next year’s budget.

She said she did not know the actual cost of the concert.

However, Marlar said having a free concert was feasible because the band is up and coming and the venue is small, which was the goal this year.

“We were trying something new,” Marlar said.

She said although it is going to be a small hit, it will be worth it in the end because they are still having a concert rather than canceling it.

The free tickets are available at the door on a first come, first serve basis, according to a press release sent Tuesday night.

Students will have to bring a valid Panther Card, and the general public will have to bring a valid photo ID to claim the tickets.

Previously purchased tickets can be returned to the ticket office for a full refund at the Eastern Ticket Office in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. Ticket office hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The concert is at 7 p.m. Thursday in McAfee Gym.

When asked about the concert, six students shared a similar sentiment. They did not know who the band was, and they had no intentions of going in the first place.

Jared Mann, a freshman engineering major, said he was not planning on going and still is not going despite the concert being free.

“A lot of people don’t know who the band is, so I would have no one to go with,” Mann said. “I do not know them at all. I know they have one popular song; I do not know the popular song though.

Shona Coleman, a graduate student studying history, also said she was not going in the first place because she only knows one song by the band and the concert was going to be in McAfee.

“The concert got moved to McAfee. Having worked in McAfee and experienced some events there, it gets very warm, and it’s not very good for ventilation, so they would have to have the windows open, and I could have heard the concert from outside anyways, so that was my plan,” Coleman said.

Coleman said she is still not going to go.

Marlar said even though they will have the windows open, McAfee is comfortable this time of year and the heat will not be a problem.

Charlie Dumach, a freshman music major, said she did not know who the band was and thinks people are not going to go because they do not know who it is.

When asked if she would go since the concert is now free, Dumach said she is still not going to go.

Marlar said students should still go even if they do not know the band because they will not be wasting money.

“What do you have to lose?” Marlar said. “A couple of hours of your time?”

The Spring Concert is paid for by student fees in addition to ticket sales. Marlar said when enrollment dropped, so did UB’s budget, and artists are not cheap.

However, she said UB tries to get as much feedback from students by sending out surveys and taking polls in order to have open communication with the students and spend student fees to the best of UB’s ability.

She said lovelytheband was voted number two on the list, and UB felt confident bringing them to campus.

Tra’Mya Sims, a senior communication disorders and sciences major, said she is not going because she is “just not that interested in the artist,” and Teonikka Fancher, a senior family and consumer sciences, said after voting in the UB survey and after the reveal she was not planning on going.

“When I went to the reveal, I didn’t even know who they were talking about,” Fancher said. “They definitely should have made it free last year when Fetty Wap came; I would have gone to that.”

But one student, Matt Brauer, a freshman graphic design major, said if he has time he will go to the concert.

Originally, he was not going to go because of plans and because he did not hear of the band.

“If I have time, yeah, (I’ll go),” Brauer said.

Marlar said UB is hoping to have anywhere from a couple hundred people in attendance to a bigger goal of a couple thousand.

She said the first thousand people will receive wristbands and be able to stand on the floor of the gym.

After that initial 1,000, people will have to sit in the stands because of safety codes.

Analicia Haynes and Corryn Brock can be reached at 581-2812 or dennewsdesk@gmail.com.