Busy schedules, tight wallets and an upcoming Katy Perry concert have Weber State students talking. Tickets for Perry’s Monday night concert at the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City sold out minutes after going on sale in January.
Several WSU students resorted to scalpers on websites such as KSL.com, StubHub and Flash Seats in hopes of purchasing tickets. Additional fees, along with inflated prices, have made it difficult for WSU students to afford the tickets and ultimately left local fans disappointed.
WSU student and Perry fan Janna Emfield felt that disappointment after checking prices online.
“I get all excited because I see the price that says two tickets for $100 . . . then you click on it and it says $100 each,” Emfield said. Although she’s a big Perry fan, Emfield thinks that tickets are too expensive, especially for college students.
Harmony Fher, WSU student, also figured she could have gotten tickets on Stub Hub, so she didn’t try to purchase tickets right away. Later, when Fher got on Stub Hub, she found that the available seats were unsatisfactory and decided not to buy tickets. Fher said she considers the tickets to be a reasonable price and that if you really want to see somebody that bad you will save up in advance.
Another Perry fan, Brooke Minnoch, heard about the upcoming Prism tour and immediately purchased tickets, not having saved for it in advance. Minnoch has seen Perry perform live at her California Dreams Tour in July 2011 and told her family, “If (Perry) comes back here on tour, we’re going!”
Minnoch recalled the California Dreams Tour being very theatrical, with many costume-changes, which helped her justify the cost of the tickets when purchasing them for her family. Minnoch also justified the price of the tickets by stating, “Because it’s Katy Perry!”
Even though some justify the price because it’s Katy Perry, buying tickets from scalpers could prove to be a more costly error if students are not careful.
Students can find tickets on scalper websites, but should be aware of the risks that follow. Many of the scalper websites do not list the additional fees until later in the purchasing process, and many of them do not give refunds or exchanges.
There are many factors that play a role for WSU students when purchasing tickets such as busy schedules, tight wallets and the mere fact that Katy Perry will be performing live.
As Emfield put it, “When you go to a Katy Perry concert you don’t just get the music, you get a show. You get the theatrics.”
