Tickets to Dylan Concert Sell Out

When Bob Dylan comes to Harvard in three weeks, he will perform in a track center packed to its maximum capacity of over 3,500 people.

Undergraduate Council President Matthew W. Mahan ’05 said at last night’s council meeting that the concert had sold out by Friday.

Under normal circumstances, Gordon Track and Field Center can only hold 1,500 people, but the Boston Police and Fire Departments agreed last month to make an exception for the Dylan concert. Mahan said he was optimistic the Boston officials would increase that cap by an extra 500, nearly tripling the legal limit imposed by the fire code. Harvard Concert Commission Director Justin H. Haan ’05, who is also a Crimson editor, said before the meeting he was “terribly enthusiastic” about the energy the concert generated.

Haan, who did not attend last night’s Council meeting, said over 1,500 undergraduates had purchased tickets to the concert, which will occur over Harvard-Yale weekend. Over 1,000 graduate students, faculty and staff had also bought tickets, Haan said, in addition to over 200 Yale undergraduates and over 500 members of the public.

Haan said the total money generated by the week’s sales exceeded his expectations—over $110,000 was generated between Tuesday and Friday, with the promise of future sales if the fire code changes.

“The buzz generated for this was greater than for any other show we [the Council] have ever done,” Haan said.

At least one person managed to re-sell tickets on e-Bay, collecting $375 for two tickets priced at $50 each, according to the website’s list of recent auctions.

In other Council business, Mahan said that following last week’s announcement that alcohol distributor United Liquors had refused to provide alcohol for the Harvard-Yale tailgates, the Council was working with a “number of other distributors throughout the state” to ensure that alcohol makes its annual foray at The Game.

“I would rather not have every undergrad carry a 30-pack themselves,” Mahan said. “We’ll find a way to hopefully collectively have alcohol.”

Mahan also outlined the tentative layout of the tailgates. He said House Committees (HoCos) would each get one or two parking spots for their vehicles, and that the HoCo tailgates would be “interspersed with different groups so that it’s just one big Harvard tailgate.”

Mahan said the remaining 70 parking spots around the practice fields would be devoted to student groups.

“Unofficial and official groups can apply for a spot...anyone who can claim some kind of organizational affiliation,” Mahan said. Meanwhile, he said, Yale groups would be relegated to a mid-sized corner of the practice fields.

The council also passed a bill to allow student groups, both official and unofficial to have access to the council’s copying machine at a cost of $0.02 per page.

The First-Year Social Committee received $2,000 for the semester to pay for various events, including a scavenger hunt, a trip to Fenway Park and this Friday’s Second Chance Dance.

Cabot representative Jason L. Lurie ’05 said he thought the committee deserved more than $2,000, citing the fact that the council had given it an extra $3,000 last spring.

“I understand the fund is tight this semester,” Lurie said, referring to the slimmer budget available in the fund for HoCos, campus-wide events and the First Year Social Committee. “But we have to be careful not to screw around with freshmen.”

Lurie’s comment elicited laughter rather than approval, and his amendment to fatten the allocation by $1,000 failed by a decisive margin.

“I would hate to allocate more money,” Lowell representative Aaron D. Chadbourne ’06 said, adding that only freshmen would benefit from the extra money—as opposed to the entire campus.

—Staff writer Elena P. Sorokin can be reached at sorokin@fas.harvard.edu.