The logistics of University Productions’ concerts

University Production’s QUEST spring 2023 concert prompted questions regarding venue, safety and ticket sales among the Lehigh community.

The group announced the indie pop/rock band COIN as the headliner with pop singer Rebecca Black as the opening act for the concert to be held April 22 in Stabler Area.

Tickets went on sale April 3, three days after the event was announced on University Production’s Instagram, and cost $10.

Nicole Jacobs, ‘23, a music director of University Productions, said they started selling tickets in advance to avoid going over capacity because the concert will be held indoors, which limits the number of available seats. 

Several factors were taken into consideration when choosing Stabler Arena as the location. 

With the University Center under construction, there is less room for large gatherings on the UC Front Lawn, which is where Fetty Wap performed for University Productions’ fall 2022 concert.

Jacobs said the Front Lawn also presents safety concerns. 

“Because of the slant on the Front Lawn, a lot of bad things ended up happening at Fetty Wap like people getting pushed into barricades and not being able to breathe,” Jacobs said. 

Allie Olanick, ‘23, another music director of University Productions, said Stabler’s security protocols, including ID card and ticket scanning, will allow for better organization and ticket tracking.

This won’t be the first concert held at Stabler Arena. Olanick said the 2019 spring concert was held at the arena, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, University Productions was unable to hold another event there until now. 

When choosing the artist for this year’s concert, Jacobs said she, along with the five other music directors, contacted their talent agent. The talent agency compiled a list of artists who are available within the given timeframe and budget, taking all available artists into consideration.

“We asked for a lot of opinions about what type of genre (students) would like to see and what type of vibe they think the concert should have,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs said the music committee sent the agent their top three-to-five artists, and the agent worked to book one in order of the committee’s preference. 

Olanick said University Productions will pay around $130,000 for QUEST 2023. COIN and Rebecca Black will be paid a sum of $85,000. 

Kyra Lee, ‘25, said she bought tickets the day they went on sale. 

“Since the Fetty Wap one was free, I was surprised that you had to buy them,” Lee said. “But then once I saw that they were only $10, I didn’t really mind because it makes sense that you’d have to pay something since they’re a big band.”

The day tickets went live, students experienced technical difficulties that created a temporary halt on sales.

Lee said she made her purchase without any issues and then sent the link to her friends, some of whom were not able to access them on the website, as it informed them tickets were sold out. 

Olanick said the concert is restricted to Lehigh students, so interested attendees had to be logged into their Lehigh account and have a PIN number to make their purchase. Some students did not know where to find their PIN, which led to complications and, ultimately, the website crashing. 

She said major issues regarding the website have since been resolved. 

“Any other problems would be unique to specific people, and we have contact information that we’ve been forwarding to these people in order to get them help,” Olanick said. 

Students can purchase tickets at LehighTickets.com under ‘students ticketing,’ after logging in with their respective Lehigh credentials. From there, students should be able to click ‘Quest’ and then ‘find tickets.’