Hundreds of Interior music fans queue overnight to net Elton John tickets
Published Sunday, May 4, 2008
Rita Heselton and Paty Matton gladly sat in line for more than 17 hours to ensure they were among the first to get Sir Elton John tickets.
The pair left work just before 4:30 p.m. Friday to wait for Carlson Center tickets that didn’t go on sale until 10 a.m. Saturday.
“I didn’t get to see him as a teenager twice, and I wasn’t going to blow it a third time,” Matton said.
Heselton described the marathon wait as something of a slumber party as they talked throughout the night and watched wildlife, including a shrew, run through the fields near the center.
“If my husband can spend $250 for a tee time, I can spend $118 on a ticket,” Heselton said, referring to the high price of the tickets. Cheaper tickets farther away from the stage sold for $78, not including Ticketmaster fees.
Before the box office opened, more than 200 other people had joined them in line to see the May 29 show. On Saturday morning, the crowd patiently waited in line, listening to music, sleeping or even calling relatives to buy tickets online if they were turned away at the box office. Carlson Center employees handed out free coffee and pastries.
Elaine Williamson and Lorita Clough drove by shortly after the line began forming around 5:30 p.m. Friday to see if anyone was there yet. Seeing two people there already was enough to spook them and their friends into waiting as well, lest they miss a chance to see the musician famous for such songs as “Rocket Man” and “Benny and the Jets,” as well as countless others.
“We would have drove off, but then we saw the line,” Wiliamson said.
They jokingly referred to the shanty town of tents and tarps outside of the Carlson Center the previous night as “Eltonville.” Despite some rain, they didn’t mind the wait.
“He’s a legend,” Clough said. “Every decade he’s had a top 10 or well-known song.”
James Wright was surprised that there were already dozens of people ahead of him when he got in line at 6:30 a.m.
“I definitely thought I would be one of the first,” he said.
Just in case he didn’t get a ticket, he had his wife and daughter monitoring the ticket situation online and over the phone, respectively.
About 15 minutes after tickets went on sale, he left the Carlson Center after his wife called to tell him she had already got tickets over the Internet. Meanwhile, the line at the Carlson Center crawled slowly forward.
“Unbelievable,” he said. “And I waited all that time.”
In fact, as late as 10 p.m. Saturday evening, it was still possible to get tickets to the Fairbanks show on the official Ticketmaster Web site. A dozen eBay sellers also listed tickets to the concert, with Buy It Now prices ranging from $400 to $900 for a pair of tickets in the first few rows.
Scalping tickets is not a crime in Alaska, though Fairbanks police Sgt. Robert Thompson said he had never heard of it happening here before.
Community Discussion
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Fairbanks should be able to do better than him, without all the drama. These are the same people who waited in line to get into the Wal-mart when it opened. Ridiculous. I can see them all crying now when Candle in the Wind gets played.
I'm looking forward to the concert -- picked my ticket up off ticketmaster (damn their fees) in the afternoon.
Ha Ha Ha, GDOGG.
Why are there so many negative comments? There are many different kinds of music, everyong has diffrent tastes, let it be. I for one am happy to see a top name musician come to Alaska, too often we are let out in this area for whatever reason. Be happy if you have the chance to see them. If you don't care for their music then don't go, don't begrudge those that do like it and can go.
I think it would have been fun to wait with all those people and join the comradery, but I sat with my finger on the refresh button in my PJ's for the hour of 10 to strike. Very nice of the carlson center to give out coffee and pastries, that's what is still great about small towns. I got really good seats on line. I am very excited, I grew up with his songs and one of my all time favs is Bennie and the Jets. I guess GDogg must be from another generation and would rather see a performer he or she likes which is fine, more seats for the rest of us! Now, I just hope the weather will be nice! See you there...
I am going to be working out west when the concert comes, but I assure you GDogg, Sir Elton John is by far and away the biggest name to ever come to Fairbanks!! I do remember Crosby, Stills & Nash coming back in the 80s, and I even saw the Allman Bros at Soltice Party once when we used to have it. (Do we still have it???) That was a heck of a party!! I realize that some folks might be a different generation, but trust me, Elton John coming to Fairbanks is HUGE!!!
I'm holding out for the power trio of Lohan, Spears, and Hilton. They're on tour under the name LuSH.
T.A.C. I'm sure that's the b****** & ho's GDOGG is waiting for. Elton John is the best concert to ever come up here. Just because you don't like his music you don't have to gdogg it.
Those who bought tickets won't be sorry. I saw EJ w/ Billy Joel at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, NY in the mid-90s and it was phenomenal. EJ performed "Piano Man" and BJ performed "Rocket Man". I'd still love to see EJ perform Rocket Man though...
No way, the best band coming this year will be WILCO @ the Loon!!!
Why are people afraid of Elton John? Does he make them yearn to idolize a musician that can play an instrument? Instead of turning on the KWLF and draining your brain on beat machines and 3 chord-punk-wannabe pop, try going to see Elton John. He plays the 88 like dickens, I do say!
I recall standing in line for hours for Crosby Still and Nash as well as Stevie Ray Vaughan at the Carlson Center. Glad I saw them both.
At UCLA, I regularly stood in line for student tickets to a variety of music artists from Artur Rubenstein front row keyboard, Joan Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, Ravi Shankar, etc. The campus ticket office would reserve seats from the very front to the very back of the venue. First in line literally would get the best seats in the house. And we had a great party all night waiting outside.
With Ticketmaster on line, it takes all the social fun out of it. For those who go, I surmise that the best seats will be on the floor, as there is too much reverberation in the bleachers. Challenges of doing concerts in a hockey rink. I did see the Beatles in Dodger Stadium, but I can't really say I heard them. I read that they couldn't hear themselves either.
8^) My wife and I are going to enjoy the show! I wish Billy Joel was going to be here as well.
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