Say goodbye to overnight camping
Yesterday it was announced that the Glasgow University Union will be selling tickets online for its highly anticipated ‘Daft Friday’ event this year.
While traditionally sales of event tickets are in person, which has led to huge queues forming overnight to purchase them, this year the committee announced the shift to online sales with the aim of making the event more accessible to a greater number of students. With students camping out in tents and queues snaking for miles around University Avenue last year, it seems about time the ticket pick-up process should change. It seems like we’re finally saying goodbye to lugging sleeping bags to the gates of Hive and braving the chill of the queue.
While queuing for Daft Friday tickets has been a long-standing tradition at the University of Glasgow, in recent years the scale of the queue has spiraled out of control. Last year’s lineup was clearly the straw that broke the camel’s back, with the frontrunners pitching their tents at 9 p.m. to get their hands on tickets, fourteen hours before their official release. It also saw many students drinking on the streets in an attempt to boost morale. The scale of the queue has become a logistical nightmare with hundreds of students sent home just hours before tickets go on sale due to overbooking for the event. This could partly be attributed to Covid restrictions, which saw the event canceled in 2020, meaning people were more eager than ever to attend, but it was only a matter of time before the union does not say enough and abandons the historical system.
A poll on the Instagram tab saw online ticket sales as a particularly contentious topic, with an almost 50/50 split between the traditional in-person queue and this year’s online format.
The event will run for its 113e year in December and is considered a must on the University of Glasgow’s bucket list. It traditionally runs from 8pm to 8am and sees every hall in Glasgow University Union transformed, with gigs such as Becky Hill and Bombay Bicycle Club. Many students will agree, however, that much of the hype around the event starts with the overnight queuing process, where the difficulty of getting your hands on a ticket is part of the fun.
The Daft Friday queue traditionally sees students prepare for the long night
An anonymous source associated with GUU suggests that online ticket sales will have a major impact on charity fundraising, where charities often take advantage of large groups of students lining up all night to sell homemade baked goods or snacks. morning buns to benefit their causes. This is often seen as a major event in the fundraising calendar that will be eradicated in favor of the new format.
While many will inevitably be sad to see this tradition disappear, there are certainly plenty of positives in the new format. Selling tickets online allows for greater accessibility to the event for students who might not otherwise be able to queue in this manner. Joe Eke, a fourth-year philosophy student, suggests that bringing ticket sales online is “a great initiative as it allows greater access to the event for students with chronic conditions or disabilities who would otherwise , would prevent them from queuing”. This year, all students will be able to join the ticket rush alongside the masses.
Fourth-year politics student Eve Dickson is very fond of the online format: “I think it’s a great move to end an outrageous tradition of students camping out overnight. Last year a lot of people lined up all night and didn’t even get a ticket! Trying to get tickets from the comfort of my bed will be a much better experience.
Student Bonnie Elliott-Johnson agrees, suggesting, “I think I’d rather miss a ticket sold online than in person. Standing in line all night and missing something is soul destroying.
Students will no longer have to camp out in sleeping bags hoping to get their hands on tickets
While we might miss the excitement of a night on the concrete of University Avenue, these are new and exciting times for Daft Friday where the queuing system finally seems to have entered the 21st century. But only time will tell if the new online system will surpass the good old queue. Hey, at least we’re all hoping for a better night’s sleep this year.
Tickets will go on sale online on Monday 7e November (more information coming soon) and will be available for in-person collection shortly thereafter. Everyone will be limited to two tickets per person and must have a valid union membership to purchase one.
Comments are closed.