Spring Sing general admission ticket prices lowered for students
General admission tickets for students to attends this year’s Spring Sing will cost a quarter of last year’s ticket prices. The cut in price is a part of SAA’s efforts to make Spring Sing a more inclusive and accessible experience for all students. (Daily Bruin file photo)
By Andrew Warner
April 17, 2018 2:06 p.m.
Students will be able to purchase Spring Sing general admission tickets for a quarter of the previous price starting Thursday morning.
This year, general admission tickets will cost $5 for students – a $15 price drop from last year’s ticket prices. The tickets will go on sale on Ticketmaster and at the Central Ticket Office on Thursday. Ticket prices for alumni and guests will remain the same.
Shaina Mehta, Spring Sing executive director and a fourth-year communication student, said the price change is a part of the Student Alumni Association’s series of initiatives intended to make Spring Sing more inclusive for students.
“It makes the show so much more accessible, basically to any Bruin, to anybody on campus,” Mehta said. “I’ve watched SAA work to make (Spring Sing) more of a diverse and inclusive show and that’s all great … but that doesn’t mean anything if there’s no one there to watch it.”
Following last year’s Spring Sing, Mehta said SAA conducted a focus group. Many students in the focus group said although they enjoyed Spring Sing, they were unsure of whether they would attend again, finding the $20 price to be too expensive, Mehta said.
As a result of the negative responses to high ticket prices, Mehta said SAA’s Spring Sing committee worked to devise a plan that would allow them to lower ticket prices for students.
Alyson Beckman, the associate director of Bruin Traditions who serves as a liaison between SAA and the UCLA Alumni Association, said they were able to make very minimal spending cuts, such as creating fewer marketing materials, shortening rehearsal times slightly and doing all video editing in-house rather than outsourcing.
Beckman said the price cut was also a response to declining Spring Sing attendance. There will be about 5,000 general admission tickets available for students, the same as in past years, Beckman said.
“We’re taking a little bit of a risk, but our goal this year is really to fill Pauley Pavilion,” Beck said. “We’re really hoping that by making the ticket prices more accessible to students … we’ll be able to really fill and be at capacity for the event.”
Madison Acampora, the George and Ira Gershwin Award director and a fourth-year economics student, said the price cut should not be perceived as a drop in quality of the show.
“Everything’s still the same, the quality of talent, everything is the same, just tickets are cheaper,” she said.
