With a total of 3,500 tickets to the Macklemore concert available and 3,515 voters in the ASEWU general election, students are wondering if they will be able to get a ticket.

Berto Cerrillo, adviser for campus programs, does not think that everyone who voted will pick up a ticket. According to Cerrillo and Conor Gregg, ASEWU director of elections, on Monday the bookstore experienced a rush on the voter tickets. Gregg said that about 2,000 tickets were issued on May 13, first day of voter ticket availability.

 “But [on May 14], the line was very casual, maybe 30 or 40 every hour. It was a steady pace but not too intense,” Gregg said.

 Voter tickets were available at the bookstore through May 17, and nonvoter tickets are available there from May 20 through 30 during bookstore hours.

 “When we created the negotiation in the first place, it was meant to be a smaller concert for students because of the incentive the ASEWU was trying to create,” Cerrillo said. “Our initial numbers were lower, and we recently had to get approval from Macklemore and pay additional funds to increase the seating and accommodate more people.”

The original seating capacity for the concert was to be 2,000, according to the original proposal, but this was increased to 3,500 when the ASEWU general election turnout was much higher than 2,000.

In discussions with EWU staff in charge of the facility, Cerrillo said that the increased 3,500 seating capacity was never a safety concern and is in full safety compliance.

According to Gregg, students who have questions about elections or tickets should email him at [email protected], and he will answer the question or pass it to the proper individual.

“Students at Riverpoint should email [Gregg],” said Cerrillo. “Students who aren’t able to get here for any reason, that’s the process they should go through.”

“I haven’t had any Riverpoint students email me yet,” said Gregg. “Tickets will be an issue all week, so if they can find any way to get down here—I know it’s a hassle, but that’s the best way. … You can pick up the tickets yourself and not have to deal with the hassle of doing it by email.”

Cerrillo said that some tickets were set aside for Riverpoint students, but that if the voter tickets ran out, these would be used in order to ensure that all voters who asked for a ticket would get one.

“My job has been to help ASEWU acquire Macklemore,” said Cerrillo. “I know it’s created a little bit of controversy, but I see the students being more engaged and involved, and it makes it seem like all the time and effort were worthwhile when we have the [voting] turnout that we did.”

Reese Court has a total capacity of 6,000 people, but much of that space is taken up by equipment, staging and lighting, according to Cerrillo.

“There’s a lot of stuff going on in that space. Depending on orientation, it may eliminate an entire side of Reese Court. … Safety is a big reason for a lot of this stuff. [Macklemore] usually uses a facility with a capacity of around 17,000, but ours is 6,000, so that does eliminate some space,” Cerrillo said.

The Macklemore concert will be held in Reese Court at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 30, and ASEWU expects a completely full house.