Sonoma State University announced that American rock band Neon Trees would be performing on campus at Weil Hall on Aug 19. A few days prior to the concert, the concert was cancelled due to insufficient ticket sales and COVID-19 risk factors.
Andy Shepherd, Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications for the Green Music Center, described why the concert was cancelled. “The event was cancelled because we were concerned that the audience size would not result in a rewarding experience for the audience or the band,” said Shepherd.
Tickets for the concert went on sale much later than the official show announcement, making the advertising period unusually short. According to the Green Music Center’s Instagram page, the Neon Trees concert was announced on July 1 and general tickets went on sale on July 29 at 10 a.m. “We had to delay announcing the show because of uncertainties related to COVID-19, which resulted in just a few weeks for the ticket sales,” said Shepherd.
Tickets for the concert were priced at $10 each, and students who purchased tickets were refunded after the university’s decision to cancel the musical event. “All tickets have been refunded by the Sonoma State Box Office,” Shepherd confirmed.
Associated Student Programming Coordinator Mariah Atkins explained that a contributor to the low ticket sales could have been related to technical issues on the ticket purchasing website. “The ticket website to buy the Neon Trees tickets was down for a solid week,” said Atkins.
Atkins commented on the cancelled show, “The ASP team was looking forward to collaborating with the GMC for the Neon Trees event. While a little sad that we were not able to go through with the concert, we do understand the reasoning behind it. However, we are looking forward to more events and possibilities for the future.”
Many SSU students said they didn’t realize the band was performing on campus, or that tickets were being sold at all. Following the cancellation, students expressed their desire to watch the band perform live if they knew about the scheduled performance.
Armando Ochoa, an undeclared fourth year student at Sonoma State said, “I would have attended if I knew about the ticket sales. I personally assumed you just needed to bring a school ID the day of the event to get in. I believe if people knew about the ticket sales they would have purchased them.”
Ochoa also emphasized the importance of using social media to expand students’ knowledge on campus events, especially during the start of the school year.
“The school should inform and involve people through social media by effectively using Instagram or even Youtube. Many students are looking to meet more peers during the first few weeks of school and if the event was later on in the semester the buzz wouldn’t be as high. Timing was perfect for this event, but marketing was not,” said Ochoa.
Andrew Cohen, a fourth year marketing business major at SSU, had similar thoughts. “I also wish there were more posters and signs up on campus advertising the event. I know some friends and I would have gone if we knew about it, Neon Trees is a great band for nostalgia from our childhood,” said Cohen.
For more information on upcoming performances and events, students can visit engage.sonoma.edu, gmc.sonoma.edu, or the Associated Students Instagram page.
