The fall concert is an integral part of the George Mason University experience. In years past, Mason has hosted such great acts as Kid Cudi, Taking Back Sunday, the All American Rejects and OneRepublic.
As of last week, the concert for the fall 2011 semester was to be no exception. The one and only Drake was slated to take the Patriot Center stage on Nov. 15, much to the excitement of the Mason community.
Already a stop on his tour, the Office of Student Involvement worked with Live Nation to purchase discount student tickets for the fall concert instead of booking a similar, separate act. Student Involvement had 900 discount tickets available to sell to the student body on Oct. 7.
Lines began early in the morning that Friday and after the doors opened at 10 a.m., it only took two and a half hours for all 900 tickets to be sold.
It wasn’t a week later that a member of Student Involvement posted on the wall of the Facebook event that Drake had cancelled the show. While some are concerned about the $35 they spent on the seats, what’s most disconcerting is what’s going to happen to the long-established tradition of an amazing fall concert.
“It has not been rescheduled yet to the best of my knowledge,” said Assistant Director of Programming Michelle Davis. “We didn’t book the show so we are not privy to that information.” Indeed, Student Involvement has been thrown for a loop as much as anyone else anticipating the show.
According to Drake’s blog, October’s Very Own, “The new date for ‘Take Care’ [Drake’s upcoming CD] is November 15th, 2011.” That, for those paying attention, is the date he was supposed to be at the Patriot Center. He continues to say in the blog post that he is pushing back the release date in order to do some fine tuning and give it to the fans the way it deserves to be. Subsequently, his Club Paradise Tour will be “moved to when students are back from the Christmas/New Year break so that I can get to more schools.”
That said, it seems highly possible that Drake could still be coming to the Patriot Center sometime during the spring semester.
“At this point we are able to pull off another show for the fall,” Davis said. Look out for more information from the Office of Student Involvement.
The Patriot Center will be providing refunds between Oct. 19 and Nov. 17 for purchased tickets. Tickets must be intact and a student ID must be presented.
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