Twenty students were denied admission to the sold-out Girl Talk concert last night because they presented counterfeit tickets at the door, according to Director of Student Events Ilyssa Adler '09.Student Events sold 757 tickets and admitted approximately 770 people, including the press and Girl Talk's guest list, to the event in Levin Ballroom, which has a capacity of 750 people. The group did not turn away any students with legitimate tickets.

Adler said she found out about the issue Monday morning from other students who had heard that counterfeit tickets existed. She said she told those students to come early when doors opened at 7 p.m. "[The Student Events] concerts department realized that [the tickets] are quite easy to counterfeit, so there was speculation" but no official information, she said.

Adler said she debriefed the staff before the event, telling them to make sure that all tickets were official. Ticket collectors were able to identify official tickets, which cost $8, because they were printed on thicker, speckled, recycled paper and had SE symbols marked in a metallic purple or red marker, or with a sticker.

Amanda Okafor '09, assistant director for Student Events concerts, said that it did not appear that one person made all of the counterfeit tickets because the SE symbol was drawn with different color markers on the back, and it appeared that some people had made Xerox copies of their friends' official tickets.

Lucas Turner-Owens '11, who was turned away from the event because he had a counterfeit ticket, said he bought the ticket for $8 from a friend who told him that he had bought 40 tickets from Student Events the day before they sold out.

There had been no concerns about counterfeiting when the tickets were printed.

Adler said that Student Events has never had this concern in her three years on the staff.

Adler said, "Brandeis knows we can always fill out sooner rather than later, and if you really wanted to go to the show, either volunteer for Student Events to get the free ticket and don't cheat your way in, or come and buy a ticket on the first night." She said Student Events had the names of all students who paid for tickets in case there were concerns that they couldn't get in.

Adler said Student Events sold half the tickets over two days during Louis Louis week and officially sold out after five days of ticket sales, one day before they were supposed to stop selling tickets.

She said that previous shows in Levin with popular artists like Flogging Molly had not sold out. Capacity there also depends on stage configuration, she said. She said that Student Events "wanted it to be a more intimate show," adding that she "did not know that this was going to be such a [popular] event. ... He has all of a sudden just completely blown up."

Adler said that there was a "good line" of people waiting to get in at 6:45 p.m. and that people steadily arrived at Levin for the concert from 7 until 9 p.m., when Girl Talk began his set. She said that Student Events admitted about 30 more people shortly after his show began. The doors closed at 9:30 p.m., and the event ended at 10:20 p.m.

Susan Paykin '11 said she came to the concert early because a friend e-mailed her saying that the event was oversold. "I heard [that] people were counterfeiting tickets," Madeleine Gecht '11 said.

Josh Mandell '11 sent an e-mail to the men's ultimate Frisbee listserv telling students to arrive early to the concert because Student Events "will be turning people down once they reach capacity." He told the Justice he got this information from a friend in Student Events. His e-mail did not mention counterfeit tickets.

Adler said there were no problems during the event. "It's nice to have an event that's controversy-free."


-Nashrah Rahman and Jillian Wagner contributed reporting.