We woke up extremely early for a Saturday morning to go to the Kennedy Center to pick up tickets for the Sufjan Stevens show. Sufjan Stevens, an awesome indie-rock musician, is coming to the Kennedy Center on February 5 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of free concerts on the Millennium Stage. So naturally, they were giving away tickets for free.
It was hard enough getting Larry up so early, but we left the house at 7:45 a.m. with our coffee in hand. We did a drive-by of the Kennedy Center, and it didn’t look that crowded. A couple of hundred people, maybe. We saw a couple of sleeping bags and tents, and laughed at those “crazy college kids” who thought it necessary to sleep out in freezing temperatures, just to get tickets. They just did it to say that they did it, we thought.
So we parked in Foggy Bottom and walked to the KC. Sure, we’ll be able to get tickets, no problem—they’re giving away 2,000, after all. Even as we got to the front of the building, we were still optimistic.
Then we turned the corner of the building. The courtyard was FULL of people. Thousands. There was no way we would have gotten tickets had we waited in line. More than half the people there weren’t going to get tickets. So we left.
We talked to these kids, and they had been there since 9 pm the night before. They said that at least a hundred people camped out over night. I really like Sufjan, but not enough to sleep outside for free tickets to one of his concerts.
It was definitely smart of the Kennedy Center to give the tickets away ahead of time, rather than face thousands of people waiting in line the night of the show. But I would have gladly paid money for the tickets. Sufjan, when are you going to come back to D.C.?