Big D, the annual end-of-year event hosted by Derwent College will see a £10 ticket price cut following student consultation.
Tickets for this year’s Carnival D event, headlined by Ms. Dynamite, will now cost students just £15, a 40% drop in price from the initially publicised £25 ticket. All students who have already purchased tickets will be issued a refund.
In addition, all of the headline acts, including Fenech-Soler and Dusky will now play in D Bar.
The changes were announced earlier this afternoon via the ‘Big D 2013’ official Facebook page with the organisers admitting that, after the initial sales, “we’ve been talking to lots of students, and we’ve listened to what you’ve been telling us.”
Last year, Big D failed to sell out for the first time in recent years, and the changes put into place for this year’s event will see the capacity of the event reduced, despite claims on the Big D Facebook page that: “Big D is back, and is set to bigger and better than ever!”
One first-year Derwent student told Vision: “To be honest, it’s a relief. Everyone I know from second and third year rants on about how good Big D is but it looked to me to be a rip-off at £25 with the acts announced. £15 is much more reasonable and I’ll probably buy a ticket now. Seeing all the headliners is a bonus too.”
A few years ago, Big D was THE event to happen on campus. But in recent times a few things have changed that have led to its decline in popularity.
Modularisation means than lots of students leave the university when their exams are over. The YUSU Summer Ball has become popular and people are making the choice between one or the other due to price. The free events on campus like Goodfest and Faxival are detering students from spending £25 on a ticket to an on-campus event.
So whilst the marketing for this event hasn’t really been all that great, it’s not all to do with the event organisers.
FUCKING TOLD YOU SO
Want to voice a complaint about the name of this event; thought that it entailed something i’d pay serious money for. I can completely empathise with a ‘40% drop’ though, this has turned out to be quite a flop.
Going to keep a solitary eye out for the event next year though, should be pretty trouser tightening.
Looks like i’ll have to pursue some Big D in my own time, I hear the gypsies have a knack for parking large objects where they’re not designed to go.
-Ballbag