Who put the ‘Fab’ in Fab n Fresh?

With Fab tickets becoming harder and harder to find, Pippa Rice is wondering whether it’s time to venture away from the Guild on Saturday night


After stealing first place in the Tab’s recent poll of Birmingham’s favourite night out, the ‘it’s-so-bad-it’s-good’ Fab n Fresh is taking on new levels of popularity among us students, with tickets selling out within the first day of their release.

Yet the budding entrepreneurs among us have begun to utilise this reputation to make money out of those students who prefer a lie in on a Monday morning, with tickets being touted at up to £10 on Facebook by Saturday afternoon.

The love affair with Fab n Fresh is one that is written in to the DNA of every Birmingham student, with expected comments of the night consisting of:

‘It is a sordid pit of shame and regret. Whats not to love.’

‘Fab isn’t a choice, its a way of life.’

‘I lost my dignity and the majority of my valuable belongings in there.’

So with these relatively positive descriptions of the night, combined with the promise of a delectable Adams Place at the end of it, its no surprise that the students of Birmingham deplete Joe’s Bar’s stash of tickets by Monday afternoon lectures.

But crisis, turmoil and minor psychiatric trauma hits students when they come to realise that they haven’t secured their golden ticket. Anger is then added to this emotional roller coaster when the lucky students who have managed to achieve their weekly goal of getting a ticket begin selling their ‘spare’ 6 tickets that were meant for their ‘friend’ for un-student-budget-friendly prices.

Sir Alan Sugar would be so proud of your money making skills. 

The Guild of Students have attempted to destroy this ticket touting mayhem by releasing the statement ‘A polite reminder that anyone touting tickets for more than face value £4 + 50p booking fee (where applicable) will be removed from the group and not be permitted entry to the event.’ Yet the sly devils have begun to make the most Facebook messaging which allows people to continue selling tickets at any price they wish.

The Tab asked the population of the epicentre of fun that is the Library, room 1C, and found that 93% of you students would pay up to £7 for a Fab ticket and a further 59% shamefully admitted that they would pay £10 for a ticket. So is it really any surprise that students are taking advantage of this money making scheme.

This sucks and it shouldn’t suck and therefore something must be done so that it sucks no more. Whether we dare to venture into the forbidden and local infested place that is Broad Street or put the saved money towards reinventing the ‘Saturday night takeaway’, we students should begin to embrace the opportunities outside the Guild world. Or we could just carry on going to Fab because its great?

Fab will continue to reign as the Saturday night destination of choice but the question is asked, who is in the wrong? Is it the people touting tickets for extortionate prices or is it the people willing to buy them.

Should we just stop buying them from anywhere that isn’t a first hand seller, just to prove a point?