Daft Friday online ticket sales will make the event more accessible

Yesterday it was announced that Glasgow University Union will be selling tickets online this year for their much anticipated ‘Daft Friday’ event.

Whilst traditionally the event ticket sales happen in person, which has resulted in massive queues forming overnight to purchase them, this year the committee have announced a switch to online sales in an attempt to make the event more accessible to a wider number of students. With students camping out in tents and queues last year snaking for miles around university avenue, it seems about time the process of getting your hands on tickets should have a switch up. It appears we are finally saying goodbye to dragging sleeping bags to the doors of Hive and braving the cold of the queue.

Whilst queuing for Daft Friday tickets has been a longstanding tradition at Glasgow University, in recent years the scale of the queue has gotten got of hand. Last year’s queue was clearly the straw that broke tradition’s back, where the earliest people pitched their tents at 9pm in order to get their hands on tickets, fourteen hours before they were officially released. This also saw many students drinking on the street in attempts to raise morale. The scale of the queue became a logistical nightmare with hundreds of students being sent home just hours before tickets went on sale due to the event being oversubscribed. This could partially be attributed to Covid restrictions, which saw the event cancelled in 2020, meaning people were more eager than ever to attend, but it was only a matter of time before the union said enough is enough and scrapped the historic system.

A poll taken on the Tab Instagram saw the online sale of tickets as a particularly divisive topic, with an almost 50/50 split between the traditional in-person queue and this year’s online format.

The event will run for its 113^th year this December and is viewed as a must-do on the Glasgow University bucket list. It traditionally runs from 8pm to 8am and sees every room of the Glasgow University Union transformed, with music acts such as Becky Hill and Bombay Bicycle Club previously performing. Many students will agree however that much of the hype around the event begins with the overnight queuing process, where the difficulty of getting your hands on a ticket is all part of the fun.

The Daft Friday queue traditionally sees students wrapping up in preparation for the long night

An anonymous source associated with GUU suggests that online ticket sales will have a major impact on charity fundraising, where charitable societies often take advantage of the large groups of students queuing throughout the night to sell home baking or morning rolls in aid of their causes. This is often viewed as a major event in the fundraising calendar which will be eradicated in favour of the new format.

Whilst many will inevitably be sad to see this tradition go, there are certainly many positives to the new format. Online ticket sales allow for wider accessibility to the event for students who would otherwise not be able to queue in such a manner. Joe Eke, a fourth year Philosophy student, suggests that putting ticket sales online is “a great move as it allows greater access to the event for students with chronic illnesses or disabilities that would otherwise restrict them from queuing”.  This year, all students will be able to join the ticket rush alongside the masses.

Fourth year Politics student Eve Dickson feels strongly about the online format claiming, “I think it’s a great decision to put an end to an outrageous tradition expecting students to camp overnight. Last year many people queued all night and didn’t even get a ticket! Trying to get tickets from the comfort of my bed will be a much better experience.”

Student Bonnie Elliott-Johnson agrees, suggesting, “I think I’d rather miss out on a ticket sold online than in person. To queue up all night and miss out is soul destroying.”

Students will no longer have to camp out in sleeping bags in the hope of getting their hands on tickets

Whilst we might miss the excitement of a night on the concrete of University Avenue, these are new and exciting times for Daft Friday where the queuing system finally appears to have entered into the 21^st century. But only time will tell whether the new online system will surpass the good-old-queue. Hey, at least we’ll all hopefully get a better night’s sleep this year.

Tickets will go on sale online on Monday 7^th November (more info to be released soon) and will be available for in-person collection soon after. Everyone will be restricted to two tickets per-person and must have a valid union membership to buy one.

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