Crowds packed into San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza on Saturday for a sold-out show featuring two of the biggest electronic artists: Skrillex and Fred Again. Alyssa Goard reports.
Crowds packed into San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza on Saturday for a sold-out show featuring two of the biggest electronic artists: Skrillex and Fred Again.
Bay Area-based Another Planet Entertainment put on this show and says that the show's 25,000 tickets sold out quickly.
Attendees shared stories of messaging each other frantically in group chats and all logging online in an attempt to purchase tickets as soon as they dropped.
"We just kept trying, kept trying, kept trying – and then finally as soon as anyone got through the queue it was like ‘just get as many tickets as you can and we’ll figure out the rest later,'” said Susan Stack of Daly City, who wound up securing tickets.
"We’ve watched sets of Skrillex and Fred again where they’ve done pop-up events in New York and L.A., so it's really cool for it to be in the Bay," said Alex Hinton of Oakland who also was able to grab tickets through persistence in hitting the "refresh" button on the ticket website.
"As quickly as they did it, it's pretty insane how it turned out," said Jacob Grossi of Stockton.
While the event was a surprise to the public, Bay Area-based Another Planet Entertainment who is putting on the event, explained that it was in the works for quite a while.
Mary Conde, the Senior Vice President of Another Planet Entertainment, said that while tickets for the show only went on sale recently, preparations have been going on behind the scenes to make this possible for months.
"It was a very big secret," Conde explained.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. >Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
She said that the artists loved the idea of having San Francisco City Hall as the backdrop for this particular show.
Conde said the timing of when the event went public ultimately boiled down to the artists' choice.
"When Fred again and Skrillex put it out on their Insta [gram] stories it was like ‘Ok, we’re having a party!'” Conde said.
According to Another Planet Entertainment, about 40% of ticket buyers for this event live in zip codes at least 50 miles from San Francisco. The entertainment group believes this means concert-goers will travel into the city and spend money on lodging, food, and more.
"That means they’re going to spend the night, they’re going to get a hotel room, they’re gonna make a weekend of it," Conde said, adding that organizers have heard from local hotel groups who are seeing increased demand.
The show started at 6:30 p.m. and lasted until 10 p.m. in the plaza in front of San Francisco's City Hall.
Long lines wrapped around Civic Center Saturday as people eagerly waited to enter the show. Some people even showed up without tickets, hoping to barter and buy a ticket to enter. Others waited outside the event just to listen to the music.
Tickets for this event started at $79.50 and Another Planet Entertainment said it was the goal of the organizers to keep the price point for this event affordable.
"I think this is going to liven the streets up, bring a lot of business to bars and just overall be a really positive experience," said Renee Rodriguez of San Francisco, who managed to get tickets for the show.
Rodriguez said she is a fan of both Fred again and Skrillex and felt that this show was one she "didn’t want to miss out on."
"I definitely think it’s a brilliant idea to reactivate the city, to -- like --make it cool," said Fabian Lema of San Francisco who was unable to get tickets but still stood outside the venue to listen to the music.
