Brett Bassock, Union Board director of Live Entertainment, said more than 3,000 tickets have sold. As of yesterday, no more than 50 tickets remained.
Festivities will begin at 8 p.m. at IU Auditorium, with Young and Sick and Kiesza opening. Tonight’s concert will have a Halloween theme, he said.
“I encourage everyone to wear a costume,” Bassock said. “Go all out.”
Bassock said there was an overwhelming student interest because Chance the Rapper’s high-flying career trajectory and Kiesza’s album release last week. He said this will be her first show since it went public.
One of Kiesza’s most popular songs, Bassock said, is “Hideaway,” which has reached close to 150 million hits on YouTube.
“A lot of students don’t realize Kiesza’s the one who sings ?“Hideaway,” he said. “I’m really excited to look out into the crowd and see the reaction. It’ll be something ?special.”
That moment is what fuels Bassock and other people involved in the show, he said.
“Many people have put hundreds of hours into this,” he said, listing off James Diamond and Justin Fick, Live Entertainment committee assistant directors.
Bassock also credited Cassidy Sansone, the Union Board advisor. He said she helped in localizing the event planning.
While Bassock is in charge of contacting and organizing the concert’s entertainment, he said Sansone helped in physically connecting his work to campus. The biggest part of this aspect involved anchoring the event at IU Auditorium.
Sansone said her job was to look at an event from a 50,000-foot view and to “help put it in the ?framework of putting a concert on at Indiana ?University.”
Because Union Board works as a student/staff partnership, she said she provided the experiential know-how. It took a team to pull this event together, Bassock said, with Sansone nodding her head in agreement.
At the end of the day, Bassock wants the concert to be an event people will remember. He said his favorite part of his job comes at the end of all the planning when he is looking out into the audience of a concert.
He described one memory, getting out of his seat to demonstrate. Imagine 5,000 hands going like this, he said while standing with his arms waving in the air.
It’s a wow factor that gives you chills down your spine, he said.
“I do hope that students will wake up the next morning and still be coming down from the adrenaline rush,” ?he said.
