Late Deals for Dave Matthews Show at Ross School
Bargains, for some, to hot-topic concert series
By Ellen Keohane

(7/26/2007)    Last-minute deals for heavily discounted tickets to Saturday’s Dave Matthews concert at the Ross School in East Hampton indicate that sales for the high-priced concert series may not be going as well as organizers had hoped.

    Mr. Matthews is the second performer in the Hampton Social series, which began on July 21 with a performance by Prince. Billy Joel, James Taylor, and Tom Petty are scheduled to play on Aug. 4, Aug. 11, and Aug. 25, respectively. Tickets for the series had originally been offered only as a five-concert “package,” with a $15,000 price tag. However, as the first show neared, tickets for individual concerts could be bought for $3,000 each.

    This week, Ross School employees and families were offered the chance to bid on 200 tickets to Mr. Matthews’s show. Bulldog Entertainment Group, the concerts’ organizer, donated the tickets to the school, according to Diana Aceti, Ross’s director of development. The proceeds will go toward a scholarship fund, she said.

    On Thursday, Ms. Aceti called the donation a “lovely gift” and a “wonderful opportunity” for people who might not otherwise be able to afford to come to the show.

    Select members of a Dave Matthews fan club will also be able to buy discounted tickets, for $250 apiece. According to the Lefsetz Letter, a music industry blog that obtained and posted an e-mail sent to members of the fan association, the $250 Ross tickets are only available to those who purchased V.I.P. Dave Matthews tickets to a show on Randall’s Island. According to the blog, half of the proceeds will benefit the Dave Matthews Horton Foundation and the other half will go to the Ross School.

    According to organizers' press materials, attendance at any one show is limited to 1,000 people. (See below)

    Sabrina Levine of Lizzie Grubman Public Relations, which is in charge of publicity for the series, said that Mr. Matthews purchased the 200 tickets at full value and is now offering them to his fans for a discounted price. (Those 200 tickets, at the publicly offered price of $3,000, would set Mr. Matthews back $600,000.) Apparently, Ms. Levine said, some of Mr. Matthews’s followers had been annoyed that he would be performing in an exclusive concert that many could not afford to attend.
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Added 7/27/07 1:28 p.m.: According to press materials available on the organizer's Web site, 1,000 tickets are being sold per show.