News broke on Monday that mash-up artist Girl Talk would kick off his latest tour Wednesday in Tuscaloosa, and on Tuesday many students and Tuscaloosa residents spent their day searching for tickets.
In order to get tickets to the show, fans had to find the AXE mobile truck to pick up their free pairs of tickets. Originally, the AXE mobile truck planned to park at various places on campus to handout tickets, but police kicked them off campus when they parked at the Ferg.
Around 12:30 p.m., Daniel Dye, a senior majoring in civil engineering, saw the truck being followed by what he estimated to be around 75 people.
“It was driving around campus, it stopped but then kept going anytime people caught up with them,” he said.
Dye said most of the people were following the truck by running after it but some were following it in cars, which didn’t seem like the safest combination.
About an hour after Dye had seen the truck, UAPD came and kicked the truck off campus, saying they couldn’t hand out tickets on UA property.
UA spokeswoman Cathy Andreen said the truck wasn’t allowed to hand out tickets on campus because they hadn’t obtained a UA grounds permit.
After leaving the Ferg, the truck went to Publix on the Strip but UAPD also asked them to leave Publix because it is considered UA property.
Rustin Larid, a junior majoring in dance and restaurant and hospitality management, found out about the concert while eating at the Ferg for lunch. When she got outside, the truck was already leaving for Publix.
“We raced to my friend Kristin’s car and drove to Publix,” Larid said. “When we got out of the car, we waited in front of the van until the cops turned us away…so we started tracking the bus from Facebook, Twitter and other resources.”
Throughout the day, “Girl Talk” was a trending topic on Twitter in the Birmingham area, and AXE’s Facebook and Twitter pages were bombarded with questions of where to find tickets.
Eventually Larid and her friends found the bus while driving around Tuscaloosa and they followed it down 15th Street to the Microtel Inn.
“When the bus drove by, we cut off a line of vehicles to get directly behind the AXE van,” she said. “We were screaming and yelling in the car because we had first-hand access to where the van was going. We followed it all over campus and the city Tuscaloosa, during this time we probably ran about three red lights along with the parade of cars behind us.”
Larid, and about 30 other people who had followed the truck to the Inn, received their tickets, which revealed the concert will take place at Rounders tomorrow night at 9 p.m.
“It wasn’t a lot [of people] because no one knew where they were,” Larid said. “We were just intense stalkers in this case and really wanted tickets so we went to the extreme.”
The AXE truck finished off the day at Capitol Park, and will be back on Tuscaloosa’s streets again tomorrow giving away tickets. According to a press release, Girl Talk himself will be at one of the locations giving out tickets personally and speaking with fans.
Check AXE’s Facebook and Twitter all day tomorrow for information on the various locations they will hit throughout the day.
