A hard rain falls on Dylan fans

SANTA CRUZ — It was Brian Iles’ lucky day. Of the estimated 800 Bob Dylan fans who stood in the rain Sunday morning to get tickets, Iles actually got one.

Others among the mostly baby boomer crowd at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium were not so fortunate. Many, even some who were able to purchase tickets, criticized the process, which left hundreds to get drenched long after there was no hope of getting into the show.

The 1,957 tickets available for each of Dylan’s two shows on March 15-16 sold out in 25 minutes. Only 250 were sold at the Civic Center box office. The remainder were sold at other Ticketmaster outlets.

"There’s a lot of people disappointed," said C. N. Gordon of Live Oak. "The process needs to be refined ... The information was ambiguous, and this was not well done."

The tickets were sold by lottery at 10 a.m. To discourage overnight camping, everyone who arrived by 9 a.m. was to be given a lottery ticket. Ticket buyers would then line up according to their lottery number.

But the number of people in line apparently overwhelmed Civic Center personnel, and many people who arrived well before 9 did not get to participate in the lottery.

"I’m 55 years old, and I haven’t stood in line for concert tickets for 30 years. This was one I really wanted so I got out here at 8:20, and I didn’t even get a lottery ticket," said Rosemary Sarka of Santa Cruz. "I hope out of compassion he’ll add another show."

By 9 a.m. the line snaked around the west side of the Civic, turning east on Walnut, and north on Center until it turned the corner on Locust. Between 9 and 9:30, security handed out 400 lottery tickets, according to the Civic’s building manager, Andy Botsford. Only people close to the front of the line actually got to participate in the lottery. People in line on Walnut, Center and Locust streets still waited in the rain close to 10 a.m., unaware that the lottery winners had already been chosen and their chance of getting tickets was nil.

Meanwhile, confusion reigned on the steps of the Civic as members of a sardine-packed crowd tried to figure out where they stood in relation to the first person in line.

Steve Watkins, crushed against a wall in front of the doors a little before 10, said he had arrived a little before 5 a.m. He said things got a little tense after the lottery tickets were handed out.

"I had to tell people to give peace a chance," Watkins said.

By 10 a.m. it was bedlam, with few would-be ticket buyers understanding the process. Botsford stood in a doorway, shouting numbers into the noisy crowd before she admitted the lucky few inside. Only about 40 people made it to the ticket counter, and the concerts sold out before all of them made purchases, Botsford said.

"It was three times the amount of people we anticipated," Botsford said. "There was only so much we could do."

Ticketmaster set up the rules, she said, and the Civic’s three Ticketmaster terminals were competing with the others throughout the system.

Iles, a Ben Lomond resident, was probably the luckiest person in line. He said he heard about the concert last night and decided to get a ticket. He didn’t arrive in time to participate in the lottery so he waited outside the door to see if anyone was interested in selling one. And he found a willing seller, who refused to charge him more than cost.

"It’s a miracle ticket," Iles said. "It was sold by an angel."