Mr. Sullivan, thank you for your consideration of the various comments. For me it was an exceptional concert, very enjoyable. Ann Arbor is extremely fortunate to have convenient access to events of this scale and quality.

I wanted to comment on the issue of seating people after the concert started. A contributing factor might have been very long will call lines. When I arrived at about 10 minutes before 8PM, the 2 lines went out the doors, down the steps, and maybe 40 feet to the north on Thayer. (I don’t know what is typical for will call. This was unfortunately only my first UMS event at Hill this season.)

When I got my ticket, there were still significant lines behind me. I moved very quickly to my seat in section 5 on the main floor. I was seated for probably no more than 2 or 3 minutes before the concert started. Due to the large number of delayed will call patrons, I thought that perhaps the ushers were trying to seat people that would have been required to wait under less crowded conditions. (I am not saying that this is good or bad, only that it is my perception.)

I don’t know who controls the start of the performance, but a delay of a few minutes would have allowed time to seat many of these people.

Three possibilities for improving this situation are:

– At the time of purchase, warn will call patrons that for busy events, a 10 or 15 minute wait in the will call line must be expected.

– Find ways to expedite the process of picking up will call tickets, especially if long lines are starting to form.

– Delay the start of the event, even by a few minutes.

Ideally, all patrons would arrive and be seated well before the start of a performance. But for a crowd of 3,500 or so people, this will always be difficult to achieve.