Singer T-Pain and comedian John Mulaney will perform on campus Friday night, but students will only be able to see one or the other.
The Reitz Union Board of Entertainment is featuring T-Pain and Mulaney in its second annual Big Orange Festival at 9 p.m. Friday in the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom.
While the event is free, students will only be able to pick up one voucher for one performance.
Heather Halak, the Big Orange Festival chairwoman, said it’s due to the Grand Ballroom’s capacity and Reitz Union construction.
Mulaney’s show will seat roughly 700 students. The chairs will be removed for T-Pain’s performance, allowing for about 800 students, she said.
Those in the voucher line will be allowed into the room first, and if they don't arrive on time, their spot is forfeited to someone in the standby line. An additional quantity of vouchers per act was saved for the day of the show for people in the standby line. However, they are not guaranteed entry.
As of press time, there were 216 vouchers left for Mulaney and 324 for T-Pain. They can be picked up today from 12 to 3 p.m. on the second floor of the Reitz Union.
Halak, a 21-year-old UF English and linguistics senior, said she didn’t think it would be fair to cap the attendance at 800 to see both shows.
“More students can experience more of the event,” she said.
RUB is paying $35,000 to bring in T-Pain and another $27,000 for Mulaney. Last year, the band Best Coast was paid $25,000 to perform, according to Alligator archives.
“I feel like we’ve had a lot of awesome hip-hop artists on campus, but I feel like T-Pain is one of the most well-known,” Halak said.
Eitan Schapsis, a UF public relations senior, said Mulaney is his favorite comedian, and he is looking forward to the performance. However, the 22-year-old said he thinks the split event is a little awkward.
“You would think you would just have one show,” he said. “Maybe it’s just crowd control, so I could see why.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 3/26/2015 under the headline “Big Orange Fest acts split into two shows”]
Correction: The original article incorrectly stated that students can only see one of the two shows. While they could only pick up a voucher for one show, they can wait standby to see the other act, said Heather Halak, the Big Orange Fest chairman. Those in the voucher line will be allowed into the room first, and if they don't arrive on time, their spot is forfeited to someone in the standby line. An additional quantity of vouchers per act was saved for the day of the show for people in the standby line. However, they are not guaranteed entry.
