By Eva Rachert — News Editor

Bishop’s boasts a wide variety of events, parties, and conferences hosted in the Gait. One of the most anticipated events each year is Gait Gatsby, a 1920s-themed party hosted in November. Gait Gatsby has been advertised on the UBishops Instagram, in the student viewbook, and on the SRC website. Last year, students queued outside the Gait for over an hour to get admitted to Gait Gatsby. This year, students did the same — now having to pay for tickets. 

Gait Gatsby should not be a ticketed event. Students should not have to pay to be admitted to the Gait, especially when the school cannot guarantee that all students who purchase tickets will be admitted and able to order at the bar. Students who attempted to purchase tickets at the door of the Gait waited in lines for upwards of 45 minutes before being admitted. 

While the school posted that tickets would be sold from 1-6 p.m., they ran out of tickets at 3 p.m., putting students who do not live on campus at a disadvantage. This is reflective of a wider problem of campus events at the Gait ending early — the recent information fair for graduate schools ended over an hour before the posted end time, and the Imaginus poster sale routinely closed 15 minutes before the advertised end time. Student engagement suffers when event times are not adhered to, and since there have been few events on campus this semester, engaging students should be a priority of the school. 

Additionally, students who lived on campus were offered free tickets to the event, but students off campus had to pay $5. On-campus students who claimed their tickets but did not use them prevented off-campus students from getting tickets. Tickets were sold with an accompanying promise of a photo booth and live band — the photo booth ultimately being a selfie wall and the live band finishing their set early. Students were not given what they paid for. Making students pay for admission involves the Gait in a guarantee that they cannot keep. 

The school also did a poor job of preventing the scalping of tickets. The Gait posted a warning that counterfeiters on campus were selling fake tickets to Gait Gatsby, but did not post any information about what the fake tickets looked like, how much they were being sold for, or who was selling them. Instead, they promised to sell tickets at the door for people attempting to get last-minute tickets, worsening the aforementioned problem of students queuing to get tickets. 

The Gait is a student bar, and admission should be free for students. Selling tickets to events hosted at the Gait goes against the spirit of the school, and the ticketing was poorly organised. If events must be ticketed, they must be better organised to allow students to better plan their days. The poor communication with students about the events of the night made Gait Gatsby an inaccessible event for many students.