Remembering the Forgotten Joy of Camping Out for Concert Tickets

I had a serious flashback of the fun we had waiting for a Ticketron outlet to open when I saw a photo of a G. Fox department store in a Waterbury social media group. Do you remember the joy of watching those tickets print?

Way back in the Golden Age of the 1970's & 80's, we had to stand in line at Ticketron outlets at various locations in established businesses to buy tickets to the big shows in New Haven and Hartford. The Ticketron outlet that I used was inside the G.Fox department store at the Naugatuck Valley Mall in Waterbury. Tickets typically went on sale Friday morning at 10AM, and the mall didn't open until then, so we gathered on the sidewalk. Nobody could wait until 10AM, the anticipation of the scalpers already having the best tickets, the unknown demand, it made the chase for tickets thrilling.

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I graduated high school in 1987, U2 played the Hartford Civic Center in May, and The Alarm played the Palace in New Haven. U2 was at the height of their popularity, and we knew we had to get in line for tickets by midnight. For the highest demand shows at the time, numbered wristbands were given out. There was nothing worse than standing deep in line and hearing that the wristbands were gone or the show sold out.

TicketMaster bought out Ticketron in the early 90's, and then everything in the world went online. I look at the price on those tickets, and truly feel old. $16.50 to see U2 on the Joshua Tree tour? And to think we thought that was kind of expensive?