Ticket or No Ticket, Brooklynites Enjoy the Sufjan Stevens Concert

Sufjan Stevens, the famed indie rocker, performed in last night for the . The outdoor space, on Prospect Park West and 9th Street, was sold out, filling its 6,200 capacity.

But what if you didn’t have money to buy tickets? What if you tried, but found that it was sold out? Now you find yourself on the outside of the venue's gates, which is covered with black netting, making the stage invisible. But you can still hear the indie rocker’s vocals, riffs, pianos, horns, and drums perfectly, making the entire park a stage. 

Hundreds of fans and Brooklynites hurried to the grass outside the gate and laid out blankets, set up picnics and drank beer and cocktails with their friends and strangers around the entire perimeter of the concert space.

Outside of the fence sat huddled lumps of humans relaxing under the trees and amongst the crickets, while the music washed over them. The strobe lights from the stage reached their illuminated fingers over the black funeral shroud, as the frays of light licked the leaves.

“It’s a great opportunity if I want to take advantage of what’s at the tips of my fingers in my park in Brooklyn,” Tia Pinkson-Burke from Kensington said while lounging with her friend. “I just sit in the grass with my friends and listen to the group I love.”

The volume was so loud that the outsiders’ bodies rumbled with the bass as they sang along, danced, and laughed. The tunes from Stevens’ outdoor concert reverberated from the stage, filling the park with beats.

Some listeners did not have a ticket simply due to lack of funds, like Leandro Gimeno, who has been ticketless and outside the gate for four concerts.

“It’s a different experience, you don’t see the band, but if you got no money like me, it works,” said Gimeno.

Others were outside because they prefer the open space and informality of solely hearing the music, like Ersula Jaro who stopped to listen while walking through the park between errands. 

“This is better for me, it’s distracting to see the stage and the props,” Jaro said, who lives in Clinton Hill. “You’re out in the open, under trees and listening to the crickets, it’s magical for me.”

A group of girls from Park Slope, eating snacks, drinking iced tea, and sitting on a blanket, preferred not being in the fray of a crazy, crowded concert.

“I get nervous and anxious in crowds, so this is perfect,” said Desiree Gaitan. 

Her friend, Nicole Pietrani, did accept that seeing and hearing a concert gives a “holistic experience,” but being out side has its perks too. 

“We’re sitting by the emergency exit, so we get to see all the girls with heat exhaustion being pulled out on stretchers and into the ambulance,” Pietrani said.

Money, personal space, and a love for nature are all good reasons not to buy a ticket and just listen to the jams from outside, but some suggest the experience outside the gate it just a Brooklynite thing to do. 

“I’m about to move, so this is the most unique Brooklyn experience I could’ve had,” said Duke Riley, who lives in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. “I guess you miss the stage show, but the best part out here is watching Brooklyn roll by you for hours. It’s Prospect Park, it’s where folks with Hassidic Jewish backgrounds integrate with Caribbean men flying kites, even though the world tells them they can’t. And the best part may be that no one may care about indie rock.”