On Saturday, Feb. 1, Explore Denver plans to launch a new ticketing website, offering students free and discounted tickets to a variety of Denver attractions. Students will be able to log in with their DU student ID and password, view tickets that are available and reserve or purchase those tickets.
In the past, Explore Denver has been run through the Driscoll Information Desk. To find out if tickets were available, students had to visit the desk or check the Driscoll Student Center Facebook page.
“The new online system is going to be so easy now,” said Ticket Office Student Coordinator Stephanie Cichocki. “People will be able to go through and see what we have available. We’re still going to use our Facebook page, but with the online system it will all be there for you.”
According to Cichocki, Explore Denver will email some of the tickets if they can, or they will have students reserve the tickets online and pick them up at the Information Desk. Explore Denver will also be able to post discount codes on the website.
“The website is basically up and running, we just have to put up the tickets. We have all the tickets for all the events we want to release,” said Cichocki. “But we’re not going to release all the tickets at once. We’re still going to have release dates for each ticket.”
Past tickets have included the Denver Zoo, the Denver Botanic Gardens, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Art Museum. According to Cichocki, future tickets will include the Downtown Aquarium, the Clyfford Still Museum, sports games, performing arts shows and concerts.
“We’re trying to get a lot of different venues, so we might not have a lot of tickets for one venue. But that’s because we’re trying to hit a lot of student interests,” said Cichocki.
In the past, tickets have only been available to undergraduate students. However, the new website will make tickets available to graduate students, faculty and staff as well. They will be able to purchase tickets at the wholesale price Explore Denver paid, which will be higher than the discounted price for undergraduates but lower than the regular price.
Explore Denver also released Denver Nuggets tickets at the beginning of this quarter.
“We bought some tickets to release in January because students were coming back and we thought it would help the transition to the online system,” said Cichocki.
Last fall there were 16 ticket releases, which included a total of over 600 tickets.
Explore Denver is funded by the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and by revenue from ticket sales. Cichocki hopes the online sales will generate more revenue in order to purchase more tickets. The online sales will also provide feedback about which tickets are most popular.
According to a Clarion article on Sept. 21, 2009, Explore Denver was launched in October 2009 by graduate student Jason Lundberg and second year student Dillon Doyle. It was created to replace the Arts and Sciences Passport, a donor-sponsored program that had been shut down three years earlier. Explore Denver has been aiming to build up to the size of the old program.
“I think that there have been really great things happening,” said Cichocki. “It’s been a new experience for me and I think we’re moving in the right direction.”
Cichocki encourages students to check the Driscoll Student Center Facebook page for updates. Questions and comments may be sent to exploredenver@du.edu.
