By Nathan Ham
In what may be record time, tickets to the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Boone have already sold out, even with online ticket sales being discontinued for this year.
“I had no idea it was going to sell out this fast. We stopped online sales specifically to slow down ticket sales and the box office gave me a call at 10 a.m. and said we’re done. It’s wild,” said Rich Campbell, the Associate Director for Outdoor Programs at Appalachian State University.
Campbell said that they had not even made any social media posts announcing ticket sales before the Schaefer Center had informed him that they had already sold out.
“We heard from the community last year that they were blown away that the tickets went so fast and it has always been a community event so we really wanted to enable ASU students and the local community the first shot, and if there were tickets that remained available we were going to put those online December 6. They just totally sold out in about an hour today,” Campbell said.
Some tickets were sold at Footsloggers and the rest were sold at the Schaefer Center. All tickets were sold in person on Monday morning.
At the end of the day though, Campbell still felt like it was a mission accomplished in terms of getting these tickets out to people in the local community, even if they sold in such a hurry.
“I know a couple of people that drove up the mountain this morning and stood in line, but the vast majority were locals and students,” he added. “I know there are some people that probably aren’t very happy with me right now but I guess as problems go, that’s a good problem to have.
The Banff Mountain Film Festival is coming back to Boone on Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21, 2020. The large public screenings will take place at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. This year, local organizers are celebrating 24 years of the World Tour coming to Boone. For 44 years, the Banff Film Festival has been inspiring audiences by showcasing the world’s best films highlighting mountain adventure, culture, and the environment.
Continuing a tradition from the past nine years, live music on the Schaefer Center stage will be featured each night before the films. There will also be vendors both outside the Schaefer Center and inside the lobby as well. Presenting Partners for the event this year include Footsloggers, ASU Geological and Environmental Sciences, VPC Builders, and new this year, Western Carolina Eye Associates.
For more information on this year’s events, check the official festival website at www.op.appstate.edu/banff.
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