Lined up for Elton tickets

A Reno concert by legendary British rocker Elton John had a few hundred Carson Country residents standing in line Saturday morning, waiting to buy tickets at Scolari's Food & Drug Company.

Most of the people in line appeared to be on the upper side of 30.

Steve Oxarart of Carson City said he had camped out at the Los Angeles Forum decades ago to buy Led Zepplin tickets.

"I don't stand in line for tickets any more. Usually the kids get them, since that's who's going," Oxarart said.

But he was in line Saturday because an Elton John concert is a family event, he said.

Mike and Linda McKenzie of Carson City said they didn't have to stand in line to get their last concert tickets. They won tickets to see ZZ Top and Lynard Skynard from a Reno radio station.

"It's been five or 10 years since we waited in line like this," Linda McKenzie said.

Tickets for the Feb. 20 Elton John concert at Reno's Lawlor Events Center went on sale at 10 a.m. More than 100 people were in line then and drawing tickets were distributed to decide the order in which they would be able to buy concert tickets.

A security guard from Great Western Security stood by Scolari's west entrance to let in groups of 10 at a time to buy tickets. Inside, three clerks handled the sales.

Occasionally, one of the ticket terminals would freeze and the clerks reached for telephones to get things straightened out.

The whole BASS ticket system for the area went down for about 15 minutes at 10:30 a.m. Everyone waiting in line was warned about the delay and told when the system came back up.

Shortly after 11 a.m., word came through that tickets for adjoining seats were no longer available. Seats would only be sold as singles, so groups could be scattered throughout Lawlor.

"I never thought Elton John would come to Reno. In fact, I've never even heard of him coming to the Bay area," Linda McKenzie said. She said later that she did get enough tickets, but they were not for very good locations.

About 1,000 tickets were sold at the Carson City Scolari's, ending about 1 p.m. At Raley's, the other ticket outlet in Carson City, over 300 tickets for the concert were sold Saturday, but no other information was available.