Before starting university, many students join online freshers’ week groups or like Facebook pages connected to their new university. It’s an ideal way to meet fellow students and gather information before moving in.
These groups make students susceptible to unofficial event organisers advertising freshers’ events, such as bar crawls, club nights, and gigs. While many of these events are legitimate and well-attended, others can lead to disappointment with near-empty dance floors.
Angus Carter, Marketing Manager for Bournemouth University Students’ Union, explains that external companies begin advertising events much earlier than student unions, hoping to attract students into buying unofficial tickets. It seems that some competitors in the freshers’ industry have discovered loopholes that prevent pages from being removed for being deceptive or fake.
Lucy Tonge, a student at the University of Westminster, discovered this to her cost when she bought tickets to five freshers’ events in London, many of which were not well attended. She and her friends continued to receive posts for six weeks after buying the tickets, which claimed they were running out and that seventy percent of tickets had already been sold. She later discovered that no one they knew had gone and tried unsuccessfully to get a refund from the company, which left her losing over £30.
Thomas Gravatt, a student at the University of Southampton, had a similar bad experience. He bought tickets in the lead-up to freshers’ week, only to find that all the hype was for nothing because no one else in his flat had bought tickets.
Here are some tips to ensure freshers’ week events don’t leave you out of pocket:
Don’t panic-buy tickets. Your students’ union will have arranged plenty of events for freshers’ week, and you should be able to attend without needing to buy tickets far in advance. Attending officially organised events is an ideal way to meet fellow students and flatmates.
Don’t allow yourself to be pressured into buying tickets. Instead, speak to current students and find out what events they enjoyed during freshers’ week and which they plan to attend.
Be wary of misleading advertising by companies targeting freshers. Some private events firms use online branding that makes them seem more reputable than they are.
Be cautious about sharing personal information online. Some unofficial freshers’ promoters ask for personal information, such as phone numbers and email addresses, before allowing users to access their services. Some of these companies have no information on how they comply with the Data Protection Act, according to student union officers at various universities.
In conclusion, you can avoid disappointment and wasting money by not buying tickets for events that later turn out to be poorly attended. Instead, attend officially arranged events and get peer recommendations of what events are worth attending during freshers’ week.
