On Tuesday afternoon, the Mullins Center at the University of Massachusetts announced on Facebook that Grammy-nominated rapper Meek Mill will perform a concert on March 7, 2020, in The Mullins Center.
The tickets for the event, which go on sale at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, are available only to current UMass students. To attend Mullins Live!, ticket purchasers must have a valid UCard. While Meek Mill is the only artist listed on the poster, unannounced special guests will also perform at the concert. If purchased in advance, the tickets will cost $10. A $3 processing fee applies to online purchases. On the day of the event, tickets will cost $15.
Parker DiNatale, an operations and information management senior said that Meek Mill was popular but she didn’t think that she would get tickets to attend.
“[The event] should be good,” DiNatale said. “People will go.”
Aaron Glenn, a senior sports management and operations and information management double major, agreed, saying he wouldn’t be at the concert but thought Meek Mill was more popular than other artists who have performed at Mullins Live! in the past.
“Freshmen and sophomores will go,” Glenn added.
Meek Mill recently released his new song, “Believe,” which features Justin Timberlake. He is currently working on his fifth album. In 2017, the rapper was arrested and sentenced to two to four years in prison for a violation of his probation. The experience inspired Meek Mill, along with co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers Michael Rubin, to create the Reform Alliance. Jay-Z, Robert Kraft and Michael Novogratz, along with other prominent business people, have pledged money to the initiative.
“The Alliance started with the unjust re-imprisonment of recording artist Meek Mill due to minor technical probation violations. The shocking two-to-four year sentence Meek [Mill] received in November 2017 spurred the international #FreeMeek movement, which led to his release on bail in April 2018,” the website for the Alliance states. “Although Meek [Mill] had the resources and public platform to fight his case, he and the other founders recognized Meek [Mill]’s case is only one of millions – and that the vast majority of people trapped in the system don’t have the resources to fight back.”
In 2019, the event featured Future, Gunna and Ty Dolla $ign. While Mullins Live! was free before 2019, Brian Caputo, the general booking manager at the Mullins Center, told the Collegian in 2019 that the change was necessary.
“It’s pretty much similar pricing to spring concert, so it’s basically like the University having two spring concerts,” Caputo said.
Kathrine Esten can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @KathrineEsten.
