Every year, Ball State students travel hundreds of miles to see their favorite bands and musicians, sacrificing money and homework time in order to get their music fix.
Whether it's in Bloomington, Chicago or Indianapolis, these cities are within 250 miles of Muncie and are regular travel destinations for students in search of live music.
"Most of the concerts I've ever been to have all been at least an hour away," sophomore Emily Thompson said. "I'm from the Lafayette area, so it's an hour to Indianapolis and between two and three hours to Chicago."
Travel seems to be a major roadblock for many students seeking an all-ages music experience. With long drives come large gas and travel costs.
"The biggest hassle was definitely the money," Thompson said. "It's expensive enough to buy the concert tickets, but you throw in money for gas, food, souvenirs and various unexpected expenses, like ponchos when it rains, and it really adds up."
Thompson and roommate Ashley Sherrow travelled to Chicago's Lollapalooza this summer, purchasing a three-day pass for $215.
"It was the best three days of my life," Thompson said.
Thompson and Sherrow aren't the only students who attended Lollapalooza. Senior Ashley Geise also made the drive to Chicago.
"I'm the type of person who loves long car rides with people I enjoy most," Geise said. "Luckily, I have awesome friends who feel the same way."
Geise said the biggest troubles she has with traveling to a concert is getting lost and affording the trips.
Sophomore Ethan Johnson drove to Bloomington to see Ben Folds last September. Unfortunately, Johnson was unable to find anyone to join him.
"I tried finding other people to go with me, but finding people who liked Ben Folds and wanted to pay for tickets proved to be impossible," he said.
While Muncie tends to bring in a limited number of acts to John R. Emens Auditorium, Muncie's lack of appeal to nationally touring acts generally leaves music fans with no other choice but to sacrifice the extra money for gas.
"I know that Village Green Records hosts a fair amount of musicians and bands, but outside of that, there are very few live shows in Muncie, especially ones that don't exclude the under-21 crowd," Thompson said.
Travis Harvey, owner of Village Green Records, said he believes that Muncie's inability to bring in touring acts is due to apathy from the community.
"In all honesty, I don't think there's enough people that care. And that sounds terrible, and you don't want to hear that," Harvey said. "I wish we could change that. I really do. That's why I run a record store. I'm trying to show people that they can be excited about something different, excited about an artist that maybe they don't know about, that maybe is not on the Top 40 radio every day."
Harvey said Ball State's most recent attempt to bring in a nationally touring act of today's generation was in 2006 when The Strokes played at Emens Auditorium. A lack of ticket sales caused the university to lose $10,000, he said.
"How is it a band, that is a little bit under the radar, but pretty well revered, released a handful of good records, and they come and play here and the community at large doesn't care and they lose money?" Harvey said.
In his many concert going experiences, Harvey has learned that even a smaller venue can attract music fans from surrounding cities. The Wexner Center, located at Ohio State, is one of Harvey's favorite nearby venues. He said if Ball State had something like this, more bands might be attracted.
"If we had something cool to offer like that, we could probably get kids to drive form Chicago, Northern Indiana, Bloomington, Indianapolis. ... We'd keep kids coming in here all the time," he said.
Thompson said Canon Commons, the new park in downtown Muncie, could be a possible music venue within the next year, providing fans of all ages with local concert opportunities.
"That'll definitely help because it's mostly green space, so it can be utilized for outdoor concerts, she said. "The problem is that it would take someone to step up and book those concerts."
Harvey said a student-led organization could be started on campus that would train students in the business of booking concerts and live events. The organization could start with $10,000, Harvey said, and then work on booking a show a month with that budget, all while keeping some profit to go towards future event scheduling.
"It's not rocket science. It's simple business," he said. "It'd be a great experiment and learning process for students too because they'd be doing something worthwhile.
"This campus has progressed so much, but unlike other campuses, those campuses have businesses that are run by students. That's part of their credentials. Why hasn't Ball State picked that up?"
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