The Family Weekend concert with headlining band Chicago is just around the corner.

However, ticket sales for the Grammy Award winning band are selling slower than expected.

Ceci Brinker, director of Student Life, said there were a total of 3,000 tickets available per performance. As of Thursday, 1,550 tickets have been sold for the 6 p.m. concert and 2,006 have been sold for the 8 p.m. concert.

“We still have plenty of tickets, but my thing is that if people miss out then they would have missed out on one of the all-time best bands,” Brinker said.

Tickets are $27, the highest priced concert tickets in the history of Family Weekend.

This increase was made to bring Chicago to Eastern and to support two shows in one day.

“In order to bring Chicago (to Eastern) we felt it was worth raising that (ticket price) a little bit,” Brinker said. “It’s still reasonable because the average price of the tickets are normally $50 or more.”

She said the economy and people waiting until the last minute to buy their tickets might factor into the slow ticket sales.

For three years the University Board has been trying to book Chicago to perform for Family Weekend.

“This is three years in the making to bring a band of their caliber to Charleston and to EIU,” Brinker said. “Our students and our community could really enjoy what most people would probably tell you is one of the best music entertainment out there.”

Brinker said it is more important to her for people to enjoy the concert than how much money is made from the ticket sales.

Brinker said she feels Chicago’s Family Weekend concert will top last year’s Kool & the Gang performance.

Chicago will be performing two shows, one at 6 p.m. and one at 8 p.m. in Lantz Arena on Saturday.

Tickets will be available all the way up until the start of the concert. Tickets can be purchased in the Business Operations office in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union through Saturday afternoon and then 5 p.m. on Saturday at Lantz Arena.

Samantha Bilharz can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].