On January 20th, history will be made when Barack Obama is sworn in as the first African American president of the United States. As United States citizens who elected him, we should be able to attend some of the celebratory events in person, right? Eh, well, maybe not.
(This United States Congress image is in the public domain.)
There will be many events, but your chances of getting tickets to one is probably slim and none. Don’t let anyone on eBay fool you by saying they have one of the “New Path to Freedom” inauguration ceremony tickets for sale because they don’t. The 240,000 tickets to the event are still in a secure location, according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. The staff director, Howard Gantman, said that all the tickets are provided through members of the Congress, the President-elect, and the Vice-President-elect.
Now, you can call your U.S. representative or senator and request a ticket, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Some offices organize a lottery, so you might be able to win tickets, but if I knew I was lucky enough to win a lottery, I think I would play PowerBall instead.
After the tickets are released, you may be able to find a legitimate one on eBay. Wait, isn’t that illegal? No, selling the ticket is discouraged, but not illegal – for now. Senator Diane Feinstein of California has proposed a bill that would make it illegal to sell tickets to the inauguration and would fiine the perpetrator up to $100,000 with up to one year in prison, but the bill has not been passed yet. In any case, with the tickets being released only one day before the event, scalping won’t be easy.
If you are lucky enough to get a ticket, you had better hope the weather holds out. If it rains or snows, the ceremony will be moved inside the Capital building, which means the guest list will drop from 240,000 to a few hundred.
If you manage to chum up with Oprah between now and then, you might be able to score tickets to her event at the Kennedy Center on inauguration night. Or, if you have $10,000, you can buy your own ticket – to the Creative Coalition’s Gala Inaugural Ball at the Harman Center where you can hobnob with the likes of Susan Sarandon and Spike Lee.
One thing is for sure – while we will all probably be sitting at home, Barack Obama has a lot of socializing and schmoozing to do once he is sworn in!