20 STORIES FOR 20 YEARS

Arly Marin Seidl

Arly Marin Seidl is the box office manager for Bethel Woods. 

 

“The 2006 New York Philharmonic performance was my first concert and Bethel Woods’ first concert. My family walked to Bethel Woods because we lived very close at the time. We were by ourselves on West Shore until we turned on to Hurd, where they started parking cars, and then that's when we saw a bunch of people walking in the middle of the road, which was pretty cool. 

 

It was a very nice day, a fun family experience. We also brought our lawn chairs with us, which we could bring into the venue then. And it was exciting to actually be on the grounds for the first time and see the building because, would always drive by with my family, just seeing the building in the distance.  

 

To be honest, I can't remember the music that much, I was 7 or 8 years old, but I do remember the fireworks and knowing that Bethel Woods had fireworks for the orchestra performances, we always looked forward to them, and we also went the following time that the Philharmonic came to Bethel Woods. It was great knowing that there was going to be fireworks at the end of the show. 

 

As I got older, I got to see the Jonas Brothers, that was my first time back in a while to see a concert with just my dad. I continued coming to see Kelly Clarkson, and then other shows with my parents. 

 

In 2015, a family friend working at Bethel Woods said they were hiring for a ticket-taking position. ‘If you're interested, you can take my spot. I'm going to work at another spot.’ I said sure, and I signed up for the position. I was very nervous for the interview, and I told the interviewer that I was very shy, but I would work hard to improve on my shyness. They were like, ‘Are you sure you want to do this position, because it's a lot of talking,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to do it.’ 

 

I still remember my first day. My first show was Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett. I was very shy and scared, seeing all these people come up to the front gates. But I was saying hello, and just getting out of my comfort zone, greeting people. It was kind of like a shock, and it was also cool seeing all the wigs and crazy outfits that people were wearing for Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett. 

 

People do dress up to fit with a theme. Of course, with country shows, they wear their boots and hats. The last time we had Big Time Rush, one of the band members, Carlos, wore helmets during their Nickelodeon show, and we saw a bunch of people wearing those same helmets coming to Bethel Woods.

 

When I first started off scanning tickets, we had this machine on our hip, attached to the scanner, and um, every time we would scan a digital ticket, it would print out on our side printer, and then we would rip the ticket and give it to the person. 

 

So we used to scan tickets that way or just scan the paper tickets. As we moved away from paper tickets and started doing more digital tickets, some people didn't really like change that much, so we try to be patient and understanding and try to help them as much as we can. 

 

I prefer the new scanning machines that we have from how I started off. The old bulky machine hurt my shoulders a lot because it was heavy, but now just having a machine in front of us or a small handheld is a lot better and much more comfortable. 

 

So from April 1 until December 31, people can come to the box office and we are more than happy to help them find tickets. We do have some people that prefer just getting tickets at the box office, even though we let them know that it's the same pricing as Ticketmaster, and they can get the same ticket on Ticketmaster. But we guarantee that they at least get it directly through the correct ticketing platform. If they used a third party site, and show up saying ‘I bought it. Here's my receipt,’ but we don't see the barcode, unfortunately, we can't verify the tickets because it's from a third party and we don't have access to their accounts. We try our best to help them, and a lot of times we're able to find the tickets. 

 

I like this job a lot. It’s been very busy, especially this year. It's been super busy with Billy  Strings. Ever since we announced Billy Strings, a lot of people had been asking about tickets, camping... we got a lot more questions during July, and it was getting closer and closer to Billy. The box office is always busy during the summer and in the winter when things are not in motion anymore here at the site, it's always constantly busy getting ready for the new season, so it's never a dull moment here. 

 

When I was a ticket taker, after the end of the concert, we used to make sure everyone had safely left. We've answered all the questions that they may have. We went down and picked up garbage in the venue. We also picked garbage out in the parking lots, and it would take forever. Sometimes we wouldn't leave until like 3 in the morning, or much later. Sometimes I would see shooting stars during work, too. So that was a nice perk, and seeing like the nice full moon, and seeing the pretty sunsets here. It's just really pretty, and at night, it's so peaceful and quiet, not hearing anyone. 

 

That's the difference from the start of the show. Everything is just very busy, very noisy, but then at the end when everyone has left, it's just quiet, peaceful. And it's very different. 

 

The best part is when an artist that I like comes to Bethel Woods, because then if it's slow, I can go down and watch the show for a little bit and then go back up to the front gates to do the rest of my job. But it’s also the beauty of Bethel Woods, seeing the rolling hills, the sunsets, the astronomical events that happen. 

 

I remember when I was young, just living five minutes away from this site, my first time seeing a bunch of cars, especially the [VW] Beetle cars parked alongside the road, a bunch of people just showing up. I didn't know what that meant, what was going on, just a bunch of people gathering in this empty field. And now I understand why, as I continue to work here.”