Sixteen minutes before the gates of the St. Augustine Amphitheatre opened Sunday night, a young and colorful revival hit the crowd.
"The '80s is coming back," said Annie Conrad, she and sister, fellow 11-year-old Skylar Lovelady, each wearing one of the other's socks and tennis shoes.
The girls were part of the crowd at a packed Amphitheatre to hear a musical concert by Disney Channel star and pop icon Justin Bieber's girlfriend, Selena Gomez.
Near the sisters wearing their pink, peace-symbol socks, a group of young girls stood in the parking lot on tiptoes.
The girls, all 13-year-old cousins from Macclenny, have a two-thirds majority in their excitment over Gomez or Bieber.
"If he comes, I will pass out," Bailey Tyson said of Bieber as she stood in a small sea of purple T-shirts and makeup. Tyson said everyone knows purple is Bieber's favorite color.
Cousin Taylor Carrington is a Bieber Wikipedia. She explains two 11-year-old boys in full-body spandex suits are dressed in honor of a social network page's password. The boys say they just don't want anyone to recognize them.
Taylor likes Gomez, and though not as much as cousin Abigail Carpenter -- there is near unity on liking both Bieber and Gomez.
An exception is 9-year-old Allie Smith, walking a pace ahead of her mother and smirking over a blue rock candy stick.
"I don't like his songs," she said. "No interest."
Darlene Sunnerlyn came with two daughters from Fleming Island to see Gomez, popular singer and star of The Disney Channel's "Wizards of Waverly Place." She said her two daughters both like the show's star.
"It's hard to find a concert that they both will go to," Sunnerlyn said.
Rachel, 17, and 12-year-old Sydney are split on Bieber and Gomez.
Rachel said older girls usually prefer Bieber over Gomez, who she said is liked more for her singing.
Sitting on the steps leading to the box office were mother and daughter Tara and Zara Casey.
Tara said they drove from Jacksonville to turn a lesson into a gift.
She said they bought their tickets from a man on Craigslist. Zara, who is 9, washed dishes and raked leaves around their Jacksonville house to earn half the money. The tickets were fake.
"My husband lost his job," Tara said. "She worked hard for the money."
Amphitheatre box office Manager David Iafrate, who had to turn the two away, said it's not uncommon to see fake tickets many showgoers say they bought from someone on Craigslist.
"That is not a fun thing to do," he said of telling the two about their tickets.
Ben Brown, a Jacksonville man buying and selling tickets down the sidewalk, said the incident is a sad tale in an economy he said went sour 11 years ago.
"You have to be careful," Brown said. "There are things worse than that. They are blessed nothing worse happenned."
A man yelled at Brown, "Why do you need tickets?" as Brown held his small yellow sign.
"He just wants to know what's going on," Brown said.
Brown and others sell tickets legally outside events, an industry that was widened when it became legal to sell tickets over face value.
Chiefly, he said, they are bought from patrons with extra tickets -- patrons looking for him.
"If you think about it, it helps the Amphitheatre," Brown said. "If those tickets that have gone unsold until this point don't get used, maybe you don't sell a T-shirt, a Coke, parking. That is revenue for the city. The most important thing is to respect that city. If they say stay 100 feet away from a certain point -- 1,000 feet -- stay away 100 or 1,000 feet."
Amphitheatre General Manager Ryan Murphy said the Gomez concert was one in a series of recent sellouts.
In the Amphitheatre's dirt parking lot, Zara looks serious, then smiles slightly, saying she isn't angry.
"Because I know that mistakes happen," she said.
Her expression is sterner talking about four years of foster life before meeting her mother.
"The '80s is coming back," said Annie Conrad, she and sister, fellow 11-year-old Skylar Lovelady, each wearing one of the other's socks and tennis shoes.
The girls were part of the crowd at a packed Amphitheatre to hear a musical concert by Disney Channel star and pop icon Justin Bieber's girlfriend, Selena Gomez.
Near the sisters wearing their pink, peace-symbol socks, a group of young girls stood in the parking lot on tiptoes.
The girls, all 13-year-old cousins from Macclenny, have a two-thirds majority in their excitment over Gomez or Bieber.
"If he comes, I will pass out," Bailey Tyson said of Bieber as she stood in a small sea of purple T-shirts and makeup. Tyson said everyone knows purple is Bieber's favorite color.
Cousin Taylor Carrington is a Bieber Wikipedia. She explains two 11-year-old boys in full-body spandex suits are dressed in honor of a social network page's password. The boys say they just don't want anyone to recognize them.
Taylor likes Gomez, and though not as much as cousin Abigail Carpenter -- there is near unity on liking both Bieber and Gomez.
An exception is 9-year-old Allie Smith, walking a pace ahead of her mother and smirking over a blue rock candy stick.
"I don't like his songs," she said. "No interest."
Darlene Sunnerlyn came with two daughters from Fleming Island to see Gomez, popular singer and star of The Disney Channel's "Wizards of Waverly Place." She said her two daughters both like the show's star.
"It's hard to find a concert that they both will go to," Sunnerlyn said.
Rachel, 17, and 12-year-old Sydney are split on Bieber and Gomez.
Rachel said older girls usually prefer Bieber over Gomez, who she said is liked more for her singing.
Sitting on the steps leading to the box office were mother and daughter Tara and Zara Casey.
She said they bought their tickets from a man on Craigslist. Zara, who is 9, washed dishes and raked leaves around their Jacksonville house to earn half the money. The tickets were fake.
"My husband lost his job," Tara said. "She worked hard for the money."
Amphitheatre box office Manager David Iafrate, who had to turn the two away, said it's not uncommon to see fake tickets many showgoers say they bought from someone on Craigslist.
"That is not a fun thing to do," he said of telling the two about their tickets.
Ben Brown, a Jacksonville man buying and selling tickets down the sidewalk, said the incident is a sad tale in an economy he said went sour 11 years ago.
"You have to be careful," Brown said. "There are things worse than that. They are blessed nothing worse happenned."
A man yelled at Brown, "Why do you need tickets?" as Brown held his small yellow sign.
"He just wants to know what's going on," Brown said.
Brown and others sell tickets legally outside events, an industry that was widened when it became legal to sell tickets over face value.
Chiefly, he said, they are bought from patrons with extra tickets -- patrons looking for him.
"If you think about it, it helps the Amphitheatre," Brown said. "If those tickets that have gone unsold until this point don't get used, maybe you don't sell a T-shirt, a Coke, parking. That is revenue for the city. The most important thing is to respect that city. If they say stay 100 feet away from a certain point -- 1,000 feet -- stay away 100 or 1,000 feet."
Amphitheatre General Manager Ryan Murphy said the Gomez concert was one in a series of recent sellouts.
In the Amphitheatre's dirt parking lot, Zara looks serious, then smiles slightly, saying she isn't angry.
"Because I know that mistakes happen," she said.
Her expression is sterner talking about four years of foster life before meeting her mother.
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