Students spent hours in the car, traveling distances far and wide to attend the 2014 Fall Concert which featured a student band, 'The Beacons,' opening for alternative rock band 'We The Kings.'

The start of the evening suffered an unexpected turn of events.

At approximately 4 p.m., University Police was made aware of a threat made on the patrons of the event via Yik Yak.

An email was sent to all students just before 6 p.m. after the initial threat, stating the increase for security at the Ron Houston Center for the Performing Arts.

The majority of the patrons at the door who had arrived early in hopes of better seating were not University stu-dents and relied on the friendliness of students to receive the information.

With the help of students who contacted University Police about the threat, action was taken by University Police and other local law enforcement.

Even though Yik Yak is an anonymous social media app, Police Chief Clarence Green has taken action to find out who is responsible for the threat.

“We are doing that now, we are investigating, we served a search warrant to Yik Yak Monday night in reference of receiving information from Yik Yak,” Green said. “We’ll go from there once we receive more information from them.”

University Police does not monitor social media at this time, but receives tips from the public.

“We don’t have the staff to do that all,” Green said. “So everything we receive is reported by some member of our community.”

Upon news of the threat, members of security and police teams implemented an emergency action plan. Green explained the precautions to patrons waiting for the doors to open.

“We swept the facility, tried to determine if we needed to launch an investigation and tried to see who made this threat to see if we could resolve it before hand,” Green said.

Senior Keslie Wright and freshman Beverly Peterson were the winners of two VIP tickets for the event. These tickets entitled them to a meet-and-greet with both bands, food before the show and first dibs at seats before the doors opened. After news of the threat reached the Per-forming Arts Center and the Student Activities Council crew, the arrangements were promptly cancelled.

“I was incredibly excited about getting the opportunity to meet We The Kings,” Wright said. “I was a little dis-appointed in how the situation was handled, we never had a representative of SAC personally apologize to us and when we stayed behind to see if we could meet them afterwards. They didn’t attempt to see if the band would come back out and instantly turned us down.”

Wright and Peterson were not the only students who experienced difficulties with the concert. Every individual was scanned by metal detectors and bags were checked upon entering the building. Even after the additional security protocols at the door, concert-goers did not see an increase in wait times at the door.

“I understand they were interested in safety, but there weren’t that many VIP members, we could have easily been checked by police before meeting the band,” Wright said.

While some were upset with the thorough screening, senior Kaela Fritts and senior Morgan Hunter were very happy for the increase in security.

“I noticed campus police and other highway patrol cars outside and they all did a pretty good job of screening people as they came in,” Hunter said.

Once the doors were open and patrons made it to their seats, the anticipation began to build.

SAC had held a Battle of the Bands contest and for one lucky student band it was their chance to open for a major show. The Beacons is comprised of Michael White, his twin brother, Bryan White, and John Cerrone.

Even though the event started with a security threat, University Police were able to calm everyone down and allowed patrons to leave the event smiling.