COLUMBIA — Free tickets for this weekend’s Roots 'N' Blues 'N' BBQ Festival remain available at the Voluntary Action Center.
The Voluntary Action Center received the tickets from the city as partial compensation from festival organizer Thumper Entertainment for providing security and cleaning services. The City Council decided the center would be able to give the tickets to families who could least afford them.
“They’ve come to our office because we work with low-income families each day, and so we’ve been giving them out here,” said Cindy Mustard, director of the Voluntary Action Center.
The center gave some tickets to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Missouri and to Paquin Tower. It has been handing them out to clients as well as to people who ask for them in the office.
The tickets are meant for low-income families but are being given to anyone who asks for them. "We’re looking at the clients we serve, but we’re not asking them to prove anything,” Mustard said.
The center received 354 of the 400 tickets given to the city. There were 200 tickets for each night. The center thus far has given away 110 tickets, and City Council members gave away the other 46 tickets to low-income families, Mustard said.
Tickets are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, and there is a limit of four per household. The Voluntary Action Center is at 800 N. Providence Road and is open from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays.