Sleeping Out for Sufjan?

Those of you hoping to catch indie-folk star Sufjan Stevens' free performance at the Kennedy Center as part of the Feb. 5 Millennium Stage 10th Anniversary Celebration might want to cancel any plans for the evening of Friday, Jan. 26. That's because free tickets for Stevens' performance will be released starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 27, in the Kennedy Center's Hall of Nations. This unique, one-off show, which will feature the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra as Stevens' backing band, is sure to be a hot ticket. The Kennedy Center press office says the number of inquiries it has received since the show was announced last month has been overwhelming, and that the scene on the morning of the 27th - or even the evening of the 26th - could be similar to when tickets for "Messiah" are released. There will be a limit of two tickets per person, and a quick bit of rudimentary math tells us you'll want to be one of the first 1,000 folks in line. The Opera House holds 2,300 people, and you can be sure that at least a few hundred tickets will not be available for the general public.

Tickets for the evening's other performances will also be distributed on the morning of Jan. 27: National Symphony Orchestra tickets will be handed out from 10-11 a..m. in the Hall of States, and tickets for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will be distributed from 11 a.m. to noon in the Hall of Nations. Any tickets not distributed will be available at the box office beginning at noon.

If you're unable to score tickets, all hope is not lost. On the day of the show there will be a live broadcast of each performance in the Kennedy Center's Grand Foyer, open to all.

--David