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Still hoping to snag a ticket to Gov.-elect Wes Moore’s inaugural gala in January? You’re out of luck — at least for now.
The inauguration planning committee announced Tuesday night that the Jan. 18 party at the Baltimore Convention Center is sold out. More than 8,000 tickets have been sold, according to the Moore team.
Tickets were offered at three price points, and all have sold out: general admission for $50, general admission plus two drink tickets for $125 and “preferred admission” tickets, including access to a lounge with an open bar, for $1,500.
The team is working on securing more space in the convention center.
Moore’s wife, Dawn Flythe Moore, is heading the “People’s Ball” planning along with David Miller, husband of Lt. Gov.-elect Aruna Miller. She wrote on Twitter that the team is “overjoyed at the enthusiasm” for the new administration.
The Baltimore Convention Center last hosted a gubernatorial inaugural ball in 2015, when current Gov. Larry Hogan was elected to his first term. That party had an estimated 5,000 guests, according to reports at the time. (His second inaugural party in 2019 at the MGM National Harbor had 3,000 guests.)
Gov. Martin O’Malley — a Baltimore Democrat, like Moore — had 9,000 guests at his first inaugural ball at the Baltimore Convention Center in 2007, according to news reports.
O’Malley’s second inaugural party, in 2011, was a more low-key affair with a smaller crowd at the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore.
Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was so popular when he was inaugurated in 2003 that his first gala at the Baltimore Convention Center sold out and he had to book a second party at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Combined, the parties had about 6,000 guests.
pamela.wood@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Pamela Wood covers Maryland politics and government. She previously reported for The Baltimore Sun, The Capital and other Maryland newspapers. A graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, she lives in northern Anne Arundel County.
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