The Obama White House’s first Easter Egg Roll is a hot ticket Friday.
Visitors hoping to get online confirmation so they can attend the April 13 egg roll on the White House South Lawn, a time-honored tradition dating back 130 years, sometimes were met with a Web page urging them to “Check back later.”
An aide from the first lady’s office said people from 41 states have secured free tickets through the new online system, which went live Thursday for the first time. Families until now had to line up on the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion, something that will not be necessary this year.
The message at most points during the day was:
“The ticket demand for the 2009 White House Egg Roll has been very high. We apologize for any difficulty in reserving tickets. If you did not receive a confirmation page, then you were not able to successfully secure tickets at that time. Tickets will be available at various times during the day through the online ticketing system. If you were unable to order tickets, please try back later today.”
“Been trying all day - it’s a vast Egg Roll conspiracy to drive toddler moms mad,” one Twitter user joked Thursday.
(Go to the www. whitehouse.gov Web site and type Easter Egg Roll tickets into the search function.)
The office didn’t have a statistic for how many tickets have been distributed, but estimated it would be more than the 22,000 in previous years.
Some tickets also will be distributed to D.C. public schools and military families, the aide said.
But some, including J.P. Randolph of Manassas, worried that non-Internet users were put at a disadvantage.
The first lady’s aide said the online times that tickets will be available were staggered throughout the day “to coincide with library openings.”
The aide said that made the process fair, so that early risers or people with fast connections were not favored.
But Mr. Randolph said it seems the White House is not looking out for families without computers.
“If that’s not elitism I don’t know what is,” he said.
The White House is working with Web sites such as eBay and Craigslist to make sure that no one is attempting to sell tickets.
Also worth noting: The Obama White House is ending the practice of funding the event with corporate sponsorships.
Instead, the money will come entirely from leftover funds from the Presidential Inaugural Committee. The first lady’s office did not have a cost estimate.
This year’s theme is “Let’s go play,” and it encourages America’s youth to lead healthy and active lives, the White House said.
The Web site also directs people to the National Park Foundation to buy souvenir eggs bearing the president and first lady’s signatures.
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