Lighting up the screen, Sidney Tishgart’s phone buzzed with activity as hundreds of students tuned into her newest Snapchat story promoting cheap concert tickets.

After encouragement from her roommate, Tishgart said she decided to use her ticketing skills to share deals. Within 30 minutes, the idea generated from her freshman dorm room quickly took off–- prompting Tishgart to launch an Instagram account called Texas TixFix to reach a larger audience.

“(My account’s) not only for cheap concert tickets, it’s also to keep people in the loop of all things concert-related,” said Tishgart, a rhetoric and writing sophomore. “Then, at the same time, there’s some personal aspect to it, where I’m posting my concert experiences in my life.”

Tishgart said her love for concerts originated from her childhood full of live music appreciation. She said her parents attend many concerts every year, often letting her tag along and gain exposure to the music scene and develop her own passion for concerts.

“(My family) moved to Austin for the music scene because we were always coming down here,” Tishgart said. “My parents are my favorite people to go to concerts with and I’m always asking if they want to go to a show.”

Upon arriving on UT’s campus, Tishgart said she wanted to enjoy concerts with her friends, but the expensive nature of the tickets she wanted made these experiences unattainable, a problem she soon noticed for many college students. As a result, Tishgart began finding the cheapest tickets for artists she was interested in and said she easily persuaded her friends to join.

“My love for (concerts) has grown because of Sidney,” bilingual education sophomore Brooke Brown said. “She’ll say ‘It’s a $14 ticket, you’ve got to go,’ even if I don’t know the artist that well. It’s exposed me to a lot of music because I’ll go and really enjoy it.”

Many of Tishgart’s friends worry about the legitimacy of cheap tickets, so Tishgart said she eliminates that problem for them. At the beginning of each week, Tishgart said she’ll have dozens of tabs open on her computer, as she scours for the cheapest tickets from reliable websites such as Ticketmaster and StubHub.

“There’s definitely a trade-off with the tickets that I find,” Tishgart said. “My target market is college students, like 18 to 25-year-olds. We’re not here for the (best) seats. We’re here for a good time.”

Along with making concerts more affordable, Tishgart’s close friend Lillian Gordon said she credits Texas TixFix with the chance to make lifelong memories.

“One of the things Sidney and I bonded over was our teenage love for Marina and the Diamonds,” Gordon, a health and society sophomore, said. “She was coming to Austin but the tickets were a little bit expensive … then Sidney called me while I was studying and said, ‘I have an extra ticket and I want you to come with me.’ We just had so much fun and knew all the words. It was a great time.”

Tishgart said Texas TixFix continues to leave a large impact on students, providing a constant source of joy for her.

“I’ve gotten a solid number of DMs from people I don’t know saying, ‘You’re such a lifesaver, I had the best time at this show,’” Tishgart said. “All of these people telling me … that I helped them go to a show they’ve been dying to see has been such a good feeling.”