Less than a week after the Spring Concert, Student Government Inc. and members of the Spring Music Festival Committee are already making way to improve next year’s show.
Earlier this year, SGI instituted a Spring Music Festival Committee to help suggest artists and promote the concert to the student body. The Committee was filled with representatives from Haraya, SGI, Student Programming Board, and Greek Councils, according to SGI President Lizzy Sheehan.
SGI have set up meetings with the Committee to discuss points that didn’t work this year as well as start planning for next year.
“Since the Committee was new this year, having all these representatives from the different programming boards and the fact that it got started a little late,” said Sheehan, who discussed some issues with the concert’s organization. “I guess it impeded the process to some degree, but when some things are brand new you get the chance to work out the kinks next year.”
Prospective artists will have to meet a gauntlet of requirements to perform at the University. Price, availability, passing a background exam administered by Public Safety, and finally contract negotiations are all factors the Committee considers before an artist is billed to perform at Spring Concert.
Haraya, the Pan-African Students’ Coalition, used to run the concert with their music committee last year, but now, they hold an integral role in the present committee.
Haraya President, Timothy Pettaway, says the process begins with artists having to undergo a background check with Public Safety and those with a felony are eliminated from the running. This eliminates performers such as Bruno Mars and Big Sean.
Then after checking the availability of artist, seeing who can make it the day of the concert is the next step that needs to be resolved. Once that is cleared up, the choices are presented to the general body of Haraya, who provide feedback on the choices.
Another concern at this stage of planning is the budget to acquire an artist.
Morgan Forlow, Vice President of Haraya, says that the concerts funds stems from a designated SGI budget and last year’s concert revenue. Likewise, the revenue made this year from the show will go to the next.
The last step is negotiating the contract with the lawyer of the artist who meets all the criteria and signs the contract to perform at the Spring Music Festival.
Whatever the process, the result ended up being mixed feelings about the quality of the concert that featured Pusha T, Ab-Soul, Trinidad James and Jhene Aiko this spring.
“I definitely thought the concert had a lot of potential, the artist they chose definitely didn’t live up to the hype,” junior Jay Prajapati said. “I don’t mind paying $15 or $20 if it meant getting a bigger profile star.”
“The concert was great, Jhene Aiko did her thing. I was surprised to see as many Ab-Soul fans as I did,” junior Danny Sheffield, said.
“Pusha T had the best performance by far, a lot of people weren’t sure if he would be a good headline,” he said. “But I think he really shut it down.”
