Budget Limits Affect Concert Lineup
By Jackie Pearce
On Thursday, the Activities Programming Board will host their annual fall concert in the Locatelli Activity Center, featuring Macklemore, a Seattle-based hop-hop artist, and openers Kap Slap and Timeflies who produce mash-ups.
Typically, the fall concert draws a lot of positive anticipation from all students. "When I heard that there was a concert the first week of school, I was so excited! I hadn't heard of the performer, though," said freshman Dan Jones.
Jones is not the only person who was unsure about the concert performers. Among his five companions, not one had heard of any of the performers, but still said that they will probably go.
In the past, performers have been award-winning, widely recognizable artists, such as LMFAO, Kid Cudi and Lupe Fiasco.
Senior Allie Upland said she is probably not going to attend the event. "None of my friends are going, so I probably won't go. Also, I have a hard time spending $20 on a person I have never heard of," said Upland.
Some students, on the other hand, are excited for the concert. Because Macklemore is from Washington state, Santa Clara's large community of Seattle-based students expressed interest in the event. "Although I was a little surprised when I heard Macklemore was performing, I am also really looking forward to (the concert). I'm sure that the (Santa Clara) students will really enjoy it, especially those of us from Seattle," said senior Christian Spencer.
Some students also expressed their enthusiasm about discovering new music. Senior Kelly Moore said that although she has never heard of the performers, "mash-up artists can be enjoyed by a wide variety of audiences, so it should be a fun concert."
APB Director Jaclyn Sunzeri stated several reasons for the APB's selection of artists, one of which was budget. Last year's LMFAO concert cost $75,000, a large portion of the budget. The concert was expensive because of the act and the sound and lighting system. In contrast, Macklemore will cost only $35,000 and include three diverse acts.
"Because we are spending less on the fall concert, we will be able to spend more on our spring concert," said Sunzeri.
Sunzeri also pointed out that not all students have the same taste, especially when it comes to music. Because of this, the APB strives to provide students with a wide variety of acts.
"No matter what, not everyone is going to be 100 percent satisfied," Sunzeri acknowledged.
Another change for the concert is the location. Typically, concerts were held in the main gym, but that changed last spring when Diplo performed in the Locatelli Center. Sunzeri pointed to Diplo's success as the main reason for the location change.
According to Sunzeri, the APB decided that Locatelli worked well for the Diplo concert because of Locatelli's "more intimate venue and that's what the concert is all about." Due to Locatelli's smaller size, only 840 tickets will be sold, which is substantially less than a concert in Leavey.
More student criticism stems from the extreme lack of publicity concerning the event. The fall concert is usually extremely high-profile, with fliers and Facebook invites popping up as early as the middle of summer.
This year, however, students struggled to find the event on Facebook. The event has only been public for the past few weeks and only has about 1000 guests "attending," 100 "maybe attending," and 450 "awaiting reply."
The doors open this Thursday at 8:30. APB will be selling tickets for $20 in Benson every day this week from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.. Santa Clara students can purchase one ticket for themselves, and one for a non-affiliated guest. Students can also purchase tank tops this year.
Contact Jackie Pearce at jpearce@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.