Every spring here at Keene State College, the Social Activities Council (SAC) hosts an annual spring concert. Some students seem to have different views on how past spring concerts have been, as well as what they are looking hear at this year’s spring concert.
Over the past few years, KSC has had a venue that consisted of a variety of artists, which some people were not too enthused about. Big Sean took the KSC stage two years ago, followed by rappers such as Kid Ink and Jake Miller who at performed at KSC as well. The problem with this is not all students knew some of these artists, and that some students looking for a good spring concert lacked entusiasm,.
KSC senior Kyle Foote said, “I would like to hear more known rap artists. I also wouldn’t mind changing it up a little bit and have someone like Flume, an electronic musician, or even someone like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a rock band, only because the past few years have been artists who weren’t well-known.”
Foote added that, “Having an artist come who is much more well-known, I feel, would get more students involved and would have a more enjoyable time.”
Foote continued to talk about another artist that visited Keene State College and his feelings toward this known rapper.
“Even a rapper like Lupe Fiasco, who is well-known,” Foote said, “has not had much recent music. People knew him because of his great hits in like 2008, so I think we need someone who a majority of people could say they know and listen to now.”
Samantha Moore / Art Director
When the spring time comes, this concert is something KSC students tend to look forward to. Students are usually eager to find out which artist is going to come play at Keene State. With the overall reactions from the past, students seem to be looking for much more at these venues.
Another Keene State student, senior Ben Potter, talked about the venue itself and wanted to explore different ideas. “Honestly, the spring concerts, since I have been here at Keene State, have been a pretty good time, but I know there is something here they could set up that would make it that much better. I think if they had a bigger and better venue, such as having the concert outside on campus. It would bring a much bigger crowd and I think it would take care [of] a lot of the issues.”
SAC Concert Coordinator Bethany Peterson said it is more about the popularity of each artist, and SAC is looking to bring someone in that will sell the most amount of tickets.
“In the past,” Peterson said, “we have had a lot of rap artists and that is because they sell very well on campus. I hear a lot of other people wanting country artists, and the problem with that is all the big name country artists we can’t afford. If we got someone smaller who is country, those people wouldn’t come anyways so we have to balance it.”
Peterson added that some of the more well known artists are simply just not affordable.
Peterson then talked about the survey that was sent out to students to provide information on what artists students would like to see and of what genre of music.
“So we actually have a survey that goes out every fall. Basically it has all the genres on it, so as of now, the most popular genres are pop, rock and hip hop/rap so those are our two top ones. We also have a suggestions box at the bottom of the survey that states what are your ideas, and we also have a little disclaimer saying we have a budget and please do not give us names such as Beyonce, Drake and Rihanna because we simply can not afford them. Having five thousand students, we do not have that money to do that. For the size of our student population and the budget we receive, we actually compete with the other surrounding schools such as Providence College. They have a much larger population than us, but we have actually hosted some of the same artists they have.”
Spring concerts in the past have taken place in the student center and the gym. Each year, SAC looks to hear feedback from students through the survey.
Students should make notice of the surveys if they want to have someone well-known make an appearance here at Keene State come spring time.
Cameron Mozzer can be contacted at cmozzer@kscequinox.com
