Lindsay Gibbons
Equinox Staff
“Where’s the music?” said every college student ever. Music is a huge part of life for most college student and as the end of the year rapidly approaches, the Social Activities Council is getting ready for one of their biggest events of the year; Keene State Calling. This event runs from April 29 to May 3 and is one of the biggest highlights of the spring semester for many students. Saving the best for last, as always, the fun-filled week will end with the spring concert. Last week, Social Activities Council announced that they will host, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Flipp Dinero as this year’s artists in the Mabel Brown Room. The concert remains one of the most popular events during Keene State Calling and something many students look forward to all year, but this year many students won’t get the opportunity. And it poses issues for the school and its reputation.
Here at Keene State, we don’t really have the means to put on a giant, stadium-like concert that some bigger schools can. Keene State has very few venues to choose from when it comes to where to host the concerts being the Mabel Brown Room and the gymnasium. Both these options can pose a problem, since they both only have a limited capacity due to fire codes. This means that the Social Activities Council can only sell a certain number of tickets each year.
Because of the limited number of students the Mabel Brown Room can hold, the Social Activities Council was only able to sell a very limited amount of tickets this year —700 total. Leaving many furious and wondering why Social Activities Council would put on a school-wide event when only a fraction (700 tickets for roughly 5,000 students) of the school is able to attend. Many seniors have been attending the spring concert since they were freshman. The news that many of them were unable to purchase tickets due to there being such a limited quantity has been devastating for them and could change their view of senior year at KSC.
Two hours away at the University of New Hampshire, their yearly concert is held in the Whittemore Center on their campus. The Whittemore Center gives off the stadium-like atmosphere that many students are looking for in a concert. It can also hold a lot more people, which is extremely helpful, given their undergraduate population of roughly 12,000, according to their admission page. In order to help accommodate such a large number of people, the college also puts on two shows, one at 8PM and another at 11PM.
This information has left many students questioning whether it is even worth it to attend the spring concert this year. With University of New Hampshire being a mere two hours away, and having the means to hold such a larger capacity of people, some are wondering whether they should skip Keene’s spring concert altogether and head over to University of New Hampshire for theirs.
The artist playing at this year’s spring concert has also raised some questions among the student body. Earlier in the semester, the Social Activities Council put out a poll for students to fill out, asking which acts they would want to see at this year’s concert. When the acts were announced, many students were confused, because the artists scheduled to perform were not listed on the original poll handed out. This could be due to the bands on the poll being out of the Social Activities Council’s price range. But many students were upset that they had no chance to give their input on the artists. While it is understandable that the Social Activities Council has a tight budget to stay on, it is still important to consider which bands students want to see perform in order to prevent a low turnout.
There are many different things that go into making the spring concert a great experience for all. Maybe the act of surprise isn’t as important as knowing how many students want to go to that person specifically. From booking the space to finding the act and everything in between. After all, the whole point of the concert is for students to have a great, memorable college experience with their friends.
Lindsay Gibbons can be
contacted at lgibbons@kscequinox.com
