Attendees queued outside the Young Student Center and filed into the venue, passing through metal detectors and ticket checks on the way. Those at the concert were able to see opening artist Luh Tyler perform, followed by headliner Rich the Kid.
In the Mabel Brown Room for the Social Activities Council’s (SAC) annual Spring Concert, Rich the Kid took the stage on Sunday, April 21.
Concertgoers cheered and rapped along throughout the performance, which included a blackout section where the performers requested to keep the lights off. Luh Tyler ran through several tracks, including his song “Change My Wayz” and the song “Florida Water” by Danny Towers, DJ Scheme and Ski Mask the Slump God, which he is featured on.
Rich the Kid ended his performance with two popular tracks, Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign’s “Carnival,” on which he is featured, and his own track “Plug Walk.”
Juniors Brenna Hayward and Abigail McBride attended the concert and described the event as fun. Hayward, who attended the Rae Sremmurd concert last year, said she preferred the set-up in the Mabel Brown Room because of the more “intimate” feeling. McBride added that if weather allowed, she would like to see performances happen outside in the future.
Both students described their own feelings on the importance of the concert.
“I think it brings everyone together and gives everyone something to do, especially in the springtime,” McBride said. “It’s close to the year’s end, so before we leave, [we’re] all coming together.”
“Half of these people I’ve never seen,” Hayward added. “So it’s nice to see some new faces that are on campus.”
Junior and SAC Publicity Coordinator Ashleigh Moroni said many students might have been surprised by the decision to hold the concert in the MBR. She said she thought this was because last year’s performance by rap duo Rae Sremmurd was held in the Spaulding Gymnasium.
“We don’t have any students left on campus that experienced SAC pre-COVID,” Moroni said. “The only experience our current student body has is last year’s show, and so I think a lot of people are like, ‘This is a huge shock,’ because they didn’t understand that could be a concept.”
Student Programs Coordinator and SAC Faculty Advisor Brandon Carta said one of the reasons the concert was moved to the MBR was to ensure all of the concert tickets would sell.
“Last year, SAC did not sell out the concert, and because they didn’t bring in enough revenue, they didn’t cover their costs and so Student Involvement covered their cost for them,” Carta said. “This year, we put them in the MBR because they didn’t show us last year that they could sell out the show.”
Carta added that the first two days of ticket sales were a success compared to the first two days of last year’s sales.
The final tally of tickets sold was 540 out of the 550 allowed, according to an email sent to The Equinox by senior Jeremiah Barry, who assisted with the ticket sales. 495 of the purchased tickets went to KSC students, with the remaining 35 going to the public. 50 of the student tickets were “Fast Pass,” which cost $50 dollars versus the standard $25 and allowed concertgoers to enter before the rest of the queue.
Moroni said SAC took a different approach to marketing the concert this year which focused on encouraging prospective attendees not to wait to buy their tickets.
“Keene State has a habit of waiting until the last minute for things,” Moroni said. “We don’t want people to wait and then be upset that they didn’t get a ticket, but we saw that happen last year.”
Moroni also spoke on the importance of an event like the Spring Concert.
“SAC’s motto is that we are programming for students by students,” Moroni said. “We are trying to do what the student body wants … It’s really cool that we’re able to pull this off and have a large-name concert.”
In an interview with The Equinox, Barry also explained his thoughts on the concert’s importance.
“[If not for Spring Concert,] students would have to drive at least an hour, if not two hours, to Boston in order to go to a decent-sized concert with a name such as Rich the Kid,” Barry said. “We’re bringing a concert experience that can gather the community of Keene State College and their students and the Keene community.”
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
